November 10, 2008
This was also reported in at least three other UK newspapers: The Daily Telegraph, The Herald, and The Journal.
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Creationism should be taught as science, say 29% of teachers
by James Randerson
The Guardian (UK), p. 16
November 7, 2008
Twenty-nine per cent of teachers believe that creationism and intelligent design should be taught as science, according to an online survey of attitudes to teaching evolution in the UK. Nearly 50% of the respondents said they believed that excluding alternatives to evolution was counter-productive and would alienate pupils from science.
The survey, by the website and TV station Teachers TV, also found strong support for the views of Prof Michael Reiss, the former director of education at the Royal Society, who resigned in September over comments about including creationism in science lessons.
…read more…
October 31, 2008
‘Darwin? That’s just the party line’
by Wayne Eyre
National Post (Canada), p. A17
October 31, 2008
We’re all familiar with Queen Gertrude’s dry observation in Act III of Hamlet that the Player Queen “doth protest too much.” Gertrude’s point, of course, is that the Player Queen’s over-insistence of her love for her husband makes her declarations highly suspect.
I often think of Gertrude’s line when I see how vehemently many A-list scientists and fellow-travelling literati lash out at anyone who does not embrace their insistence that no deity is behind either the creation of our universe or plant and animal origins on Earth.
For example, Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, says that anyone who doesn’t believe in evolution “is ignorant, stupid or insane.” Oxford professor Peter Atkins, another ardent atheist, recently denounced theology, poetry and philosophy and concluded that “scientists are at the summit of knowledge, beacons of rationality and intellectually honest.”
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October 28, 2008
COUPLING OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION
by Peter McKnight
The Vancouver Sun (Canada), p. a15
October 28, 2008
In May 2008, Bloomsbury auctions announced the sale of a letter by Albert Einstein, in which the famed physicist railed against religious beliefs as “childish superstitions . . . the expression and product of human weaknesses.”
The letter was something of a curiosity, not because it suggested Einstein harboured a certain hostility toward religion, but because the sentiments it expressed seemed markedly at odds with Einstein’s much friendlier public pronouncements about religion, including an exceptionally famous quote about the relationship between science and religion: “Religion without science is lame; science without religion is blind.”
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August 20, 2008
What is it about evolution theory that Albertans don’t get?
by Rob Breakenridge
Calgary Herald (Canada), August 12, 2008
p. A11
However you describe it — distinct, peculiar, or stubborn — it’s undeniable: Albertans possess a unique propensity for bucking national trends.
Not that we’re troubled by it, mind you; quite the opposite, in most cases. When Albertans are seen to be out of step with much of the country, we wonder what’s wrong with everyone else.
This is a case, however, where we should be wondering what’s wrong with us — a case where Alberta’s anomalous body of opinion is not a source of pride, but rather a deep embarrassment.
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April 17, 2008
Genesis of a problem
Herald Sun (Australia), page 25
April 17, 2008
COMEDIAN Bill Cosby always maintained on his TV shows that it was children who say the ‘‘darndest things’’.
I’d back politicians over kids any day. Especially during election campaigns.
US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was asked what he would tell his daughters if they asked him whether the Earth really was created by God in six days.
‘‘What I’ve said to them is that I believe God created the universe and that the six days in the Bible might not be the six days as we understand it. It might not be 24-hour days,’’ he replied.
God works not only in mysterious ways, but also quickly. And, as we all know, the world’s a small place, but you wouldn’t want to paint it.
Nevertheless, if God created the universe, the stars, our star the sun, and Earth and all the other various bits and pieces and sent them spiralling to distant fates, then our 24-hour day is a consequence of His work.
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