Britain boosts intelligent-design debate
Pastor Dale Morgan
Britain boosts intelligent-design debate*
But issues will be addressed in religion class, not science class
By Paul Majendie
Updated: 12:26 p.m. PT Jan 24, 2007
LONDON - British teenagers may soon be debating creationism and
intelligent design in religion classes that give equal time to the
Darwinists and atheists who reject these views of the world’s origins.
Newly published school guidelines reflect the growing influence of a
bitter battle over evolution being waged on the other side of the
Atlantic, by conservative American Christians who want to put God back
into the secular state school system.
The guidelines, issued by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority,
place the issue firmly in religious education class, rather than the
science classes where American intelligent-design proponents want it to
be handled.
By placing creationist views with those of their critics in religion
classes, the curriculum authority could head off the divisive debates
that have pitted religion against science in the United States.
“This is a clever way of defusing the issue,” Clifford Longley, a
religious affairs commentator, told Reuters.
While endorsing neither side of the science and religion debate, the
authority made clear it sees creationism and intelligent design as part
of a wider public debate that pupils should be able to understand.
Role-playing in religion class
Among the guidelines, applying to children up to the age of 14, is a
suggestion that pupils act out the debate by playing the roles of
Galileo, Charles Darwin and the current best-selling atheist author
Richard Dawkins.
A spokesman for the authority described the guidelines as “a flexible
tool to help teachers.”
“None of this is compulsory,” the spokesman said. “It is entirely
optional and offered as guidance. Our position is that it should be
discussed in religious education and not in science.”
Americans who want public schools to address intelligent design say the
Darwinian view of evolution should not be taught as the only explanation
for life’s origins.
The most conservative view is creationism, the Bible-based account
saying God made the world in six days. U.S. courts banned this theory
from state schools decades ago as a violation of the constitutional ban
on the state establishment of religion.
A more recent argument is intelligent design, which says nature is so
complex that it must have been the work of a creator — rather than the
result of random mutation and natural selection, as outlined in Darwin’s
theory of evolution.
Supporters say intelligent design is a scientifically supported
viewpoint, but its critics say it is pseudo-science that aims to bring
God back into schools.
State religion
State schools in Britain teach religion because Britain has an
established Christian church, Anglicanism. Prime Minister Tony Blair has
joined religious and scientific leaders in resisting calls for
creationism to be taught by itself.
Anglican views on the world’s origins cover the spectrum, from “theistic
evolution,” which reads the biblical story allegorically, to a literal
belief in the words of the Bible.
Longley welcomed the way the guidelines included the faith-based
approach in the wider debate. “I have no philosophical objection. It is
not being taught as truth, but as an idea that is out there,” he said.
John Wilkins, former editor of the Roman Catholic weekly The Tablet,
agreed it was a good compromise solution. Over the years, the Catholic
Church has said the theory of evolution was not in conflict with
Christian belief — but maintains that the emergence of the human species
was an "event that is not susceptible of a purely natural explanation."
“I can see no reason why we have to regard Darwinism as a holy text that
cannot be questioned,” he said. “It is a very good idea to challenge
that in religious education. Just teaching children Darwinism doesn’t
stretch their minds and give them intellectual hurdles to jump over.
There should be lively debate.”