UK teaching Creationism as fact.

Originally posted by FSBlueApocalypse
Yeah, I question the figure of 31%. I wonder hoe many SCIENCE teachers really believe in this?

I quite agree however there is also the fact that 81% of polling statistics are made up on the spot while the other 32% are made up after reviewing the first 81% and the final 18% are just plain mathematically wrong .



G

Apt quotes:

Geology shows that fossils are of different ages. Paleontology shows a fossil sequence, the list of species represented changes through time. Taxonomy shows biological relationships among species. Evolution is the explanation that threads it all together. Creationism is the practice of squeezing one's eyes shut and wailing "Does not!" ~Author Unknown

If we are going to teach 'creation science' as an alternative to evolution, then we should also teach the stork theory as an alternative to biological reproduction. ~Judith Hayes, In God We Trust: But Which One?

In science, "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent." I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms. ~Stephen J. Gould

I like to browse in occult bookshops if for no other reason than to refresh my commitment to science. ~Heinz Pagels, The Dreams of Reason

[Creation science is] an attempt to give credibility to Hebrew mythology by making people believe that the world's foremost biologists, paleontologists, and geologists are a bunch of incompetent nincompoops. ~Ron Peterson

Religion seems to have a way of making people abandon logic. ~Amanda Baxter

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence. ~Bertrand Russell

"I have determined, after extensive surveying, tabulation, and data analysis, that the average creationist in the US earns $21,387.29 in family income; owns 1.2 cars; 1.8 TV's, and 2.3 kids; and has, at some stage answered to the name "Bubba". He has less than one year of college. Yet he knows more about paleontology than Bakker or Horner (or he thinks that what they know is wrong--same thing). He knows more about the definition of evolution than Gould or Dawkins. He knows more about Biology than Dobzhansky or Mayr. He knows more about cosmology Hawking, Smoot or Witten and more about fossils than Jhanson or the Leakeys. He knows more "true" geology than geologists, more psychics than physicists, more astronomy than astronomers--and more about everything than atheists like Asimov or Sagan"
Anon

The biblical account of Noah's Ark and the Flood is perhaps the most implausible story for fundamentalists to defend. Where, for example, while loading his ark, did Noah find penguins and polar bears in Palestine? ~Judith Hayes

Most men would kill the truth if truth would kill their religion. ~Lemuel K. Washburn, Is The Bible Worth Reading And Other Essays

It is the position of some theists that their right to freedom OF religion is abridged when they are not allowed to violate the rationalists' right to freedom FROM religion. ~James T. Green

Most reformers wore rubber boots and stood on glass when God sent a current of Commonsense through the Universe. ~Elbert Hubbard

Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense. ~Chapman Cohen

reply to post by shihulud


statistics can only say so much

I went to a Church Of England primary school.
Our headmistress was an ex-nun, kicked out the convent after being caught in bed with a priest, supposedly... she is now married btw, whether to that guy or not I don't know (she's never had kids though and is now far too old)

Back on topic
Until the time I started Primary school, I doubt how much religion I was aware of - my parents don't care for it a great deal at all.
However, in that school EVERYTHING was connected to God, Jesus, the bible..

we were taught many stories of the Old and New Testaments
we were taught it as FACT.. more like ancient history.

Nobody ever mentioned that it might not be true, and to say you didn't believe in God would get you in lots of trouble. I'm still a teenager (only just), and still have many vivid memories of that period of my life.

God created everything, God rules everything, everyone worship GOD and his son JESUS.

However.. towards the end of my time, myself and most other people in my class were getting bored of it. It got to a point where EVERYTHING was somehow linked to God, we had to pray before eating, or going outside, or at any random time the teachers decided... except my final teacher there. She was relatively new to the school, and when planning our leaving assembly, we actually begged to have just one morning without any religion in it...
oh no.
We HAD to put religious stories in, and portray them as fact. No choice.
I can remember one episode of being taught the story of creation very well indeed, as well as the story of Noah's Ark. We normally had to put it into a roleplay situation, each member of our 40-strong group (the school wouldn't shell out for 2 teachers for one age group so they crammed us all into one small classroom) being given a part to play.

If you didn't like it, tough excrement.
If you didn't believe it you weren't allowed to say.

Hell, they even tried to make it 'cool', forming a special club that only those who went to church EVERY WEEK were allowed to be in.
Other people weren't even privy to what went on.

Needless to say, when the time came to move to High School at age 11, there was a major split in the group. About 7 or 8 people went to a Church-funded High School, the 'Deanery', and within a couple of years became very snobbish, I infact lost some dear friends at that point, because they went to 'the Deanery', they were better.

The rest of us who went to a regular State comprehensive were also given religious education.
However, the tutors there made it clear that you didn't have to believe, you didn't have to. It was much better, the freedom of choice led to us being much happier.

The moral of that long pointless story?
People will be happier if you leave them to their own decisions.

So, to the next fanatic who tries to force religious propaganda down my, or anyone elses throat...

GET F||CK3D

/rant
(apologies, I'm going through strange times in the real world)

Originally posted by selfisolated
The moral of that long pointless story?
People will be happier if you leave them to their own decisions.

SI that was a good rant and I enjoyed reading it

Your primary school sounded more like a centre of cult worship involved with brainwashing children than any place for objective learning.

Good that you were afforded the luxury of arriving at your own
conclusions in secondary school.