The Guardian on Faith

The main feature in yesterday’s G2 was an article by Stuart Jeffries on the growth of loud disagreement between religious people and atheists. Regular readers will know that I usually agree with the Guardian, but this article has got it horribly wrong. The article’s main error is to give time to the views of Colin… Continue reading The Guardian on Faith

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

Dawkins Speaking Tonight

This doesn’t seem to have been advertised particularly well, but Richard Dawkins is speaking at the Institute of Education this evening. I’ve just got tickets – which is pretty amazing given how impossible it was to get tickets the last time I tried. The talk at the LSE celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Selfish… Continue reading Dawkins Speaking Tonight

Guardian Heresy

The Guardian potentially launches itself into controversy today by including a free wallchart which claims to illustrate the history of life on Earth. This blasphemous poster includes the ridiculous claim that there was life on Earth over 500 million years ago. This is clearly nonsense as any sane (and righteous) person knows that the Earth… Continue reading Guardian Heresy

The God Delusion

Richard Dawkins’ new book, The God Delusion is published today and over the weekend the publicity machine started up. On Friday Dawkins was interviewed on Newnight. The interview will still be available from that site until tonight’s edition replaces it later today. The Newsnight site also has some extracts from the book and a discussion… Continue reading The God Delusion

Root Of All Evil Complaints Dismissed

Richard Dawkins’ programme The Root of All Evil? generated 23 complaints to Ofcom. The latest Ofcom bulletin is published today and it deals with these complaints (the relevant section starts on page 10). In summary, the complainants considered that the programme: showed a negative portrayal of religious beliefs and called religious faith “a virus”, and… Continue reading Root Of All Evil Complaints Dismissed

Creationism in Schools

I’ve just spotted this article from Tuesday’s Education Guardian which talks about the teaching of creationism in schools and concentrates on the visit to the UK of mad Australian creationist John Mackay. Of course, Richard Dawkins can always be relied on for a good quote: “The spread of Peter Vardy’s creationist beliefs into the academies… Continue reading Creationism in Schools

Why Creationism is Wrong and Evolution is Right

I failed to get in to Steve Jones’s lecture at the Royal Society last night. Unfortunately, I didn’t fail to get in until I had been standing in the rain for over half an hour. Apparently there was room for 500 people in the hall and I estimate that at least 200 were turned away.… Continue reading Why Creationism is Wrong and Evolution is Right