Concern at teaching of creationism in schools

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