No need to ban creationism

SCMP Letters to the editor - (Mar 11, 2009)

As an atheist, I welcome the idea of teaching creationism in science classes at a secondary level.

Once children are able to form their own ideas and can recognise the difference between education and propaganda, surely it is our duty to tell them about the different ways in which the world is interpreted.

Let them make up their own minds. Just banning discussion lets the creationists cry 'cover-up' and 'conspiracy'.

I am sure one of the reasons people cling to the notion of God is that science and religion are not taught side by side.

This allows the religious to separate the two ideas as if they could happily coexist.

Once you sit the crackpot theories of creationists side by side with the observable evidence of natural selection, God ends up where he belongs - with Santa Claus and the tooth fairy in the dustbin of childhood memories.

Ben Richardson, Lantau