Peter Henderson
Posts: 298 Joined: Aug. 2007
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Quote | I have got to know a couple recently moved here from Belfast. ( The husband remembers Prof. Nevin from his days at Queens). I had naively assumed my English experience of a gently fading religious aspect would be the same in NI. |
Church attendance is still fairly high in the province Alan. However, there are a wide range of views, even though the Fundamentalists often shout the loudest. The fact that all the evangelical denominations are YEC is not that dissimilar from the situation in the rest of the UK. It's just that there are less people in England Scotland and Wales that attend these denominations. For example, if you read Ham's blog on his visit to Scotland it seems that things didn't go as well as he had hoped. 300 people in a city 3 times the size of Belfast is a dissapointing turnout for such a major figure in the world of young Earth creationism. He was also complaining that people weren't buying his DVDs/books etc. blaming this on the cost of living in the UK. Nonsense in my opinion.
Quote | Have any schools started to use the "Truth in Science" packs? Maybe there is mileage in a legal challenge, if so. |
Apparently there are several schools here where the pupils (seriously !) have asked for ID to be taught as science as an alternative to evolution : http://www.calebfoundation.org/page6.htm
Quote | Cases of persecution of students who openly espouse Creationist views by teachers have been reported to the Council. One sixth-form female student, studying for GCSE’s in a School in Craigavon was bold enough to speak out in class, and to testify that she believed in a Divine Creator, who made the world. The girl, then 15, was openly mocked by the teacher, and afterwards subjected to weeks of open ridicule in class. The girl’s parents complained to the Head Teacher, and threatened to instigate a disciplinary action, whereupon the teacher was forced to apologise, and to back down. How often does this happen, and we don’t hear about it?
Together we can make a stand against anti-Creationist bigotry in our schools, and force CCEA to treat us with equity. |
David McConaghie, who often appears on Sunday Sequence along with McIntosh, is aggresivly anti-science. A couple of years ago Ronald Numbers along with a leading UK biologist, attempted to debate the pair. They were both "shouted down", so to speak, such was the nature of McConaghie and McIntosh's debating skills. Numbers was speaking at QUB at the time so I'm sorry I missed his visit.
On a slightly different note, my brother has a fairly senior position in the Department of education here. Although he attends a large Baptist church, he tells me the pastor has never mentioned creation (the church did advertise Ham's visit on their website though) . He is not a YEC, and would hold a similar position to myself (TE). He tells me that he's aware of ID and the parliamentary questions tabled in the House of Commons. I've tried to encourage him to watch Ken Miller's talk on Youtube (still available), which gives an excellent insight into the Dover case.
George: am I right in thinking that modern creationism (YEC's) began with the Seventh Day Adeventists and in particular Ellen G. White ? I think prior to George McCready Price and the Scopes trial, many Evangelicals were OEC's. You may be correct about the Ulster Scots connection though. The Andrew Jackson homestead is just a few miles down the road from here, near the village of Eden !.
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