Ektopia

Like many people, I’ve read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. From the standpoint of an ex-Roman Catholic it made a very interesting read. One of the most enlightening parts of the book is titled The Educational Scandal. Apparently, Emmanuel College in the UK is a government funded (”£2 million for the school and running costs and salaries in perpetuity”) in return for a one off gift to the Labour Party of £2 million! Among the private school’s teachings is Science Teaching for creationists. There are so many parts of this text that are completely fascinating that I recommend you just get clicky and read the whole thing. I don’t think you have to be an atheist to be amazed that this stuff be actually being taught in a school in 2007. All the points raised are cited with biblical references in the same way as scholars cite other scholarly references and many of the ideas that evolutionists use to back their theory are used here to back the creationists! Here are a couple of my favourite parts -

“They might note the remarkable interdependence of symbiotic systems (e.g. the yucca plant and the yucca moth) and the obvious need for each to commence functioning simultaneously to account for their present existence.

The feasibility of maintaining an ark full of representative creatures for a year until the waters had sufficiently receded has been well documented by, among others, John Woodmorrappe . Much useful research has already been undertaken in recent years which confirms that speciation via ‘micro-evolution’ and variation within limits can happily account for the rapid re-population of the world and separation of human racial groupings such as we find today.”

…and also…

“The period of the Earth’s rotation (24 hrs) is critical. Much faster and violent windstorms would be destructive; Much slower and the day time/nigh time temperatures would be too extreme.

The Moon’s gravity is critical. Much greater and the tides would be catastrophic; much less and the oceans would become stagnant through insufficient mixing.

The temperature of the Earth’s surface is critical. Too hot and excessive water vapour and carbon dioxide will collect in atmospheric clouds and the greenhouse effect will run away with itself causing a the ice-caps to melt and further overheating; too cold and more snow and ice will form reflecting solar energy promoting yet cooler temperatures.

[...]the remarkable interdependence of symbiotic systems (e.g. the yucca plant and the yucca moth) and the obvious need for each to commence functioning simultaneously to account for their present existence.”

…and your point it?

Anyways, The God Delusion is an interesting book and Science Teaching for creationists is too.