It would appear that Professor Michael Reiss, Director of Education at the Royal Society, is claiming that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in British schools. However, he's been misrepresented on this - as is apparent when you read his own words.
Professor Reiss is actually asking how a teacher should respond if a pupil raises the question of creationism in a class on evolution. That's fair enough, I suppose. Given the increase in superstition in our society it's very likely that some pupils will bring the matter up. The answer is straightforward. The teacher says, 'You believe what you like, but if you want to pass your exam you have to learn this material.'
Where Professor Reiss is fundamentally wrong is in suggesting that creationism 'is best seen by science teachers not as a misconception but as a world view'. Science has nothing to do with 'world views' of this kind. There is no such thing, for instance, as Hindu science or Christian science or Muslim science. There is just science. Evolution is science. Creationism is dogma. Creationism should be included in classes on the history of science but not in science classes themselves. Inclusion of creationism in science books would indeed legitimise it, contrary to what the Professor believes.
I can't be the only person who finds it depressing that at the beginning of the twenty-first century anyone should even be talking about creationism in the same breath as evolution, let alone suggesting it should be acknowledged in science classes as a legitimate 'world view'.
Professor Reiss is actually asking how a teacher should respond if a pupil raises the question of creationism in a class on evolution. That's fair enough, I suppose. Given the increase in superstition in our society it's very likely that some pupils will bring the matter up. The answer is straightforward. The teacher says, 'You believe what you like, but if you want to pass your exam you have to learn this material.'
Where Professor Reiss is fundamentally wrong is in suggesting that creationism 'is best seen by science teachers not as a misconception but as a world view'. Science has nothing to do with 'world views' of this kind. There is no such thing, for instance, as Hindu science or Christian science or Muslim science. There is just science. Evolution is science. Creationism is dogma. Creationism should be included in classes on the history of science but not in science classes themselves. Inclusion of creationism in science books would indeed legitimise it, contrary to what the Professor believes.
I can't be the only person who finds it depressing that at the beginning of the twenty-first century anyone should even be talking about creationism in the same breath as evolution, let alone suggesting it should be acknowledged in science classes as a legitimate 'world view'.
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