South Australian government removes creation ban, according to the Policies of the Non Government Schools Registration Board applicable to the registration and review of Nongovernment schools 2010/2011.
Last year we reported the South Australian government had put the following statement in their 2009/2010 policy guidelines for science teaching in non-government schools: “The board requires the teaching of Science as an empirical discipline, focussing on inquiry, hypothesis, investigation, experimentation, observation and evidential analysis. The Board does not accept as satisfactory a science curriculum in a non-Government school which is based on, espouses or reflects the literal interpretation of a religious text in its treatment of creationism or intelligent design.”
This statement meant that Christian (and Jewish and Muslim) schools were banned from teaching, or even allowing students to research, evidence for creation, Noah’s Flood and the Tower of Babel. Since then a new set of policy guidelines has been published for 2010/2011. In the section on science teaching the sentence beginning “The Board does not accept …” has been removed. This leaves the guidelines for teaching science simply as: “The board requires the teaching of Science as an empirical discipline, focussing on inquiry, hypothesis, investigation, experimentation, observation and evidential analysis.”
Editorial Comment: We are pleased to see the lifting of this ban. Now it is important that Christian Schools take the opportunity to teach their students the strengths and limitations of the scientific method. Science is about observing the world around us as it is now. Christian schools should encourage this – studying the existing creation should lift students’ sights to the Creator.
However, since the origin of the world is outside the direct observation of any living human being, and therefore, outside the boundaries of the scientific method, science is no use in discovering anything but the latest guesses of men who will make theories in harmony only with their presuppositions.
Therefore, all people choose to either believe the testimony of the Creator who was there, or choose to ignore it. Ignoring it is not science, even when atheists like to pretend that it is. The Bible will stand up to any honest scrutiny. Therefore, Christian schools should encourage students to ask: when God says something is true, what would the evidence be? Then go and look for that evidence.
Evidence News 22 September 2010
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