Truth in Science’ far from true

29 September, 2006

The creationist group, ‘Truth in Science’ have launched a new website designed to encourage the teaching of creationism and ‘intelligent design’ in school science. To accompany their launch, the group claim to have written to every secondary school and college Head of Science; the British Humanist Association (BHA) has learned they have also sent them copies of ‘teaching resources’ on CD.

Andrew Copson, responsible for education at the BHA (which has been active against creationism since 2002) denounced the new website: ‘It’s so ridiculous that the temptation is to just ignore it and trust that people will recognise it as nonsense straight away, but the well-funded nature of this group means that they have been able to target schools directly, and so we feel we have to respond.’

The BHA has stated that the launch of this website is a sign of the creationists ‘breaking cover’ in a way that they have not previously in the UK, meaning that this is the right time to challenge them, and that the targeted of science teachers directly indicates a new and more dangerous approach by religious extremists.

Mr Copson continued, ‘Organisations such as ‘Answers in Genesis’ have been peddling creationism and ‘intelligent design’ for some time but always in an overtly religious way. This is the first time that creationists have posed as wholly motivated by science in this way and addressed themselves to teachers directly.

‘The Government has explicitly stated that creationism and intelligent design have no place in school science (click here)