Teach Evolution, Not Creationism

The British Humanist Association is behind a new campaign called “Teach Evolution, Not Creationism“. Of course any reasonable person is going to support the campaign. No-one wants creationism taught to children as fact in science lessons. But there are a couple of subtleties that should probably be explained in detail. Firstly, I’ve seen this as… Continue reading Teach Evolution, Not Creationism

Creation

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a new film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a distribution deal in the US. The article suggests that this is because Darwin’s work is still a rather contentious subject in the US. They quote the christian film review site MovieGuide describing Darwin as “a racist, a bigot… Continue reading Creation

Creationist Idiocy in the UK

To “celebrate” the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, Theos (the religious think-tank) commissioned a survey into the public perceptions of Darwin’s theories. The results were published yesterday and do not make comforting reading. It seems that about half of the UK don’t accept Darwin’s findings and only about a quarter of us… Continue reading Creationist Idiocy in the UK

The Press on Dawkins

Richard Dawkins‘ new documentary series, The Genius of Charles Darwin, begins on Channel 4 this evening. He has therefore been doing a round of publicity interviews and the results have been appearing in the press over the weekend. It’s interesting to see how different papers treat it. The Times ran a pretty straight article about… Continue reading The Press on Dawkins

Human Dinosaurs

Having just been saying how much I like the new Guardian URL scheme, it was interesting to see the URL for this article from today’s paper. The article is about some early hominan[1] remains that have been found in northern Spain. The URL is http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/mar/27/archaeology.dinosaurs I can obviously see why it’s in the science section.… Continue reading Human Dinosaurs

Darwin Day

Happy Darwin Day everyone. Today, it’s 199 years since Charles Darwin was born and later this year it will be 149 years since he published The Origin of Species. So this year will only really be a practice for a far bigger celebration next year. Update: Removed extra 9 from 199. Thanks Murray!

Early Day Motion on Creationism in UK Schools

Following on from yesterday’s piece about “Truth” In Science trying to get their crackpot creationist theories taught in British schools, I see that MP Graham Stringer has tabled an Early Day Motion on this issue. You might consider popping over to WriteToThem and asking your MP to sign this EDM.

Rise of Creationism in UK Schools

From the front page of today’s Guardian: Dozens of schools are using creationist teaching materials condemned by the government as “not appropriate to support the science curriculum”, the Guardian has learned. The packs promote the creationist alternative to Darwinian evolution called intelligent design and the group behind them said 59 schools are using the information… Continue reading Rise of Creationism in UK Schools

Teaching Creationism

I always thought the Canadians were eminently sensible people. From the Ottawa Citizen: The Quebec ministry of education has told unlicensed Christian evangelical schools that they must teach Darwin’s theory of evolution and sex education or close their doors after an Outaouais school board complained the provincial curriculum wasn’t being followed. Not going far enough… Continue reading Teaching Creationism