Dawkins and Attenborough celebrate, according to The Guardian 15 January 2012. The British Humanist Society, supported by prominent atheists and evolutionists Richard Dawkins and David Attenborough, has recently run a campaign entitled “Teach evolution, not creationism” aimed at preventing Free Schools (local community based schools) from teaching creation or Intelligent Design. Dawkins is claiming a victory following a change in funding policy by the Department of Education in the UK for the schools. According to The Guardian : “The Department for Education has revised its model funding agreement, allowing the education secretary to withdraw cash from schools that fail to meet strict criteria relating to what they teach. Under the new agreement, funding will be withdrawn for any free school that teaches what it claims are ‘evidence-based views or theories’ that run ‘contrary to established scientific and/or historical evidence and explanations’. Dawkins commented: “I welcome all moves to ensure that creationism is not taught as fact in schools. Government rules on this are extremely welcome, but they need to be properly enforced.” The Department of Education denied the amendment was in response to the campaign, and said the change was to make good a pledge made by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary. A spokesman for the Department of Education said: “We will not accept any academy or free school proposal which plans to teach creationism in the science curriculum or as an alternative to accepted scientific theories.”
Editorial Comment: This “victory” is a good reminder that the creation and evolution debate is neither about science nor about evidence, but is a clash of two world views. If it was only about science or evidence, Dawkins and Attenborough would not be afraid of people presenting evidence that supports another world view, and would not be trying to persuade governments to enforce the teaching of their world view. Because Free Schools receive government funds, the British Humanist Society claim these schools (and all state funded schools) should be secular. Many people, including Christians, accept this argument, but what it really means is educating children in a God-less environment. For background information on Free Schools and creation see our previous item “Close Down Creationist Schools” from Evidence News 19 October 2011.
We wonder if this state of affairs would have occurred if the church leaders over the last century had stood up and defended the Scriptures, instead of giving in to those who wanted the Bible reduced to the status of myths and moral stories, instead of the real history of the real world. This should be a wake-up call to all those who want to compromise God’s word with the current atheistic based beliefs in the Big Bang, millions of years and evolution. Sadly, even those who call themselves evangelical Bible-believing Christians are falling for this compromise.
We have recently been asked to comment on a book by John Lennox entitled Seven Days that Divide the World. Whilst Lennox is a skilful apologist for Christianity when confronted with atheists like Dawkins, he wants to compromise on the age of the earth and questions whether “it is crucial to the theology of salvation that Adam was the first actual member of a human race physically distinct from all creatures that preceded him?” A colleague of ours, Simon Turpin, has written a review of Lennox’s book. Read the introduction here . A full review as PDF is available here . (Ref. philosophy, politics, theology)
Evidence News 2 February 2012