Religious organisations penetrating Scottish schools in order to teach creationism is a problem that can no longer be ignored, according to the Scottish Secular Society (SSS).
MSPs on Holyrood's Public Petitions Committee heard that some religious groups are waging a "campaign of disinformation" in the classroom.
Members of the SSS were giving evidence on their petition, which calls on Education Secretary Mike Russell to issue guidance to publicly-funded schools and colleges to "prevent the teaching of creationism and related doctrines as viable alternatives to established science".
Creationism is the belief that the universe and living beings originate from acts of divine creation.
SSS chair Spencer Fildes highlighted the outcry over the involvement of the US-based religious group Church of Christ at Kirktonholme Primary School in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, last year, saying the material distributed to pupils there "beggars belief". He told MSPs: "Other creationist organisations also distribute materials or actually offer speakers to schools."
Mr Fildes said his organisation had evidence of examples at schools in Clackmannanshire and Falkirk as well as South Lanarkshire.
Independent MSP John Wilson said: "I think there needs to be a clear steer given to teaching staff about what is permissible to be taught within the lessons."
The committee agreed by majority to write to the Scottish Government and educational institutions for their views on the matter.
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