Teaching Creationism As Science Now Banned In Britain's Schools 649
sandbagger sends this news from io9:
In what's being heralded as a secular triumph, the U.K. government has banned the teaching of creationism as science in all existing and future academies and free schools. The new clauses, which arrived with very little fanfare last week, state that the "requirement for every academy and free school to provide a broad and balanced curriculum in any case prevents the teaching of creationism as evidence based theory in any academy or free school." So, if an academy or free school teaches creationism as scientifically valid, it's breaking the funding agreement to provide a "broad and balanced curriculum." ... In addition to the new clauses, the UK government clarified the meaning of creationism, reminding everyone that it's a minority view even within the Church of England and the Catholic Church.
Re:A minority view? (Score:5, Informative)
You could just read TFA:
"[A]ny doctrine or theory which holds that natural biological processes cannot account for the history, diversity, and complexity of life on earth and therefore rejects the scientific theory of evolution."
Basically, if you claim that anything other than simple biology was at work in creating animals, then you lose your funding (and possibly right to call yourselves a school).
You can claim that God made biology possible by creating a universe in which biology could make them exist, but you can't claim that God "created" animals at all.
Re:A minority view? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, if I read the summery correct and it is actually representative of the article and life in reality, by creationism they mean scientific support of creation either all animals created at once or by God creating them.
Or in other words, it doesn't ban the teaching, just the teaching that it is " as evidence based theory". You could likely teach it as a "this is what people used to believe until evidence showed this" and get buy with it.
Re:Yep. (Score:5, Informative)
Don't congratulate yourself too hard. This was only ever a problem in free schools*; teaching creationism in state schools was never even considered. It's worth pointing out that the education system in the UK is very different from that in the US: for one thing, local residents and local government have no say in the curricula.
*These are a recent invention here, ones where parents and the public at large have a much bigger say in how the school is run. They can have faith-based schooling so long as the Department for Education is satisfied that they meet a bare minimum standard of the basics.
Re:A minority view? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A minority view? (Score:5, Informative)
Basically, if you claim that anything other than simple biology was at work in creating animals, then you lose your funding (and possibly right to call yourselves a school).
No, only if you make it those claims (because they violate the scientific method) in a class that you label as "science." Nothing is preventing a school from teaching it in a class labeled as "theology." The point is to be clear that one idea is based on evidence backed up using the scientific method ("science"), while the other is based on belief without evidence and/or despite evidence to the contrary ("faith" or "theology"), or with supposed evidence that cannot be validated using the scientific method (pseudoscience).
Re:Laws of Physics have become Heresy? (Score:5, Informative)
Um, no. The relentless path of universal entropy doesn't exclude localized reversals of entropy. When you create waste heat while building your lego house, you're creating localized order, but still, entropy is increasing in the universe as a whole.
Perspective. Get some.
Re:Now they have to ban PARENTS from talking about (Score:2, Informative)
It's hard to detect sarcasm when speaking of this nature about Brittan. The government there already places surveillance cameras in private homes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... [huffingtonpost.com]
http://www.infowars.com/uk-gov... [infowars.com]
Now I know someone will say but those are slanted and biased sites. Yes they are and they are somewhat polar opposite in their slants so it should mean the story is true. However, for the crazy still needing more, it appears the local governments don't want left out of the fun filled craze.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new... [dailymail.co.uk]
Re:Laws of Physics have become Heresy? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:A minority view? (Score:5, Informative)
And it's been that way for a while. The Archbishop of Canterbury, more-or-less the leader of the Anglican Communion, announced his enthusiastic acceptance of the basic tenants of the theory of evolution...in 1884.
Re:Yep. (Score:2, Informative)
Yes. It's the prerogative and the obligation of the government to keep you from feeding religious bullshit to schoolchildren. Did you have any other questions?
here we go again. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Yep. (Score:3, Informative)
So your really arguing private dictatorship vs public dictatorship. In this case it boils down to harm reduction and the lesser of two evils.
Re:Yep. (Score:5, Informative)
No one is stopping anyone from teaching anything.
The Government is just not funding the teaching of creationism as evidence based theory in state funded schools. If you want to teach your children creationism, go for it. No one can legally stop you.
Re:Yep. (Score:5, Informative)
No religion in schools was one of the few things I envied about the US school system
Really? Whether or not you believe in a religion it is worthwhile knowing what the basic beliefs of the major world religions are because chances are you are likely to have to interact with people who do believe in them. Besides, they do teach religion in US schools: they just cover it in their science classes! ;-)
Ahh, you seem to be under the impression that we were taught what religion was, rather than preached at for an hour a week.
We learned nothing about Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, Islam, Confucianism or Hinduism, let alone smaller religions. All we were taught was Christianity, straight from a preacher (a nun or priest) quoting the bible. To be fair, it was Anglican rather than Baptist, so less sin and hell-fire and more Jesus is great. The Jewish kid had to get his parents to write a letter stating that he was not a Christian and did not want to participate. The preaching was mandatory for everyone else. It was entirely possible for a student to go through 12 years of schooling without learning a thing about another language.
Re:Yep. (Score:4, Informative)