Thursday, September 18, 2008

SHRIEEEEK!


While some places in the world are slowly pulled into the evil vortex of the downward spiral of stupid, elsewhere there's hope. SHRIEK! It's a secular inquisition!!!!11!!one:
"Totalitarian atheism has taken another scalp. Michael Reiss, the Royal Society’s embattled director of education, has been forced out – for daring to suggest that children should be taught to discuss alternative views and subject them to the scrutiny of empirical reasoning. As the Times reports, Professor Reiss told the British Association for the Advancement of Science last week that teachers should accept that they were unlikely to change the minds of pupils with creationist beliefs – ie, that the world was created literally in six days. Instead of dismissing creationism as a misconception, teachers should try to explain why it had no scientific basis."
So this Michael Reiss clown thinks science teachers should waste class time defending science against fairy tales? RIGHT! Fortunately, the vortex isn't that strong in the UK, Reason prevailed and Reiss got the boot. Naturally, religious wingnuts are whining that Reiss wasn't suggesting creationism be given equal status with science, *just* that it could be debated to point out why it doesn't stand up scientifically. Oh, sure, and why not squander some time in biology class debating the differences between felis catus and the Cat In The Hat?