to think creationism has no part in education in 2010?

[SantasMooningArse]

OK so I know I will be shot down under the 'don;t send your kids to a faith school' rule but to clarify:

A) I am a Christian; just of the friends variant rather than mainstream. I have a religion degree, I am far from anti- faith, just anti extreme.

B) It's the only scholl in walking distance and when we moved here we didn;t have a car I could use; it was also the only school with a space as we moved mid year. It i 3 minutes away.

C) I would dearly love my others to go to a different school but can't co-ordinate the pick ups due to being aprt dependent on SN transport for another child.

D) It's technically not a Church school but a VA one.

Anyway just received Governor's report which comes with a report each year from the local Diocese which is linked to their funding from a will. The report states (quote) '
The 6/7 creation myth seemed to rear it's head agin and I do wonder whether teaching as fact something we know to ne myth is the right thing?'

Later on under things to consider it says 'Crreation?'

I have no issues with it being taught as part of a wider 'some Christians believe...' thing but when ds2 was an infant his teacher told hom Mummy and Daddy were wrong about evolution; I had thought it was one long retired extreme though not general schooling.

I would much prefer ds4 to attendf the under subscribed school a few miles away (DS£ attends the attached SNU so know it well) but can't work out transport. I do find creationism a step too far though.

My point exactly.

I would also add that vocal evangelical types promoting this as a proxy for social order do NOT have a monopoly on the word of God, even though this might come as an uncomfortable truth to many of them. He is universal and does not just hang out with the ostensibly pious.

YANBU, though surely there is no problem with teaching the creation myth in one lesson, and teaching evolution in science?

Edgar, I think that's the general consensus, that one is RE and one is Science and mixing them up is a bit disingenuous and probably comes with An Agenda.

Hello, decided to stop lurking for a minute as I can't resist this kind of debate. I was the one in O-level RS who could keep a class distracted for an hour asking awkward questions :)

It's interesting the comment that Jesus never asked us not to use our brains, however, he did say we should praise God and defer to his wishes. In The Old Testament, the whole position was that all the trouble started when we stopped blindly following faith and went a bit Nigella in the Orchard, ie exercised our free will / used our brains independently.

So for me in a theological sense we have quite the conundrum, unless we take the route that Jesus wanted us to believe that God was revising the old plan in the light of Evolutionary concepts, and we should re-evaluate the Old Testament.

I'm just curious - I have faith, not sure what / who in, and completely reject all forms of organised religion because they are man's constructs to wield power.

As to the Creationist / Evolution debate in schools , well, all theories should be presented with the facts that exist, with the caveat "Of course, no-one actually KNOWS" ;)

As to the Creationist / Evolution debate in schools , well, all theories should be presented with the facts that exist, with the caveat "Of course, no-one actually KNOWS"

Creationism should/could be approached in RS (along with all the other theist myths), it's not a science in any way at all.

LOL at went a bit Nigella!

As to the Creationist / Evolution debate in schools , well, all theories should be presented with the facts that exist, with the caveat "Of course, no-one actually KNOWS"

But we really do know that creationism of the '6/7' fundamentalist type is not factually correct. It can be taught as a myth (along with all the others) but not as a theory. There is absolutely no evidence for it.

The real problem is that we teach science in the wrong way.

Science is not a body of established facts. It is a practical and epistemological methodology derived from philosophy and formal logic to enable us to make predictions about how the world will behave.

Evolution is a fact in the same way as gravity is a fact. It is an explanation that is coherent and that has been tested and used to make predictions that have been fulfilled. It is the best explanation available.

Religion is a body of revealed 'facts'. It is not coherent and does not make predictions. It has no epistemological value.

Creationism is a fact in the same way that the existence of God is. It makes no predictions that have been tested successfully, it's not coherent (at least in the Christian form) and is only a possible explanation only if you have already accepted the existence of God.

One of these things is not like the other.

The misperception of science does great damage to science and to society in general .

"The misperception of science does great damage to science and to society in general ."

I couldn't agree more TheCoalitionNeedsYou.

We want science to give us truths, especially when we don't know the answers to any given question.

Therefore science gets wrapped up in a big parcel with opinion, theory, probability and statistics.

Then we transfer the whole bundle into, for example, the legal arena, where it gets used as a stick to beat people (Sally Clark anyone?).

Is any science every truly objective? Does human nature preclude it?

Is this where religion comes in?

I love the phrase "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," - does it therefore mean that alot of knowledge is more benign, or conversely even worse?

As for the 6/7 Creatonism myth, I agree, I don't think it should be in with scientific theory at all and apologise for my ham-fisted approach.

OP, YANBU. I'm a primary school teacher and can't bear the thought of children being indoctrinated in this way. Creationism is most definately not part of the science curriculum. I teach it as part of RE in a 'some Christians believe...' way.

Can you imagine the outrage of the parents if I was indoctrinating their children with my vegetarianism? 'But mummy, Miss says it's wrong to eat meat'