sam_butler

Interesting to see Michael Reiss' comment there in the Guardian. Don't believe everything you read in the newspapers eh! One could consider himself to be a scientist if he applied scientific reasoning, but I'm not a scientist in the professional sense. I have not heard that particular statement verbatim from Dawkins, but I know he has said something similar. I don't really watch everything he's done for TV nor read his many writings, but I would say that he is being a little generalised in making this assumption. If there is evidence for evolution, and I consider that there is, then that's fine. If someone ignores it, okay. But you can't go round saying 'creationists ignore evidence for evolution' because it doesn't refer to everyone. There may be some creationists who consider the evidence to be false or insufficient, and there may be those who accept it. Personally, I find the evidence for evolution to be mostly accurate, but it doesn't mean that I believe we all arose from a sea of ammonia or that all living things are animated by a carbon isotope. In my opinion, just as religion and atheism can coexist, science and religion can and do coexist and it would be remiss of us to omit either from the other's lesson. We don't deny science in R.E., so why deny religious belief in science? And that doesn't mean I advocate promoting it either. I just don't think science is against religion or vice versa. Some scientists may be against religion and some religionists may be against science. So be it, but let's not tar everyone with the same brush. I think you get my drift anyway.

Sneaking your edits in above my replies! But I get you, and I agree that atheism and religion can exist side-by-side. I mean I'm not exactly segregated from the world--I have friends and family who are Muslim, Catholic, Anglican, atheist, agnostic and of course, Scientologists. Being 'taught' religion shouldn't be seen as a replacement for science and learning to think with reason. I think we basically agree that science and religion aren't exactly opposed to each other in principle, but some people like to set them head-to-head and watch the, er, big bang. I have always taken the scientific approach to my own beliefs and where I see evidence, I'm more convinced. I have never really studied Big Bang Theory extensively, so I'll check out that page on evidence of it. I don't think it's entirely implausible either, to be frank. I think we're at least close to being on topic Now, how to use IT in R.E. classes... I think slowly the religion of IT will take over the world. Its followers will worship Charles Babbage, because his name is most memorable and rhymes with a certain vegetable. There is also tangible evidence that he actually existed. See if the Flying Spaghetti Monster can beat that.

Actually I'm going to quote myself again. This was the conclusion of my blog post:

I hear ya mister. The subsequent words should serve to clarify, although my blog and this thread are similar and not the same, so I think we should try to stay on topic. Here's the verbiage: Mockery of religion in the media? The Uncyclopedia article, while I'm sure intended to be a bit of fun, is an extreme example of this. To bring it all back down to Earth, I think we have to avoid that happening in the education system. I think somewhere between denying the existence of religion and preaching it in geography classes would be preferable. It's a wide playing field though...

Har har. So anyway, was the atheist/theist comment in response to something?

I'm not sure. As I said in my blog post, the only place creationism really came up in my R.E. classes at school was in discussing the symbolic interpretation of Genesis and indeed the entire Bible. An Evangelical Christian is unlikely to agree with such an interpretation, but in my regard it seems to be a growing thing; some Christians I know do hold this belief that the bible is symbolic rather than to be literally heeded. Actually it's interesting to note the first post here because I'm a Scientologist

Well, I blogged about this just today (Sam Butler Blog Archive Creationism or Evolution: Should science decide?) but to be honest it's not a simple matter. I think creationism is a bit unscientific to be propounded in school science lessons, but we certainly shouldn't be doing something in those lessons that would seem to invalidate those or any other beliefs. I found that sometimes a teacher can get carried away and start denouncing them. What do you think?