Creationist teachers hijacking science teaching in Australia
198 replies, posted
[url]http://www.news.com.au/national/creationists-hijack-lessons-and-teach-schoolkids-man-and-dinosaurs-walked-together/story-e6frfkvr-1225899497234[/url]
[release]PRIMARY school students are being taught that man and dinosaurs walked the Earth together and that there is fossil evidence to prove it.
Fundamentalist Christians are hijacking Religious Instruction (RI) classes in Queensland despite education experts saying Creationism and attempts to convert children to Christianity have no place in state schools.
Students have been told Noah collected dinosaur eggs to bring on the Ark, and Adam and Eve were not eaten by dinosaurs because they were under a protective spell.
Critics are calling for the RI program to be scrapped after claims emerged Christian lay people are feeding children misinformation.
About 80 per cent of children at state primary schools attend one half-hour instruction a week, open to any interested lay person to conduct.
Many of the instructors are from Pentecostal churches.
Education Queensland is aware that Creationism is being taught by some religious instructors, but said parents could opt out.
Australian Secular Lobby president Hugh Wilson said children were ostracised and discriminated against if they were pulled out of the class.
In many cases, the RI lay people were not supervised by teachers.
Kings Christian Church youth worker Dustin Bell said he taught "about creation" in Sunshine Coast schools.
Set Free Christian Church's Tim McKenzie said when students questioned him why dinosaur fossils carbon dated as earlier than man, he replied that the great flood must have skewed the data.
Queensland Teachers Union president Steve Ryan said teachers were sometimes compelled to supervise the instructors "because of all the fire and brimstone stuff".
Mr Ryan said Education Queensland had deemed RI a must-have, though teachers would prefer to spend the time on curriculum.
Buddhist Council of Queensland president Jim Ferguson said he was so disturbed that Creationism was being aired in state school classrooms that he would bring it up at the next meeting of the Religious Education Advisory Committee, part of Education Queensland.
He said RI was supposed to be a forum for multi-faith discussion.
Education Queensland assistant director-general Patrea Walton said Creationism was part of some faiths, and therefore was part of some teaching.
New research shows three in 10 Australians believe dinosaurs and man did exist at the same time. The survey, by the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies, shows a "worrying" lack of basic scientific principles.
"The results underscore the need for students to be exposed to science and mathematics through a well resourced education system, rather than learning about science through Jurassic Park," FASTS president Dr Cathy Foley said.
PhD researcher Cathy Byrne found in a NSW-based survey that scripture teachers tended to discourage questioning, emphasised submission to authority and excluded different beliefs. She said 70 per cent of scripture teachers thought children should be taught the Bible as historical fact.
A parent of a Year 5 student on the Sunshine Coast said his daughter was ostracised to the library after arguing with her scripture teacher about DNA.
"The scripture teacher told the class that all people were descended from Adam and Eve," he said.
"My daughter rightly pointed out, as I had been teaching her about DNA and science, that 'wouldn't they all be inbred'?
"But the teacher replied that DNA wasn't invented then."
After the parent complained, the girl spent the rest of the year's classes in the library.[/release]
Why does Australia even need religious instruction in schools?
I thought they banned science and religion because both were too violent?
:doh:
That's like telling children that they all live in The Matrix.
Sad thing is, they would believe it, if it were told by a "credible" grown-up.
That's just..Wow. I have no words for the amount of stupidity.
School is no place for religion.
[editline]05:47PM[/editline]
Maybe in mythology study.
[QUOTE=OvB;23745989]School is no place for religion.
[editline]05:47PM[/editline]
Maybe in mythology study.[/QUOTE]
This.
What the fuck? I thought creationists just plain out said dinosaurs didn't exist, but now Noah collected dinosaur eggs?
:wtc:
Oh, so is this that time of the century where they revise the bible to fit current scientific facts?
uuuuuggggghhhh i hate creationism so much
how come it can't be taught in classes other than science, like OvB mentioned in mythology or something? why are creationists so intent on getting it taught as "science" when it is the complete opposite?
In my school they taught is about how earth, the world was created as a theory, and we learn about how it was in different religions at the same time. It works great because if we would have had someone religious, that person wouldn't have been offended or anything and we did at the same time learn what we had to learn.
[quote=Article]"But the teacher replied that DNA wasn't invented then."[/quote]
[b][i]THERE ARE NO WORDS.[/b][/i]
/capslol
[quote]About 80 per cent of children at state primary schools attend one half-hour instruction a week, open to any interested lay person to conduct.[/quote]
So just anyone can walk in and teach? Who the fuck thought this was a good idea?
Despite being proudly Catholic, this shit fucking [b]infuriates[/b] me.
I like living in Europe, because I've yet to meet a creationist here. :smug:
Maybe these fascist "scientists" will finally stop clinging to the vestiges of their dead "reason" and embrace the obvious truth that the world was created in 6 days by what amounts to invisible superman on steroids
Wow, that girl outsmarted a grown man. And she was probably 10.
[QUOTE=Jimpy;23746023]What the fuck? I thought creationists just plain out said dinosaurs didn't exist, but now Noah collected dinosaur eggs?[/QUOTE]
No, Christians/Creationists believe Dinosaurs and Men were created at the same time(a day apart if you want to be specific), and after some hardships Dinosaurs became extinct like any other animal. And about Noah, Creationists believe Noah's Ark took place when Dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, and Noah was instructed to collect two of each animal, excluding fish. And Dinosaurs were included in that two. Whether they were eggs or not I've never heard either way, I assumed they were living dinosaurs, babies maybe.
[QUOTE=JDK721;23746219]so you're a Catholic that doesn't believe in creationism?[/QUOTE]
Theistic Evolutionism I think it's called.
[editline]01:00AM[/editline]
[QUOTE=Prof Googloplex;23746222]Wow, that girl outsmarted a grown man. And she was probably 10.[/QUOTE]
Really shows humanity still has hope, doesn't it? That a single child can debunk arguments from a 30-something Jesus freak.
[QUOTE=JDK721;23746219]so you're a Catholic that doesn't believe in creationism?[/QUOTE]
A lot don't
Catholics tend to be some of the more liberal Christians, despite what the church itself teaches
[QUOTE=JDK721;23746219]so you're a Catholic that doesn't believe in creationism?[/QUOTE]
My parents were as such.
[QUOTE=JDK721;23746219][so you're a Catholic that doesn't believe in creationism?[/QUOTE]
believe it or not religion and ignorance don't always go hand-in-hand
I'm glad these ignoramuses are being called out
I like to think that this bullshit is caused when these minorities of idiots become more vocal as their numbers decrease, because they feel shadowed by the majority.
That's my idea. I hope it's right, otherwise, this [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge_strategy]Crime against Humanity[/URL] might succeed.
[QUOTE=Rubs10;23746064]Oh, so is this that time of the century where they revise the bible to fit current scientific facts?[/QUOTE]
Oh my gosh. Source for avatar. Please.
[QUOTE=Eudoxia;23746412]I like to think that this bullshit is caused when these minorities of idiots become more vocal as their numbers decrease, because they feel shadowed by the majority.[/QUOTE]
Aah, like Creationism's dying breaths? sounds like beauty to me.
[QUOTE=wonkadonk;23746529]Aah, like Creationism's dying breaths? sounds like beauty to me.[/QUOTE]
Yes. We just have to get through this final stage of desperate attempts to teach Creationism in schools. Oh, you sibbly-wibbly fundies. Do you not realize that it's over?
This coincides oddly with the school in Louisiana that's pushing for creationism being taught too: [url]http://friendlyatheist.com/2010/07/28/louisiana-school-board-wants-to-teach-creationism/[/url]
Idk what these people don't get, they've been roundly destroyed in court time and time again, yet they keep trying. You'd think Edwards v. Aguillard and Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District would be killing blows, but apparently these people don't care for things such as "reason" or "law".
In my opinion the only time religion should be present in schools is teaching what MANY religions believe (Not focusing on one religion in particular) and what different religious moral views are on different issues.
Not as fact, or as "Believe this" but as "This is what people believe". It would also be unfair for the teachers to say "This isn't true", but they shouldn't say that it is.
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