Ken Ham comes to Europe
Both Phil and Ed have linked to this story:
After the Sunday service in Westminster Chapel, where worshippers were exhorted to wage “the culture war” in the World War II spirit of Sir Winston Churchill, cabbie James McLean delivered his verdict on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
“Evolution is a lie, and it’s being taught in schools as fact, and it’s leading our kids in the wrong direction,” said McLean, chatting outside the chapel. “But now people like Ken Ham are tearing evolution to pieces.”
They seem to think it’s funny, and I guess I can see why; they’ve been living with this level of idiocy for a long time. Personally, I find it depressing whenever it rears its head on this side of the Atlantic.
Ken Ham comes to Europe by Will Goring, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England License.
It is depressing that this stuff it gaining some foot hold in this country. It’s always a comforting if inaccurate notion to assume the rubbish is more of an American phenomenon.
I’ve just got back from the states and had some discussions on this topic over dinner with one of our reps out there and it was gratifying to find that he shared my opinion that this creationist/ID stuff has no place in the science class room even though the guy was some variant of Christian. Still it feels like this probably a minority view over there
I’m actually not sure how widespread it is, even in the US. Obviously, organisations like the Disco ‘tute, and the Uncommon Descent group-think want us to think they have massive public support, but when you look at something like The Clergy Letter Project, you have to wonder if it’s all blown horribly out of proportion by a very loud, but unrepresentative few.
possibly. From what I’ve heard it has had quite an impact in schools even beyond the whole ID creationism thing since even when they do teach evolution the sort of text books they get are very watered down so as not to offend the religious right any more than is strictly necessary. I’ve not heard of that over here yet.
Not in state schools, no. But, unfortunately, it does go on, even here.
In a vaguely related ham based story they have just set up a “peer” reviewed journal for cutting edge creationist research.
Let me give you a summary of the latest bleeding edge research and thinking: “God did it”. Extend that to 200 pages and add a nice cover and you’re golden.
http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php?p=178
Ah yes, the Answers Research Journal; excellent stuff. In a way I almost feel sorry for them; they seem to think that if they dress their bankrupt ideas up in all the regalia of science, it will magically gain its legitimacy as well. Sort-of like an intellectual cargo-cult.
Oh, I like that: “The Answers Research Journal: an intellectual cargo cult”.
That might be worth a front page post…