In a poll of Britons carried out for a Horizon programme over 40% of respondents said they believed that creationism and/ or intelligent design should be taught in science classes. I want to scream.
If anyone starts touting this idiocy in Manchester I’ll be running a campaign of ridicule to stop them.
Technorati tag: Creationism, Intelligent Design, Evolution
I don’t believe the particular spin the BBC is giving the results. They are probably seeking maximum publicity ahead of the programme.
Actually:
– 48% of us chose “evolution without god”;
– 22% chose “creationism”
– 17% chose “creative design”
– 13% chose “don’t know”
Presumably the religious nuts fall into only two of the above categories, which comprise 39%. However the 22% figure presumably include people who believe in some form of “evolution with God”. For example most of the established church here believe in evolution, but don’t find that incompatible with believing in a god.
So we can only be sure that 17% have chosen an unscientific option. As regards 44% wanting creationism to be taught, many of these will be wanting it taught so that it can be rebutted. 69% of us wanted evolution to be taught. The numbers don’t add up but nutters are more likely to want evolution not to be taught than scientists are for creationism not be be taught (and rebutted).
I wish I had the same faith in people as you. Any serious move to put Creationism/ ID onto the curriculum would be intended to have it taught as a scientific principle, pretending it has the same claims to validity as evolution. And I believe that most of the 44% who voted for teaching creationism voted for it on that basis.
I’m guessing the question was presented as a multiple selection opportunity rather than an either/ or, so some people picked Creationism and/or ID as well as evolution. This is one of the ID tricks, they pretend that they’re being balanced “We don’t dismiss evolution, we just think that our theory should be given equal time.” The problem is, C/ID isn’t a theory, it’s a belief dressed up with some misquoted science. Selling it to children as proper science deserving of as much credibility as the theory of evolution is evil.
If C/ID is to be taught then let it be taught where it belongs- in RE with the other creation myths.