British Centre for Science Education

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The British Centre for Science Education (BCSE) is a volunteer-run organization in the United Kingdom that has the goal of "countering creationism within the UK" [1] and was formed to campaign against the teaching of creationism in schools. [2] [3]

Contents

Activities

The BCSE has been operating since the summer of 2006. Its appearance was noted by the American National Center for Science Education in a news article on 2 November 2006. [4]

The BCSE protested when the prominent intelligent design group Truth in Science sent information packs to every UK secondary school in September 2006. [2] BCSE estimated that TiS had, at that point, spent around £116,000, including employment of a full-time administrator. [5] In a letter to the editor, published in the Financial Times, Ian Lowe of BCSE expressed concern that creationism could possibly flourish even in Britain; [6] while Mike Brass, then chairman of BCSE, said in a letter to The Guardian , "intelligent design (ID) is creationism dressed up in a tux to sneak into our science classrooms." [7] They were even mentioned in an "Early Daily Motion" in Parliament introduced by MP Graham Stringer. [8]

In March 2011, responding to a letter from the BCSE expressing concern about the possibility that the government might fund schools based on a Creationist viewpoint, the Department of Education stated that the Secretary of State for Education was "crystal clear that teaching creationism is at odds with scientific fact". [9]

The BCSE features a website on which it tracks leading creationists and creationist organizations, particularly those active in the United Kingdom. Short descriptive articles appear on each. Essays, news and reports of pro-evolution government lobbying are also featured on the website.

Criticism and controversy

The appearance of the BCSE has been met with hostility by the main promoter of intelligent design, the Discovery Institute. In particular, Discovery Institute fellow William Dembski has written disparagingly of the BCSE on his blog, Uncommon Descent. [10]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Center for Science Education</span> Nonprofit supporting the teaching of evolution and climate change.

The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is a not-for-profit membership organization in the United States whose stated mission is to educate the press and the public on the scientific and educational aspects of controversies surrounding the teaching of evolution and climate change, and to provide information and resources to schools, parents, and other citizens working to keep those topics in public school science education. Based in Oakland, California, it claims 4,500 members that include scientists, teachers, clergy, and citizens of varied religious and political affiliations. The Center opposes the teaching of religious views in science classes in America's public schools; it does this through initiatives such as Project Steve. The Center has been called the United States' "leading anti-creationist organization". The Center is affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William A. Dembski</span> American mathematician and proponent of intelligent design

William Albert Dembski is an American mathematician, philosopher and theologian. He was a proponent of intelligent design (ID) pseudoscience, specifically the concept of specified complexity, and was a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture (CSC). On September 23, 2016, he officially retired from intelligent design, resigning all his "formal associations with the ID community, including [his] Discovery Institute fellowship of 20 years". A February 2021 interview in the CSC's blog Evolution News announced "his return to the intelligent design arena".

John Corrigan "Jonathan" Wells is an American theologian and advocate of the pseudoscientific argument of intelligent design. Wells joined the Unification Church in 1974, and subsequently wrote that the teachings of its founder Sun Myung Moon, his own studies at the Unification Theological Seminary and his prayers convinced him to devote his life to "destroying Darwinism." The term Darwinism is often used by intelligent design proponents and other creationists to refer to the scientific consensus on evolution. He gained a PhD in religious studies at Yale University in 1986, then became Director of the Unification Church's inter-religious outreach organization in New York City. In 1989, he studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a PhD in molecular and cellular biology in 1994. He became a member of several scientific associations and has published in academic journals.

Project Steve is a list of scientists with the given name Stephen or Steven or a variation thereof who "support evolution". It was originally created by the National Center for Science Education and comedian Stephen Colbert as a "tongue-in-cheek parody" of creationist attempts to collect a list of scientists who "doubt evolution", such as the Answers in Genesis's list of scientists who accept the biblical account of the Genesis creation narrative or the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism. The list pokes fun at such endeavors while making it clear that, "We did not wish to mislead the public into thinking that scientific issues are decided by who has the longer list of scientists!" It also honors Stephen Jay Gould. The level of support for evolution among scientists is very high. A 2009 poll by Pew Research Center found that "Nearly all scientists (97%) say humans and other living things have evolved over time."

The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the pseudoscientific idea of intelligent design (ID), which asserts that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." Its chief activities are a campaign to promote public awareness of this concept, the lobbying of policymakers to include its teaching in high school science classes, and legal action, either to defend such teaching or to remove barriers otherwise preventing it. The movement arose out of the creation science movement in the United States, and is driven by a small group of proponents.

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The Wedge Strategy is a creationist political and social action plan authored by the Discovery Institute, the hub of the pseudoscientific intelligent design movement. The strategy was put forth in a Discovery Institute manifesto known as the Wedge Document. Its goal is to change American culture by shaping public policy to reflect politically conservative fundamentalist evangelical Protestant values. The wedge metaphor is attributed to Phillip E. Johnson and depicts a metal wedge splitting a log.

<i>Of Pandas and People</i> Creationist supplementary textbook by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon

Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level supplementary textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon, edited by Charles Thaxton and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics (FTE). The textbook endorses the pseudoscientific concept of intelligent design – the argument that life shows evidence of being designed by an intelligent agent which is not named specifically in the book, although proponents understand that it refers to the Christian God. The overview chapter was written by young Earth creationist Nancy Pearcey. They present various polemical arguments against the scientific theory of evolution. Before publication, early drafts used cognates of "creationist". After the Edwards v. Aguillard Supreme Court ruling that creationism is religion and not science, these were changed to refer to "intelligent design". The second edition published in 1993 included a contribution written by Michael Behe.

The "teach the controversy" campaign of the Discovery Institute seeks to promote the pseudoscientific principle of intelligent design as part of its attempts to discredit the teaching of evolution in United States public high school science courses. Scientific organizations point out that the institute claims that there is a scientific controversy where in fact none exists.

An intelligent designer, also referred to as an intelligent agent, is the pseudoscientific hypothetical willed and self-aware entity that the intelligent design movement argues had some role in the origin and/or development of life. The term "intelligent cause" is also used, implying their teleological supposition of direction and purpose in features of the universe and of living things.

The Kansas evolution hearings were a series of hearings held in Topeka, Kansas, United States from May 5 to 12, 2005 by the Kansas State Board of Education and its State Board Science Hearing Committee to change how evolution and the origin of life would be taught in the state's public high school science classes. The hearings were arranged by the Board of Education with the intent of introducing intelligent design into science classes via the Teach the Controversy method.

The intelligent design movement has conducted an organized campaign largely in the United States that promotes a pseudoscientific, neo-creationist religious agenda calling for broad social, academic and political changes centering on intelligent design.

<i>Creationisms Trojan Horse</i> 2004 book by Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross

Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design is a 2004 book by Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross on the origins of intelligent design, specifically the Discovery Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture and its wedge strategy. The authors are highly critical of what they refer to as intelligent design creationism, and document the intelligent design movement's fundamentalist Christian origins and funding.

Truth in Science is a United Kingdom-based creationist organisation which promotes the Discovery Institute's "Teach the Controversy" campaign, which it uses to try to get the pseudoscientific concept of intelligent design creationism taught alongside evolution in school science lessons. The organisation claims that there is scientific controversy about the validity of Darwinian evolution, a view rejected by the United Kingdom's Royal Society and over 50 Academies of Science around the world. The group is affiliated with the Discovery Institute, the hub of the intelligent design movement, following its strategy and circulating the Institute's promotional materials.

The Discovery Institute has conducted a series of related public relations campaigns which seek to promote intelligent design while attempting to discredit evolutionary biology, which the Institute terms "Darwinism". The Discovery Institute promotes the pseudoscientific intelligent design movement and is represented by Creative Response Concepts, a public relations firm.

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Explore Evolution: The Arguments For and Against Neo-Darwinism is a controversial biology textbook written by a group of intelligent design supporters and published in 2007. Its promoters describe it as aimed at helping educators and students to discuss "the controversial aspects of evolutionary theory that are discussed openly in scientific books and journals but which are not widely reported in textbooks." As one of the Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns to "teach the controversy" its evident purpose is to provide a "lawsuit-proof" way of attacking evolution and promoting pseudoscientific creationism without being explicit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nylon-eating bacteria and creationism</span> Religious application of the existence of microorganisms that break down nylon

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The relationship between intelligent design and science has been a contentious one. Intelligent design (ID) is presented by its proponents as science and claims to offer an alternative to evolution. The Discovery Institute, a politically conservative think tank and the leading proponent of intelligent design, launched a campaign entitled "Teach the Controversy", which claims that a controversy exists within the scientific community over evolution. The scientific community rejects intelligent design as a form of creationism, and the basic facts of evolution are not a matter of controversy in science.

References

  1. ↑ According to the logo on the website of the BCSE.
  2. 1 2 Graebsch, Almut; Schiermeier, Quirin (23 November 2006). "Anti-evolutionists raise their profile in Europe". Nature . 444 (7118): 406–407. doi: 10.1038/444406a . PMID   17122815.
  3. ↑ The dangers of creationism in education Archived 2007-08-13 at the Wayback Machine , Report, Committee on Culture, Science and Education, Rapporteur: Mr Guy LENGAGNE, France, Socialist Group, Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe, Doc. 11297, 8 June 2007. Para. 69
  4. ↑ Creationism news from around the world Archived 2007-07-11 at the Wayback Machine , National Center for Science Education, November 2, 2006.
  5. ↑ Randerson, James (27 November 2006). "Who are Truth in Science?". The Guardian . Retrieved 2007-07-28.
  6. ↑ Lowe, Ian (21 October 2006). "Creationism has no place in classrooms". Letter to the Editor. Financial Times . Retrieved 2007-07-28.
  7. ↑ Brass, Mike (19 December 2006). "Creationism in the classroom". The Guardian . Retrieved 2007-07-28.
  8. ↑ SCIENCE EDUCATION Archived 2007-07-07 at the Wayback Machine , Graham Stringer, Member of Parliament, Early Day Motion 2708, 11.10.2006
  9. ↑ "Michael Gove 'crystal clear' creationism is not science". The Telegraph. 22 Mar 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  10. ↑ The British Centre for Science Education unmasked, William Dembski, Uncommon Descent Blog, 23 October 2006.
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