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Concern at teaching of creationism in schools
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
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The Belfast Humanist Group (BHG) wishes to express its deep concern about the comments made by the new chair of the Education Committee, Mervyn Storey MLA, about the teaching of creationism as scientific fact in schools.
He said: “Creationism is not for the RE class because I believe that it can stand scientific scrutiny.”
The scientific community almost universally disagrees with the Genesis creation story (as it disagrees with the Aztec, the ancient Roman, Hindu and other creation stories).
It is only a vocal, yet powerful minority that agrees with this view.
The notion that the earth is as little as 6,000-years-old is at best a colourful myth, and at worst a cynical ploy to play the ‘religious card’ for political gain. To believe this not only do you have to wilfully ignore a gigantic body of evidence, but to proclaim whole scientific disciplines, like palaeontology, geology and astronomy to be entirely void.
Unlike Mervyn, the BHG believe that dinosaurs walked the earth millions of years ago. We also believe there are unfortunately still a few dinosaurs in the DUP today!
KEVIN McNICHOLL
Belfast Humanist Group
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Hear Hear!
Creationism has no place in the science class. It barely has a place in the RE class. Especially if it can be almost completely de-constructed by a vaguely bored 5th former ( note to anyone out there, teachers don't like it when you point out logical fallacies in their arguments).
I may have been annoying for my RE teacher at school but the fact that even someone trained in religious education can't present creationist arguments that stand up against even cursory scrutiny by a teenager.
Posted by andrew | 23.09.08, 17:05 GMT