ID not OK in UK 26 Jun 2007 The Register is reporting that the UK government has ruled that intelligent design is not acceptable in science classes. [via Slashdot] Evolution General Science Politics Social evolution
General Science The man who changed the world 24 Dec 2007 OK, so today is Christmas day, December 25. On this day* a man was born who changed the world. He affected a growing tradition that has left no part of the world untouched, for good or ill. He revealed the workings of the universe. He spent his life teaching us… Read More
General Science Science in the “dark ages” 30 Jun 2009 God struck down my internet last night, or I’d have posted this sooner: Thony Christie, who has guest blogged here, now has his own blog, The Renaissance Mathematicus. Responding to a comment on the Accommodationism thread, Thony takes down the claim that religion caused the dark ages, when it was… Read More
Epistemology Similarity 4 Sep 2010 Brandon in a comment to the last post in this series mentioned this text of Plato: Well, at any rate, he said, justice has some resemblance to holiness; for anything in the world has some sort of resemblance to any other thing. Thus there is a point in which white… Read More
It’s not just the UK that is not seduced by the hokum of ID or creationism; the Council of Europe has a strong document saying that creationism is dangerous in education: http://assembly.coe.int/main.asp?Link=/documents/workingdocs/doc07/edoc11297.htm Although the Christian creationism movement looks strong in the US (and possibly Australia too), I think Americans often don’t understand how little impact it has had in post-Reformation Europe; people just don’t buy it and don’t buy literalist worship of the Bible. The Council of Europe document recognises the dangers inherent in letting Islamic creationism take root too. In the UK, Islamic “faith schools” are a worrying trend in promoting irrationality. We need to be vigilant, but we don’t need to be paranoid!
The British are unique in their irrationality. The same people who can be so sensible about things like evolution can still go gaga over reported ghost sightings.
“In their rationality, all nations are alike. In their irrationality, all nations are unique.” Comment.
“In their rationality, all nations are alike. In their irrationality, all nations are unique.” Comment.
….The same people who can be so sensible about things like evolution can still go gaga over reported ghost sightings. Posted by: Alan Kellogg It’s simple really; we know the difference between science and religion plus we love a mystery.
….The same people who can be so sensible about things like evolution can still go gaga over reported ghost sightings. Posted by: Alan Kellogg It’s simple really; we know the difference between science and religion plus we love a mystery.
I would imagine that in Europe Islamic creationism, as part of a trend towards the isolation and Islamistization of European Muslims must be a prime concern, and that by giving Creationism as a general claim the boot from schools, they tidily get rid of a few local loons, as well as justifying putting a stop to a much more troubling trend. But don’t for a moment forget that there is a small but often vocal English ultraconservative community which isn’t all that different from the sort to be found in the US. They have tacit allies among the more mainstream British conservatives, who now seem on a quest to undermine British public education. The Telegraph’s editorial section usually has one of these types at least once a week.