should creationism be on the science syllabus

[zippitippitoes]

\link{http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2078747,00.html\ Interesting article}

I also think the motives behind each religion's teachings should be analysed in RE, from the misogyny in the Old Testament in some books of the New Testament and [possibly, I don't know enough about it ] in Islam, to the evangelicals' motives in pushing the creationist theory, and taking everything in the Bible literally instead of analysing the poetry and metaphor in the Bible, as Christ taught us to. What their motives are would be a interesting subject for debate.

Dominic, what you wrote about the genetics Australian Aborigines sounded quite journalistic to me and didn't ring true at all. So I checked, and it's bollocks.

Not to say that the rest of what you write is, of course.

Yes, my views on superstitions were partly inspired by teachers who thought being left handed made me somewhat scary. As it happens, I am but not in the way they thought :)
It left me with a very clear view that physical power as wielded by religious groups is inherently dangerous and corrputing.
Catholicism is of course not fundamentalist by it's very nature. I've never been clear how you can be a Christian fundamentalist. They lost the original writings, and almost none of them can read the various dead languages anyway.

My understanding of the anthropology is that the idea of religions being part of the competive arms race of proto-humans is pretty mainstream, but as a non specialist can't speak to it being a consensus. If you assume humans evolve it's pretty hard to see how this model is not true, but it might be.
The ethics we are imparting to our kids are largely based upon utterly different principles to religion. Rather than fear of some capricious God who may or may not reward them for being good, we encourage them to think through the consequences of their actions.
That seems violently different from the relgions I observe. "Thou shalt think it through, and see if you could do it better", is absent from all major religious texts, where a sloppy variant of "the end justfies the means" is used instead of thinking.
As you say, religious groups are creatures of game theory and thus corruption in this and many other fomrs is inevitable.
One day, soon I expect some Christians to get hold of a book on Thermodynamics, and then they'll try real hard to get that banned, or labelled "an uproven theory".

DC i'll bow out now i think. I am interested in what you have to say and agree with some of it, but i do feel your ideas about Christianity in particular have been skewed by your experiences in your catholic school. Though catholicism is not fundamentalist it has developed its own ideology, some would say selectively inspired by the bible, and suffers from a rigid and archaic 'morality' that inevitably leads to hypocrisy. This is why institutionalized religion always trips itself up. However, I do feel your experiences have limited your potential understanding of God and Christianity - not that I understand it better, but i have just experienced people who do. To assume God is capricious and who may or may not reward you shows the influence of your catholic education. This is not how I see God. i do not see any contradiction between God and scientific discovery, i see them as part and parcel of the same thing. I do not believe reward can be the motiviation for believing in / following Christ. It is a red herring. i do not want to get into a theological argument about biblical interpretation, it is an endless one, but suffice to say true spiritual enlightenment [which i have not attained but experienced in others and which can occur in every Faith] is something mind blowing- when you reach that point, nothing but peace and compassion is possible in that person. Most religious people do not achieve this enlightenment, probably because most people who are leading them/teaching them are part of a corrupt institutionalized/suspect motives religion we have already talked about. And also because it is bloody hard to do.