Is teaching evolution to schoolchildren dangerous?

4th August 2017
by:   Peter Gray-Read  BSc MSc PGCE

Pushing Evolution down the throats of the public and school children is the mother of all extremist propaganda

 
We live in a tolerant free thinking society until you hold a view that is different from the media / humanist list of permitted views

It would be funny if the consequences in some cases were not such an intellectual, societal, and spiritual dead end.  When teaching GCSE biology, it is so sad to see the look of panic on the faces of students who immediately think “I’m going to fail my GCSE my teacher is a creationist”.   One has to immediately reassure them that what is commonly – albeit mistakenly -  understood as ‘evolution’ is not in question.  This lower case ‘e’ evolution allowed civilisation to move from hunter gatherers to settled pastoral communities - part of plant and animal breeding programs that is going on all the time. It was actually practiced by Jacob as recorded in Genesis 
 
Farmers select the cows with the highest milk yield, best temperament, etc to beget the next generation of calves.  Or use seed from strong and vibrant crop plants to sow for the next harvest. This is really selective breeding – not evolution.  It is part of the problem that evolution has these two aspects (good cop / bad cop) – on the one hand selecting either naturally or intentionally from existing genetic stock to maintain a desirable trait while at the same time claiming that these wonderfully adapted animals and plants arose from a primordial chemical soup by a series of random mutations of a hypothetical strand of RNA or DNA in a hypothetical cell type structure.  This is the upper case ‘E’ Evolution – some call it macro evolution.  It is almost deceptive – slipping in a dodgy tenner with a wad of real ones

The ‘e’ or micro evolution just ‘shuffles the cards’ (genes) there is no new information.  There may actually be loss of information e.g. when a pedigree dog is bred there may often be weaknesses passed down the line.  Darwin did not have any idea of the mechanism by which evolution could take place
 
The amazing advances in molecular biology we have witnessed over recent years shows how changes can be introduced into DNA (often as errors or mutations) then passed onto the proteins that they may code for. This is ‘Neo-Darwinism’.  However it does not in any way explain how an almost perfectly functioning cell or organism could have arisen

The media has many ways in which those who are not persuaded that Neo-Darwinism alone can deliver fully functioning cells, are made to feel that they are suffering a dangerous form of mental illness that has to be put in isolation.   The pillars of broadcasting take it as a no brainer - set in stone - which presumably is the only safe place for one of these dissenters, fossilised in the belief systems of the Bibliocene period

The key is the need for information – a staggering amount of information.  This does not arise by chance (…ever lost a flash drive?  The effort you put into those programs…).   Even adding the mysteriously named ‘deep time’ does not help.  In fact there are many who recognise the problem of information or ‘design’ but do not hold a deist position

The issue I find so disturbing is this matter of information – most students and journalists do not have the time to dig around and examine the evidence – pour over the bones if you like.  The usual GCSE syllabus expects students to accept these main tenants of biology as sacrosanct.  Biology has given us the gene editing tool CRISPR we can undo the mistakes in the DNA of an embryo.  So by implication anything scientists say about the way things started must also be right

It’s any easy non-sequitur those who know better should be more honest.  It is the question of ORIGINS that is fundamental to a ‘world view’.  Millions of students have been sold the lie that science can explain everything; hence there is no need for God.  By the way, even if science could explain everything that would still not rule out God – who established the laws in the first place?   However biology certainly cannot explain origin of information and the first cell. Physics has a problem with about 80% of the matter / energy in the universe – a BIG HOLE?

The media must stop this extremist propaganda on behalf of science. It is fake news of the worst kind.  It acts as a mental block.  It stops children exploring the ‘big questions’ for themselves… and there is a warning:
Who was it who said: “It would be better if a millstone were hanged round his neck and be cast into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones?” Luke 17:2

This institutionalised rejection of the testimony of creation has caused many of the last generations of children to reject faith.  Is the radicalising propaganda of Islam a judgement on our actions?

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