There has been much hoo-ha lately concerning the
Government’s policy regarding the teaching of Creationism in Free Schools, not
just Free Schools but mainstream schools, including Academies. To the forefront
there’s the ‘Teach Evolution – not Creationism’ campaign led by Richy Thompson
who devised an e-petition received by the Department for Education on 12th
August, 2012. It contained 24,630 signatures, and it states that, ‘Creationism
and ‘intelligent design’ are not scientific theories, but they are portrayed as
scientific theories by some religious fundamentalists who attempt to have their
views promoted in publicly-funded schools.’ It goes on to claim that an
understanding of evolution is essential to understanding ‘all’ aspects of
biology. This false premise is used to promote a spurious need for the study of
evolution, and that it should be mandatory in all publicly funded schools at
both primary and secondary level.
Opposition to the beliefs of Creationists goes back to the
time of Charles Darwin’s publication of ‘The Origin of the Species’, which proposed
a theory of gradual evolution of creatures over millions of years brought about
by natural selection, but more recently opposition has focussed on the teaching
of creationist science in publicly-funded schools, the objective being to
prevent it from being taught on the grounds that it is not a proven verifiable
science. Proponents of creationist science are happy to use it in support of
their literal interpretation of Genesis, in particular the description of how
God created the world and the universe within a timeframe of six 24 hour
periods.
Supporters of the ‘Teach Evolution – not Creationism’
campaign are pressing for the Government to make the teaching of science that
is based on Darwin’s theory of evolution mandatory for all our schools. They maintain that Darwinian-based science is valid
and verifiable.
Well, it looks as though they have got their way with Free
Schools funded by the Government, because a new clause has been inserted into
their funding agreement which states, ‘The Academy Trust shall make provision
for the teaching of evolution as a comprehensive, coherent and extensively
evidenced theory.’ This will take effect in 2013.
Genesis 1:1 ‘In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’
Genesis 1:31 ‘Then God
saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening
and the morning were the sixth day.’
Genesis 2:1, 2 ‘Thus
the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the
seventh day God ended his work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh
day from all His work He had done.’
Links
Teaching evolution key to free school funding deal
Teach evolution, not creationism!
e-petition, not creationism
Creationism
Charles Darwin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
Science, Evolution and
Creationism – The National Academies Press
On the Origin of the Species
Free Schools
Academy Schools
History of the World – Biblical and Scientific Perspectives
No comments:
Post a Comment