Could I please borrow Eugenie Scott, PZ Meyers and Co?
Note: Most links are to German articles.
Yesterday’s Speigel-Online had an article about creationism. Not creationism in the US, creationism in Germany. Yes, the little vermin are alive and breeding in Old Europe with the article citing 1.3 million in Germany alone.
I apparently missed the brouhaha last September, when Thuringia’s governor (Ministerpräsident) Dieter Althaus scheduled a ‘debate’ between an evolutionary biologist Ulrich Kutschera and the German creationist Siegfried Schere. The event was cancelled after Kutschera refused to debate, perhaps realising the futility of the mission.
Last night, on arte (sort of a French/German PBS), they had an entire evening focused on Christian fundamentalism. (AND I MISSED IT! Grrrr!) The first film ‘Of Gods and Designers’ by Peter Moers and Frank Papenbroock was probably the most interesting. It showed the largest European creationist publishing house in England, interviewed both scientists and the ID-iots and, perhaps most disturbingly, presented a private and a public school in Germany where creationist propaganda is being presented as biology. The Spiegel article explains
Biology class at the August Hermann Franke School in Giessen, pupils in the eighth grade finish a fill in the blanks text. Completed the exercise reads “{Continental drift} started only after the Noachian flood. God sent the {flood} to the earth because the {people} were evil but Noah found {grace} in the sight of the Lord.” Further down in the text on the page, the world after the flood is described “Humans started eating meat; there were natural catastrophes and climate problems; people stopped getting as old”.
According to the article the August Hermann Franke School is an accredited but private Christian school. But that’s not where it ends. A public school is also – um – implicated.
In addition, at the public Liebig High School in Giessen there are public supporters of the biblical teachings. Biology teacher Wolfgang Meyer calls himself a ‘supporter of creationist theories.’ He feels it is important to teach pupils the background so they can learn that ‘the statements, to be found in school books, can definitely be questioned.’ [my emphisis]
The Spiegel article is nicely critical of the whole thing, no ‘two sides to every story’ here. And I can report one highlight. The links Spiegel has at the end of the article point to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the NSCE.
Now where’s Eugenie Scott when you need her? Oh, yeah. I remember, I put her up on a pedestal.
UPDATE: Spelled Ms Scotts name right and put up German warning.
Eclectics Anonymous 