Playwright Ed Waugh warns that Christian fundamentalism is having an increasing influence in British state schools
Anyone who follows the scientific logic that human life began millions of years ago as a process of evolution and not at the behest of a God creator has yet again been vindicated in the view of religious faith as nothing more than ignorance and desperation.
The latest episode of the Christian church is to tour Britain with some bones – yes, bones – of a Carmelite nun who died 112 years ago, so people can send prayers through them to heaven.
Many thousands of the sad, lonely and desperate are flocking to the circus-like freakshow in the hope of communicating with their loved ones “in heaven” or – for better luck – here in the real world.
This nun apparently wrote a diary, which must have been a thrilling page-turner, given that she was cloistered for 10 years before her death at only 24. Anyway, this book became popular among Christians after her death and she was canonised by the Pope in 1925.
In the 21st century, it’s incredible to believe that people are taken in by the “miraculous nature” of some dry bones. It’s surely an example of brilliant Christian, earthly spin.
Sadly, the bones’ peace mission to Iraq in 2002 failed to prevent the American and British invasion, but at least prisoners in Wormwood Scrubs will get a chance to see them on the 2009 tour of this country
It’s so stupid that it’s funny, but any rational person who shares the joke should take note; the bones will visit churches in Britain, including York Minster, the bishop of which is a member of the legislative House of Lords.
Another thing more alarming from television news reports is the number of young school children being dragged along to see the bones.
Indoctrination is wrong and even more dangerous when it is based on mumbo-jumbo dogma called faith.
It is for this reason that my co-writer Trevor Wood and I wrote God Only Knows, our play which deals with a particularly worrying aspect of religious indoctrination: how is it that a Christian evangelical multi-millionaire is able to impose his ludicrous creationist beliefs on children within the British education system?
It’s amazing to think that, 150 years after Charles Darwin shook the world with his book , On the Origin of Species, the science of evolution is under attack from fundamentalist Christians and their brand of creationism. And this attack is taking place in British state schools.
Science is about testable theories while faith is just that – something which can’t be proven. Surely it would help the Christian cause if those bones could give us a miracle? This is not necessarily to ask for a cure for cancer but, say, a dance, or a tune even. Stop laughing, this is serious.
Anyone who believes the literal truth of Book of Genesis: that the world is a mere 6,000 years old, that dinosaurs existed alongside humans, that man was created in the Garden of Eden (which contained a talking snake) and that women were made from Adam’s spare rib, are perfectly entitled to their somewhat eccentric ideas. However, this nonsense should not be imposed as an authentic scientific theory on children whose education is paid for by taxpayers’ money.
Yet this is what is happening in the north-east of England and in Doncaster via the Vardy Foundation, led by the Christian evangelical Peter Vardy, which now controls three state schools with a fourth on the way.
By virtue of donating £2 million to the £22 million it costs the taxpayer to build an academy, the Vardy Foundation can impose its fundamentalist beliefs on children through the science curriculum.
Every day, science discards old theories while new ones are developed as exciting discoveries arise about humanity, our planet and the universe. Not so with Christian fundamentalism; scientific fact is discarded for the static dogma expounded in an ancient handbook that was written by men 2,000 years ago and which is perhaps the most sexist, racist, homophobic and violent book ever written.
No serious biologist doubts the major tenets of evolution: that life on Earth began around 3.5 billion years ago. Using carbon dating, the fossil record, DNA and other scientific (provable) methods, scientists have unearthed evidence that the first-known humans (homo erectus) appeared in southern Africa more than a million years ago, developing over millions of years from primates and other humanoid forms.
We also know that all living species have common ancestors. And we know that descent involves genetic change which, over immense timespans, causes lineages to divide and form new species. In the vast majority of cases, the diversification and change was due to natural selection.
Evolution, in particular, explains many puzzling observations about human biology: the existence of transitional fossils, non-functional genes and vestigial organs (whales, for example, have leg bones). Why, for instance, do men have nipples? What was the appendix used for? Then there is the mystery of sinuses, placa semilunaris (third eye remains), wisdom teeth, adenoids, tonsils, the coccyx (remains of our ancestral tail), the arrector pili (microscopic muscles that give us goose pimples) and body hair.
These few examples are incomprehensible under any creationist view and yet children in state schools, funded by taxpayers’ money, are being taught in biology lessons that evolution is as much a “theory” as creationism and that everything was designed by a God creator as stated literally in Genesis.
Who would have envisaged this dangerous ideological degeneracy in this country, even 25 years ago?
This creeping trend of cloaking pseudoscience in religious claptrap is a real threat to education. Sadly, we have to point the finger at the ideological and political bankruptcy of this Labour Government under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for bringing market forces into the education system. To their eternal shame, members of the “new” Labour hierarchy have not only allowed creationism to be taught in state schools but also actively encouraged wealthy evangelicals. Be warned, this is merely the thin end of the wedge.
We have every reason to worry further if a recent decision by the National Recognition Information Centre (Naric) is anything to go by. Naric is a Government agency that advises universities and employers on the rigour of lesser-known qualifications. In July, it ruled that the International Certificate of Christian Education is comparable to courses such as international A-levels.
The ICCE curriculum, based on the Accelerated Christian Education programme, describes its ideology as “Christian fundamentalist”. Children are taught using evangelical textbooks from the United States, one of which includes a description of how the Loch Ness monster helps to disprove evolution.
Accepting without question the existence of a mythical beast, the textbook states: “God created each type of fish, amphibian and reptile as separate, unique animals. Any similarities that exist among them are due to the fact that one master craftsman fashioned them all.” According to the creationists, Nessie “appears to be a plesiosaur”, with the rider: “Could a fish have developed into a dinosaur?”
The Accelerated Christian Education programme is currently taught in about 50 private Christian schools in this country.
Using this grotesque logic, if creationism is a valid theory, shouldn’t state schools recognise Holocaust deniers? Imagine history classes discussing the “strengths and weaknesses” of the theory that Nazis massacred Jews.
And what about studying astrology in psychology classes as an alternative theory of human behaviour?
Imagine the outcry if an Islamic fundamentalist sponsored a state-funded academy. Don’t the Taliban have a valid take on the world? Of course not, but why, then, is this Christian religious pseudo science allowed equal value to science proper in some state schools?
This summer, for example, the biology (yes, biology) GCSE paper from the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance asked pupils how the Bible’s theory of creation seeks to explain the origins of life. The question was only scrapped when some enlightened teachers protested. The AQA admitted that describing creationism as a theory could be misleading, but added that candidates were expected to have some understanding of creationism. Why? It’s dogmatic nonsense.
The roots of Christian fundamentalism, like all fundamentalism, lie in ignorance, regression, distortions and prejudice.
These Christian fundamentalist textbooks also state that apartheid helped South Africa because segregated schools “made it possible for each group to maintain and pass on their culture and heritage to their children”.
What this means is that bigoted evangelical Christians are incapable of distinguishing between institutionalised hatred and culture.
While religious schools have always existed in the US, this hatred was re-enforced in the 1960s when the racial division laws were made illegal. Many white, middle-class Americans wanted to avoid sending their children to racially-integrated state schools, so they sent them to church schools.
Not all were racist, but most were privately-run and it was these schools that provided an outlet for the religious and racial bigotry we see today. It was at many of these institutions that children were instructed about creationism.
Another recent worrying development from the US is that Christian fundamentalists in Texas are now targeting history. History is about objectivity. However, if these people get their way, it will be – like creationism – about absolutes.
A panel of “experts” has been appointed by the state’s education board to revise the history curriculum. One of these experts has stated publicly that the American constitution was written with God in mind, while another panellist, the Reverend Peter Marshall, preaches that Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for sexual promiscuity and tolerance of homosexuality. What happens in America…
When we were doing research for God Only Knows, we were told how apologists for creationism conveniently ignore or bend the truth to support their pseudoscience. Their puerile, endless and selected quotes from the Bible are irrelevant to intellectual debate. Hence they resort to name-calling and threats.
We’ve been called “fascists” and our souls have been threatened with everlasting fire and brimstone. I’d worry if these people didn’t believe in the likes of talking snakes, angels, slavery, miracles and adulterous women being stoned to death. Being a Newcastle United fan can feel like hell anyway.
God Only Knows is not an anti-religious play, but it warns of the dangers of teaching creationism as “scientific fact”. If children are taught blatant lies in the classroom, why should they accept the “truth” in society?
God Only Knows by Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood will tour Britain in 2010
About The Author
Well done for highlighting one aspect of the Creationists’ behaviour which is not commonly explored, this is the “bending of the truth” or outright lies that go on.
Creationists are generally portrayed as misguided and delusion. However, the drivers behind the creationist movement know exactly what they are doing. They are backed by big money and are running a targeted political campaign of disinformation, aiming to subvert the truth and attack anyone who promotes it.
If you follow this thing long enough you see the recurring lies put about by Creationists are deliberate and knowingly spread. “No transitional fossils” etc, “Carbon dating is false” and so on.
These are falsehoods spread by people who know this is a lie. Some of these “crocoduck” creationists are making big money out of lying as well. And not just about science, but about scientists and their views.
Their own 9th commandment (Thou shalt not bear false witness) never even occurs to them. Despicable people.
Part of the article says:
“Every day, science discards old theories while new ones are developed as exciting discoveries arise about humanity, our planet and the universe”
In science class, let’s teach Cutting-Edge Science,
a few examples include:
- Matter from explosions does not condense to form objects like galaxies.
. . .
- Amino acids do not randomly interact to form living cells through undirected natural processes.
- Molecules-to-man evolutionism violates the Law of Biogenesis: Life does not come from non-life.
- The specific complexity of genetic information in the genome does not increase spontaneously. Therefore, there is no natural process whereby reptiles can turn into birds, land mammals into whales, or chimpanzees into human beings.
. . .
- Many worldwide natural processes indicate an age for the earth of 10,000 years or less. These include population kinetics, influx of radiocarbon into earth’s atmosphere, absence of meteorites from the geologic column, and decay of earth’s magnetic field.
. . .
- There is no gradualism in the fossil record, no intermediate types.
Partial quote from:
What Does The Catholic Church Teach about Origins?
What Does Cutting- Edge Science Teach about Origins?
http://www.kolbecenter.org/church_teaches.htm
Joseph prowls around the internet posting his creationist nonsense whenever he says something opposing his demonstrably false ideas picked up from a the kolb center, a fundamentalist Catholic organization of incompetent and intellectually corrupt thinkers.
Obviously, all these assertions are wrong, based on misstatements and straw men. If you think any of Joseph’s assertions are correct, get a science education.
I suppose if you can get kids to believe the irrational nonsense that is creationism, you can get them to believe just about anything. After all, religion is the best form of social control ever invented – which is probably why New Labour (the most authoritarian government in living memory) is so keen on it.
Ed Waugh claims to regard truth as important, yet he appears to have no interest in it himself. 5 minutes research would have told him that the relics of saints are not regarded by the Catholic Church as in any way miraculous. And you can be confident that schoolchildren taken to venerate St Teresa’s relics (much as one might venerate a photograph of one’s dead mother) would have been taught this.
As if on cue, a creationist appears to prove my point above about propagating lies.
This creationist, Joseph, produces a list of falsehoods. And he even repeats a lie I used as an example in my post, “There is no gradualism in the fossil record, no intermediate types.”
There are thousands of examples of “intermediate” fossils. Biologists have been able to construct long lineages from these fossils which show evolution of many species.
This is easy to discover, and takes seconds of a google search. Again, we can only conclude that these people are deliberately breaking their own 9th commandment, and they are knowingly lying. Despicable people.
And while I am about it, why does he not look at mainstream Christianity rather than the breakaway sects of the 16th century or later? I quote from the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (1967). “anyone who believes that the first three chapters of Genesis are a literal account is ignorant either of science or exegesis.”
@Quentin, your “mainstream Christianity” obviously isn’t shouting that loud enough. A large proportion of the US, and a growing proportion of the UK purport to believe in the literal account of Genesis. And these people have political power.
Google “Arizona State Senator, Sylvia Allen”.
For the sake of precision, according to the Anglican Archbishop Ussher (17th century) creation began at nightfall on October 23, 4004 BC. he had calculated this from genealogies and other data in the Bible. (Newton plumped for 4000 BC, so this was not unreasonable at the time.)
The Church, as a doctrinal body, is not in a position to make definitive statements on matters of natural science, but merely to say when an alleged scientific statement in in conflict with the central truths it teaches.
Its position on the lack of conflict between biological evolution and Scripture is absolutely clear from papal statements. Indeed I was taught this by the good Jesuit Fathers when I was a child in school in the 1940s.
The spiritual side of man is a different matter, but this is not a scientific issue since, by definition, it is not subject to empirical verification.
I hold no brief for Sylvia Allen.
People have to believe in something, we should be able to live a decent life on earth, sadly governments have decided the poor shall stay poor the rich need help.
I do not believe in god , or any other super human hence I do not believe Brown is a superhuman.
But sadly when your life stinks on earth you have to believe it will get better in the next, I’ve no problem in people believing that I wish I could.
But I think in the end people will realizes life stinks.
I agree with Quentin. I suggest Mr Waugh conducts proper research – perhaps he might attend a class in one of the schools he is claiming are teaching these ‘ludicrous creationist beliefs’.
I expect he will find that actually these schools are not teaching creationism, they are teaching the national curriculum and if he asks who actually believes the world is 6000 years old – I expect he’ll not find a teacher there who would agree.
These schools are teaching values and morals to these children which will carry them far into their adult lives. The schools are more concerned with encouraging young people to develop, grow and achieve their dreams than this nonsense that is suggested here.
I’ve been tracking the course of this issue over a number of years, and it’s only pressure from real scientists and other lay-science groups that has kept it at bay. There is little doubt that a number of people high in Sir Peter Vardy’s Emmanuel Foundation were/are high-level creationists – including Stephen Layfield the head of science as I recall.
Until quite recently, government guidelines for the teaching of biology highlighted the example of Darwinian evolutionary theory so weakly worded that it appeared scientist disagreed about its accuracy. A fact that was pounced upon by those interested in promoting religion in the science classroom.
Anyone who seriously doubts that education is under attack need look no further than this disgrace: http://www.truthinscience.org.uk/ a group which has distributed education packs to schools and which purports to advocate truth.
So far, all they have done is launch fallacious attacks on neo-Darwian evolutionary theory, quote:
“We believe that a critical examination of Darwinism and the controversy that surrounds it will enable students to fulfil some of these objectives. Nevertheless, many schools are reluctant to teach this controversy. This is partly because most popular school textbooks present Darwinism as the only scientific theory of origins and give little coverage to alternative theories, sometimes misrepresenting them.”
This controversy is entirely false: and known as a “red herring” in debating circles. They also use other fallacious techniques including “quote mining”, “appeal to authority” and “begging the question” which you may wish to google for.
A quick glance at one of their lessons reveals “irreducible complexity” being proposed as a viable alternative using the bacterial flagellum as an example.
This idea was proposed by Stephen Behe: an American scientist and author of anti-evolutionary material. It’s also been shown to be wrong; yet when questioned under oath at the recent Dover trial, Behe admitted that he had not read the peer-reviewed articles that provided demonstrable evolutionary explanations that falsified his assumptions.
Behe’s entire hypothesis was flawed and therefore is not a viable alternative yet he like many others, continues to trot it out as a viable alternative explanation. These people rely on the ignorance of people to make their points. A scientific theory must satisfy a number of criteria for example:
1. It must be testable: so that other scientists can check it.
2. It must be falisfiable: yet not have been falsified.
3. It should make predictions: which are later demonstrated.
Evolution fits all of these; intelligent design (which has been shown to be a rehash of creationism) fits precisely none.
But to claim that this isn’t happening in the UK, is a fallacy of its own: the appeal to common practice.
Marc Draco will be glad to hear that in various columns in the Catholic Herald (an orthodox national newspaper) I have made all the points he lists.
They are in no way in conflict with the Church’s teaching.
In particular, science classes should stick to science. How a creating God relates to evolution is not a scientific question, and should be raised elsewhere.
The last pope made this very distinction, Quentin, and it is an official edict; so it’s not the Catholic church that is at fault here no matter what they may have said or done in centuries past.
The problem is arising both from American-based evangelical protestantism and increasingly from Muslims who have their own (equally fallacious) text on theistic creation by Adnan Oktar (aka Harun Yahya).
The biggest problem we face today in science is not finding a cure for human cancer, but a cure for the cancerous – and extremely well funded – infection of pure supernatural delusion masquerading as real science: which by very definition it is not.
Evolution is not just at the very heart of biology, it provides very groundwork for many other related sciences – as diverse as medicine, paleontology and computing.
Anyone who doubt these facts would do well to listen to Dr Christian Shorey’s podcasts from http://inside.mines.edu/~cshorey/pages/sygn.html
A devout Christian himself, Dr. Shorey patiently and easily debunks and destroys pretty much everything that the ID/Creation movement has ever put forward without ever resorting to distortion or misdirection.
Marc, you point about the broad spread of evolution is well taken. The survival of any living entity which has a capacity for development or reproduction will be subject to the law that characteristics which benefit (or at least do no harm) will tend to survive, and those which harm will damage, or even destroy, the entity. This is simply a feature of reality. An analysis of the current economic downturn in these terms would be interesting.
But here is a point to consider. First, we are all generally aware of the curative value of placebos. (There happens to be an extremely interesting article on this at http://www.wired.com/print/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect)
Now there is a great deal of evidence which shows that people with active religious belief benefit from this both psychologically and physiologically. (I summarise the evidence, with appropriate references at http://www.secondsightblog.com, see post titled *God exists – so enjoy yourself.”) So, prescinding from whether religious belief is well founded, it clearly has a strong placebo effect. And is thus evolutionarily adaptive.
Richard Dawkins for Pope!
Erm, Joseph…..
“Matter from explosions does not condense to form objects like galaxies.”
It doesn’t usually, but that’s only because because we don’t usually experience the explosion of things massive enough to generate galaxies. Consequently the bits produced by exposions wqe do see are too small to exert a significant gravitational pull on one another, so they don’t collapse.
As for your statement “there is no natural process whereby reptiles can turn into birds, land mammals into whales, or chimpanzees into human beings”, evolution doesn’t hold that chimps turned into humans, it holds that chimps and humans share a common ancestor.
Ach one of your allegations betrays an ignorance of science. If you’d like to take the effort to rectify that, please try visiting the following site with an open mind:
http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/
Joseph you poor man – you have been lied to or at best misguided…I will just raise one point about your many wrong statements as so many have been addressed – please go and study this stuff before making ridiculous statements. Genetic change or mutations are responsible for changes in species not just increased complexity – in fact some mutations that are beneficial almost seem to be going backwards in complexity. Any genetic mutation that has a beneficial effect and is passed on will create a change over time in a species – google speciation if you would like the details. I really feel sorry for you since these statements show glaring ignorance on your part, that are obvious to anyone who knows ANYTHING about real science. If god is so smart why did he leave leg bone remnants on snakes? If he does exist which he doesn’t – then he is either the biggest underacheiver of all time or just plain evil!
The U.S. creationists have taken some hits here, including Obama’s
election,but they have Dracula’s
endurance.
Atheist bus ads are going great over here—even in heavily Mormon
Las Vegas.
I have a new one.
“With Friends Like God,
Who Needs Enemas?”
“Science is about testable theories while faith is just that – something which can’t be proven.”
Surely the only place arguments about this can be decided is in one’s own heart and mind – without fear or favour, affection or ill-will. At least those old bones are real – which is more than can be said of a lot of the junk our kids are exposed to.
Dearest Josephine,
Evolution has everything to do with the mind,nothing to do with
the heart.A proven theory is a fact
Use your heart for original sin,
holy trinities, and angels.
Your friend across the sea,
Ed
Gobekli Tepe in Turkey has been dated to around 11,000 years ago, possibly as old as 12,000 years. This site and others nearby show that people had time to spare to create images carved in stone that far back in time.
So even apart from the mountainous volumes of scientific evidence that tracks evolution over many millions of years, we have solid proof that present day man has an ancestral line directly back beyond the ridiculous creationist claimed date.
Creationists must be aware that they are telling lies and thus under their belief they are putting their souls at great risk.
Joseph may be one of the many whose interneurons are faulty through biblical brainwashing. It may not be his fault that he can only repeat what his priest is telling him.
Its great to here so many objections to creationism, which only tells me that know one out there as put to test the claims of Christ.
A divine creator or just here by chance, where life as no meaning whatsoever.MMmmmm now what would i like to believe. WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE ONE DAY GUYS,I HOPE YOUR REJECTION OF THE TRUTH MAKES GOOD LISTENING TO THE DIVINE CREATOR,BECAUSE IT DOESN’T MATTER WHETHER YOU BELIEVE IT OR NOT, YOU WILL STAND BEFORE HIM ONE DAY TO GIVE AN ACCOUNT FOR YOUR LIFE.
Rather than waste a lot of hot air on a lot of fossils or bones isn’t it time scientists stopped producing weapons of mass destruction – not just arms but biological and germ weapons as well – and concentrated on feeding the starving millions in the world – and helping those terminal ill eg from Aids.
At least believers do something very positive to help people in need – by way of alms – it is a moot point when I see our servicemen coming back from Afghanistan either in bags or with eyes and limbs missing – what overall real benefit science is to the world – global warming after all is mainly caused by the motor car – another produce of science and technology long past its safe sell by date.
La Science – j’accuse – c’est seulement pour effectuer la mort!
Who cares.
If only you men would stop arguing like spoilt ego-centric children – it was woman who created man and it is time we women took over our proper generative role
If only you men would stop arguing like spoilt ego-centric children – it was woman who created man and it is time we women took over our proper generative role – what a different world we would have had – had women not be marginalised and supppressed and to have been at the forefront of science AND RELIGION