State boards of education, officers of local school districts, science educators, and the public at large need information about the origin and features of the "intelligent design" hoax, but such information isn't easy to find. It surely can't be found in newspaper or newsmagazine articles about the creationists' campaigns, because such articles fail to provide any substantive information at all: They display the phrase "intelligent design" a few times, in throwaway lines, but they don't tell what it signifies, they don't describe the fantasies that the devotees of "intelligent design" try to peddle, and they don't explain that "intelligent design" has already been discredited by scientists, just as "creation-science" was. Many of the newspaper articles are worse than worthless because they parrot the creationists' rhetoric and mislead the public by falsely referring to "intelligent design" as a "theory." William J. Bennetta - The "Intelligent Design" Hoax
In a recent BBC 1 Look North program (7 Sept 05), a campaigner opposing the teaching of creationism in British schools was apparently accused of being anti-Christian. As a result, she got little time to present her concerns about the dangers of allowing fundamentalists to run schools & floundered instead as she then attempted to defend herself against the accusation. I did not personally see the program but from what I am led to understand, the presenter, Christa Ackroyd was aggressive towards & dismissive of the anti-creationist campaigner.
Question
Are the people who are opposing the teaching of creationism (or its tenets) simply anti-Christian?
Answer
Making an accusation like this (especially if your case is weak in the first place), can have a devastating effect on the presentation of an opponent who is then forced to defend his/her position, rather you attack yours.
Many of opponents of creationism are Christian, so such an assertion is obviously wrong. For example, Kenneth Miller from Colorado, USA & Mike Brass from Cambridge, GB are prominent Christian anti-creationists.
Creationism is opposed by many people because it is straightforward nonsense; the Bible is not a literal interpretation of past events & it should not be presented as such.
If a rich German was to take over a school & teach that WWII never happened (in the face of protests from those old enough to have lived through it), then obviously you do not have to be anti-German to find such a move objectionable. Likewise, just because you oppose creationism it doesn’t necessarily make you anti-Christian.
The government should not be assisting fundamentalists who want to force their extreme beliefs onto other people’s children and it should be possible to point this out without being on the receiving end of personal attacks from pig ignorant journalists.