COUNCILS should ban the teaching of creationism as a science in Scottish schools, according to a group of secular activists.
The Scottish Secular Society said the Scottish Government should provide clear guidance on how religious theories about the origins of life are taught. The move comes after public concern over a recent incident in a Scottish school.
Children at a primary school in South Lanarkshire were given books donated by the Church of Christ. The books debunked evolution and advocated the Church of Christ's belief that earth is a few thousand years old. Illustrations showed humans and dinosaurs living alongside each other.
After protests from parents, the council launched an investigation. The headteacher and her deputy were moved to other duties in the education department.
The Scottish Secular Society said it had no problem with students understanding not everyone accepted the theory of evolution.
But it said the only place for creationism and intelligent design in Scottish schools was "within a discussion context in religious and moral education classes".
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "It is for a headteacher to decide, in full consultation with the local authority, what links a school should have with its local faith communities."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article