Once again it has been a long time since writing anything – with
a hectic work schedule, and seemingly never-ending higher education, I just can’t
find the time anymore to express outrage and get all angry at stuff. Add to that PlayStation 3, watching Breaking Bad and kowtowing to my wife
and my life suddenly gets filled up – and my outlet becomes yelling at the
television instead of expressing myself via the written word.
But I must take a second to address a story which appeared on Stuff regarding creationism in schools.
Not US schools, mind you, but New Zealand schools. Creationism … taught by untrained and
unqualified teachers.
How unqualified teacher is allowed to teach anything at all
is beyond me, but an unqualified teacher teaching scientific principles – such
as the origins of the Earth, humans and the universe – with a bent towards
special creation is an appalling affront to New Zealand society and to our
education system.
Creationism – the peculiar evangelical version as espousedby Charter School front man and cabbage boat fancier John Banks – has long been disproven and flies directly in the face of
every scientific discipline. Physics,
geology, biology, genetics and archaeology (to name just a few fields) all
confirm that the Earth is significantly older than the 6,000 or so years old
that special creation demands based upon the biblical chronology of James
Ussher.
To teach anything else is either to knowingly teach a lie or
unknowingly teach a falsehood – in which case the person shouldn’t be teaching
in the first place.
Creationism (as distinct from religious studies) as a
factual alternative to the scientific consensus on the formation of the Earth
and the life it houses has no place in the classroom and should only ever be
taught as a historical curiosity. It
should never be taught as a scientific or logical precept and only leads to scientific
illiteracy.
For a more thorough breakdown on why the Earth must be
significantly older than creationism teaches, this website has a good list of arguments … Hell, they aren’t even ‘arguments’ – it’s established fact.
