Creationism to be in GCSE papers

Sorry to read that teach the controversy has hopped to the pond. I suppose you English are going to have a generation of slightly impaired scientists as well, then? Well, at least so far they seem to be limiting this discussion outside of the science classroom.

No, it IS a science class that they're talking about.
Yet more evidence that the entire world has gone mad.

This is the part I was refering to by saying it wasn't in science class (yet):

A spokesperson for the exam board said candidates needed to understand the social and historical context to scientific ideas both pre and post Darwin's theory of evolution.

"Candidates are asked to discuss why the opponents of Darwinism thought the way they did and how scientific controversies can arise from different ways of interpreting empirical evidence," he said.

"Creationism and 'intelligent design' are not regarded by OCR as scientific theories. They are beliefs that do not lie within scientific understanding."

This seems a more reasonable, meta- approach than what we have here. It's like you guys have to know how to respond to IDers, and should therefore be familiar with their arguments. That's cool.

Tho if you start the "Well evolution is just a theory..." debate over there too it'll be a sad day.

Creationist theories about how the world was made are to be debated in GCSE science lessons in mainstream secondary schools in England.

To me that means the debate is occurring inside science classrooms. They are perhaps not presenting it as science but I don't think even this debate belongs in Biology class.

This seems reasonable, if possibly a little insidious. Hopefully this will make everyone more aware of both arguements and thus able to argue against creationism.

Y'know, I can't see any of my biology teachers over the years even acknowledging ID as part of the subject. Likely as not, they'll just mention that some scientific teachings go against parts of some religious beliefs. At least, I hope so - my sister's taking her GCSEs in a couple years, though she's bright enough to completely ignore any crap they throw at her and just pick up the good bits.

Debate? Debate??? This is unbelievable. The educated must stand up to people who want to bring the Dark Ages back.

Debate on the subject belongs in religion or philosophy class, if anywhere. Learning what people believe is important, but shouldn't be confused with science.

ID belongs in a religion class, not science.

Pauline Brock writes:

Debate on the subject belongs in religion or philosophy class, if anywhere. Learning what people believe is important, but shouldn't be confused with science.

Just to be clear: I couldn't agree with you more. I was just reading the article as half-full, that's all. I am still very weary of this back-door approach to teaching creationism.

Ridiculous.

Sounds to me like there justification for teaching this would be better suited for a history class and not science class.

A spokesperson for the exam board said candidates needed to understand the social and historical context to scientific ideas both pre and post Darwin's theory of evolution.

"Candidates are asked to discuss why the opponents of Darwinism thought the way they did and how scientific controversies can arise from different ways of interpreting empirical evidence," he said.

Yeah, let's not try and pretend that because it's happening in England that it's somehow "more" acceptable to sneak ID into Science classrooms. It's as lame as it was in Dover, PA and anywhere else in the US that thinks sneaking it in is an alternative to just admitting that you'd like to discredit evolution.

(I prefer the full-frontal assault, myself.. it's easier to counter and you don't get people saying, "well, at least they're not trying to teach it as Science...")

If you believe Evolution is BS; that's fine. Just admit it upfront and try and push ID into schools with that argument instead of coming up with back-door operations that pretend they're not doing what they're clearly trying to do. Punching people when their back is to you is cowardly and signals weakness.

"Candidates are asked to discuss why the opponents of Darwinism thought the way they did and how scientific controversies can arise from different ways of interpreting empirical evidence."

Past tense, people, past tense. This is the standard historical-context-for-science bit that even I remember from my GCSEs, and that was fifteen years ago. They've just used the recent media fart in Dover to update the example. This isn't news, unless 'news' now means 'misquoted'.

I wish the Creationists, lets call it what it is, would leave well enough alone. Their push should be in the areas of Philosophy, or the creation of religion classes that deal with all religions on equal footing. The fight that Creationists put the Dover School system through cost that district in excess of 1 million dollars. That is one million that could have gone to the purchase of books, equipment, etc. It really is a shame, and a sham at the same time.