ID Outside the States

[Perpetual Notion]

I'm taking a class in Evolutionary Biology and I'm wondering if proponents of ID are trying to get their stuff taught in science curriculums outside the States. I thought I saw someone posting about Denmark, maybe, but I can't remember. I'd love to hear what's going on elsewhere.

 

[AWPrime]

Well there is a very small group here in the Netherlands but they get shot down faster than a swan hit by a SAM.

 

[Morris Cod]

Here in my home town,Devonport in Tassie, we have a very vocal Church of Christ group who go around dropping terrible,inaccurate, outdated and cliched flyers in our letterboxes, and also advertise regularly on our local AM station, telling us how the bible is 100% accurate scientifically and historically,etc.

I am aware that they tried to influence one of the local schools, but met with little success.

They also hold weekly "meetings", to inform the layperson of the "facts" Have'nt got the nerve yet to go to one, I am afraid I'd be expelled for laughing too loud.

 

[arthwollipot]

I haven't heard of any overt political action in Australia. Not like there is in the US. But the education system is different over here. We don't have elected school boards, for example, of the kind that cause problems in Kansas.

 

[Morris Cod]

In Tassie the only way to change the curriculum etc. is through government channels, so I doubt they have any impact.

They bark a bit, but I don't think anybody takes them seriously, but I must admit I cringe when I hear the ads on the radio.

 

[arthwollipot]

I don't even listen to the radio, so I don't know if there are even any God groups on the radio. I suspect not. Religion is not thrown about in public in this city.

 

[AOK Tiger]

In Australia it is actually LEGAL to teach religion in State run schools.
However attendance is optional.

It is an oddity that unlike the deeply religious US we don’t have constitutional separation of Church and State.

Even thought we are responsible for idiots like Ken Ham and that Zammit character there has never been any political push to get non-science taught in schools.

 

[Darat]

I'm taking a class in Evolutionary Biology and I'm wondering if proponents of ID are trying to get their stuff taught in science curriculums outside the States. I thought I saw someone posting about Denmark, maybe, but I can't remember. I'd love to hear what's going on elsewhere.

In the UK we have had a few changes to how our schools are funded and managed over the last 10 years. (And to anyone in the UK teaching profession who has just spat their tea over the monitor and keyboard when they read "a few", it was an understatement. ).

What this has meant is that if an organisation wishes to cough up just a small percent of the total running costs of a school they can and it effectively takes the school out of the control of the local educational authority.

One such school is the Emmanuel City Technology School in Gateshead (Gateshead for some reason seems to be the organisational home of many of the vigorous evangelical organisations in the UK).

This school has been in the new for the teaching of creationism; this has caused much consternation, across political and even religious divides, a selection of stories about it:

Socialist Worker: http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=6195

The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/03/31/ncre31.xml

So in the UK it is already been taught and it seems since there is no governmental political will to fight it will continue to spread.