Aust: Intelligent Design infiltrates science class

Intelligent Design infiltrating science classes in the Hunter Valley

Greens NSW Education spokesperson John Kaye today released figures showing that 2,800 private school students in Newcastle and the Hunter valley are at risk of being taught Intelligent Design as science. He called on federal and state education ministers to withhold public funding until these schools agreed to quarantine science teaching from religious dogma.

Dr Kaye said: "At least ten fundamentalist Christian and Seventh Day Adventist schools in the Hunter belong to organisations that encourage the teaching of the Intelligent Design myth as science.

"Both State and Federal Ministers have washed their hands of the matter. They continue to pour public funds into these schools despite the damage being done to the students and to Australia's future.

"The State government provides these Hunter schools with more than $4.9 million each year. Annual Commonwealth funding exceeds $9.3 million. The public will end up paying for the promotion of this new form of Creationism.

"Isolating these students from scientific reality will have appalling consequences. They will leave school confused about the difference between a personal belief and a scientific theory.

"They are at risk of becoming unemployable in many important areas of the economy where scientific method is essential.

"It will also have dangerous implications for a society that is facing major economic, social and environmental challenges.

"Australia needs a citizenry that can deal with the complexities of science, not one that would allow assertion and personal belief to substitute for scientific method," Dr Kaye said.