Creationist groups looking to infiltrate European schools.

[Scotty]

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/feb...-in-europes-s/

LONDON - After the Sunday service in Westminster Chapel, where worshippers were exhorted to wage "the culture war" in the World War II spirit of Sir Winston Churchill, cabbie James McLean delivered his verdict on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

"Evolution is a lie, and it's being taught in schools as fact, and it's leading our kids in the wrong direction," said McLean, chatting outside the chapel. "But now people like Ken Ham are tearing evolution to pieces."

Ham is the founder of Answers in Genesis, a Kentucky-based organization that is part of an ambitious effort to bring creationist theory to Britain and the rest of Europe. McLean is one of a growing number of evangelicals embracing that message - that the true history of the Earth is told in the Bible, not Darwin's "The Origin of Species."

Europeans long have viewed the conflict between evolutionists and creationists as primarily an American phenomenon, but it recently has jumped the Atlantic Ocean with skirmishes in Italy, Germany, Poland and notably Britain, where Darwin was born and where he published his 1859 classic.

Much more on the site I linked too.

Bit more info on the science - creationism debate here, some info pointing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatio...ing_to_science

[Scotty]

"There is a lot of American influence, and there are a lot of moral and political and financial resources flowing from the United States to here," he said. "Now you have more extreme religious groups trying to get a foothold."

Thanks America, we deported the religious nuts out there for a reason.

[darko.]

They're trying to spread the teaching of a questionable theory based on other questionable, constantly changing theories?

Hrmm

[Captain Beefheart]

Europeans miss out on the fun of punking creationists. For one thing, they absolutely hate having it pointed out they have a boring and humorless god.

What really ought to worry people like is almost half of all Americans believe life magically popped into existence within the last 10,000 years. Such a belief probably made sense in the Middle Ages but one wonders how anyone can selectively ignore the march of science. The oddest explanation I've heard is evidence proving evolution is merely a devilish trick meant to test the faithful.

[open32]

Dont worry, if it hasnt taken hold all that much in America it has no chance to in Europe.

Just this week we finished (hopefully) the fight in Florida, they called it a compromise but thankfully its not in support of Creationism in schools. It demands all schools and teachers state wide teach evolution and divert appropriate time to it, but they must refer to it as an accepted theory. It doesnt force the teaching of other theories but doesnt disallow them ether (I guess thats the compromise part).

[Captain Beefheart]

How can a government/state justify presenting just one religious viewpoint of creation?

There is hardly money, space, time and resources to actually teach SCIENC. Addressing misinformation and intellectually corrupt garbage is an unethical use of limited resources. Teach science in the science courses. Leave the subject areas of the curricula to the actual subject matter experts.

Or maybe after the scientists are through debating the religious nuts by the use of logic and reason, they will take on the challenge of teaching a pig to recite the Iliad. They would probably have a much better chance at success.

[Scotty]

Originally Posted by darko.

They're trying to spread the teaching of a questionable theory based on other questionable, constantly changing theories?

Hrmm

Not really, Creationist idea of theory is not equal to that of an Evolutionist.

Theory: In science, a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses.

– National Academy of Sciences

Creationists don't conform to this view.

From them also..

Fact: In science, an observation that has been repeatedly confirmed and for all practical purposes is accepted as "true." Truth in science, however, is never final, and what is accepted as a fact today may be modified or even discarded tomorrow.

Hypothesis: A tentative statement about the natural world leading to deductions that can be tested. If the deductions are verified, it becomes more probable that the hypothesis is correct. If the deductions are incorrect, the original hypothesis can be abandoned or modified. Hypotheses can be used to build more complex inferences and explanations.

Law: A descriptive generalization about how some aspect of the natural world behaves under stated circumstances.

[Scotty]

Originally Posted by open32

Dont worry, if it hasnt taken hold all that much in America it has no chance to in Europe.

Just this week we finished (hopefully) the fight in Florida, they called it a compromise but thankfully its not in support of Creationism in schools. It demands all schools and teachers state wide teach evolution and divert appropriate time to it, but they must refer to it as an accepted theory. It doesnt force the teaching of other theories but doesnt disallow them ether (I guess thats the compromise part).

My man!

Problem is that Creationists in a debate are pretty good. They constantly go on the offensive trying out while not defending their own views.

Outside a debate they don't do so well.

Inside, they can convince others of their radical views.

Others with voting rights or kids.

The group that are trying to fund this religious rubbish in our schools have looked into the ark. The only area I've had time to look into over the last couple of days say this is their proposed idea of layout of the Ark.



Dinosaurs were on it....including this beauty.



Maybe said Ark had a skylight?

[Captain Beefheart]

Most people untrainned in science assume that "theory" and "opinion" are equal. They are not. A scientific theory MUST explain a class of events and make predictions about what those events will do latter on. A theory is closer to fact than hypothesis is to theory, and intelligent design doesn't even come close to being a scientific hypothesis let alone a theory...

ID/Creationism needs to be taught in a politics class because more than religious or scientific the ID/Creationism is about religious fanatics gaining political clout. As a pseudoscience, no science class should even acknowledge it more than it should astrology, paranormal instances or magik. It'sa political issue more than anything.

[open32]

Creationism word for word from the bible is easily disproved through science. No more then an hour is needed in NYC's Natural History Museum to do that. Thats kind of where the recent support for ID some in, if they cant win on Creationism in schools they settle for ID. There not the same, now it doesnt seem to have scientific backing as a theory, but it is somewhat harder to disprove.