Scientist and Royal Society say creationism comments were misreported
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A leading biological scientist, and the prestigious Royal Society he works for, has said that his comments on creationism and the classroom have been misrepresented – and that it is opposed to creationism being taught as science. –
Ekklesia reports “Some media reports have misrepresented the views of Professor
Michael Reiss, Director of Education at the Society expressed in a
speech yesterday,” the Royal Society declared in a statement on 12
September 2008. The Rev Professor Reiss, also an Anglican clergyman, has issued a
further statement which is being described by the Society as a
clarification.
The Register reports Michael Reiss, who is both a professor of biology and a Church of
England clergyman, took the position that with ten per cent of UK
school children coming from families with creationist leanings,
teachers should convey a message of “respect” for those beliefs while
continuing to teach evolution. Ultimately, Reiss said, such children were unlikely to change their
minds, but at least could be encouraged to view evolution as one way of
understanding the universe.
The London Times reports The assumption made by British commentators is that creationism goes hand in
hand with an American-flavoured Christian fundamentalism. But hold it right
there. In a British context, the children most likely to turn up in school
with a problem about evolution – about one in ten – are not little
Evangelicals but Muslim children.
And while most people are willing to be cheerfully abusive about Christian
fundamentalists, other rules apply when it comes to how we handle the
Islamic view of creation. In this context, as Professor Richard Dawkins has
pointed out, we’re talking about cultural sensitivities, which ministers are
unwilling to ride roughshod over.
The Guardian reports Two Nobel prize winners – Sir Harry Kroto and Sir Richard Roberts -
have demanded that the Royal Society sack its education director,
Professor Michael Reiss. The call, backed by other senior Royal Society
fellows, follows Reiss’s controversial claim last week that creationism
be taught in schools’ science classes.
‘I warned the president of the Royal Society that his [Reiss] was a
dangerous appointment a year ago. I did not realise just how dangerous
it would turn out to be,’ said Kroto, a Royal Society fellow, and
winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.