Polly Toynbee On Faith Schools
Polly Toynbee, renowned for her wonderfully impartial views on faith and faith schools, has written an article on why faith schools breed superstition and are an affornt to reason.
Of course, as usual, it is not impartial in the slightest. As is the norm with Polly Toynbee, her commentary on faith schools adds up to "I don't like them, I am right, why doesn't everyone agree with me?" - not impartial in the slightest.
She talks of the British as having an 'ignorance of basic Christian myths', and goes on to say:
On Easter Day the National Union of Teachers votes on the same motion debated by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers to end the growth of religious state schools and ban the teaching of "intelligent design" as a valid alternative to evolution. How craftily the creationists have hijacked the word "intelligent" for something so dumb.
Ah, yes, that 'dumb' version of 'intelligent design'. Yes. It's easier to believe we all come from monkeys. About half way through the article, her 'balanced' onslaught continues:
This is indeed a clash of civilisations, not between Islam and Christendom but between reason and superstition. The wake-up call came with a BBC/Mori poll showing that, even in this least churchgoing nation, science is on the run: 48% believe in evolution, against 39% who believe in creationism/"intelligent design". If even scientists aren't believed then here is fertile territory for any mad and dangerous theories to take hold.
Right. So Christians are superstitious and scientists are always right, even though their theories are often disproved down the line.
Oh, please, Polly. Do grow up. Or at least think about what you write before you drop yourself right in it.
There is currently 1 comment on this article.
mrbenhttp://www.jedimoose.org
Polly Toynbee always did get on my tits. She probably also glosses over the fact that 85% of people believe in God, and a huge number of people believe in other, non-scientific things. The only reason that more people believe in evolution is because that is all that is taught. I bet if you asked people whether or not you can find the square root of a negative number they would tell you that it is impossible, whereas any proper mathematician will tell you that there is a root of -1....... On the other hand, I find that the intelligent design thing has been massively overplayed, mostly by the ridiculous Christian right in America, who annoy me almost as much as Polly. Both need to be taught, and both need to be offered as theories. And it should be done in an a-religious manner (as opposed to the pro- and anti- that tends to be the only way people think these days).
2006-04-17 15:50:39