A birthday present for Darwin

[mr blur]

The teaching of evolution in primary schools will be an important defence against the ignorance of intelligent design.

It's a great birthday present for Darwin in his 200th anniversary year. For the first time, evolution will be on the national curriculum for primary schools when the new version is published later this year. It was initially excluded from the draft curriculum when it was published for public consultation but sometimes, if not always, it seems government will listen to scientists and experts, many of whom were signatories to an open letter (pdf) to Ed Balls organised by the British Humanist Association in July which called for evolution to be included.

Those who care about public reason are routinely shocked by opinion polls and surveys showing high levels of credence given to the idea of intelligent design. The most recent poll purported to demonstrate that a majority of Britons think that it should be taught alongside evolution in schools.

To solve this problem, we have to know what causes it and there are two reasons why you might prefer the idea of intelligent design to that of evolution. You may do so because your prior ideological convictions, mostly to do with religious belief, simply don't allow you to accept the evidence that is presented to you. Or you may do so because you genuinely do not know of the evidence for evolution, have never had it explained to you, or because you just don't understand it. In a society as decreasingly religious as England, it is impossible to believe that most of the people who do not accept evolution are motivated by ideology rather than ignorance. This means that the best way to solve the problem is through better education and that is what makes the inclusion of evolution in the science curriculum as early as possible so important.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/nov/09/evolution-primary-schools-science

Another blow for common sense!

[uriel1972]

1. From what I remember of primary schools

It would have to be pretty basic, I didn't do much in the way of science until high school. Mind you that was back in the 80's in Oz, so I don't really know what the GB system is like. I just see these little confused faces as terms like "genetic Drift" float past. But, yes another in the eye of YEC's