Religious fraudsters still spreading myths

South China Morning Post Education Mailbag July 3, 2009

Religious fraudsters still spreading myths

I would like to point out that creationists and intelligent design advocates are the same group of religious fraudsters who wish to spread their Stone Age beliefs around our schools.

The reason they changed the name of their organisation was because they knew that the education authorities around the world weren't going to allow them a hearing under the creationism banner, which would be a dead giveaway of their religiously based motives.

Any scientific theory, such as the theory of evolution, has to undergo painstaking peer evaluation and scrutiny. It is tested repeatedly and the fact-based evidence supporting the theory is checked by other scientists in the same field. Only after this meticulous process is any theory allowed into classroom textbooks.

Creationists, on the other hand, wish to skip this process entirely and introduce their mythological ideas of mystical gods into our classrooms under the guise of intelligent design.

Parents need to ask themselves what they want taught to their children in science classes - creationist myths that have caused nothing but bloodshed, fear and suffering around the world since the Stone Age or scientific theories based on observable and testable facts that form the fundamental basis of our civilised society.

ANDREW JOHN GORDON, English tutor, Tsing Yi