Professor Richard Dawkins, author of (among other things) The God Delusion, has laid into the British education system for allowing creationism to be taught in schools. His anger is also directed at Muslims in Britain, who, he says, are adding to the problem.
His views are made known in today's Daily Telegraph, where he says, "Most devout Muslims are creationists, so, when you go to schools, there are a large number of children of Islamic parents who trot out what they have been taught."
Dawkins, professor for the public understanding of science at Oxford University, says teachers are "bending over backwards" to accommodate these prejudices; the government could do more, but it isn't doing so. It is "fanatical about multiculturalism and the need to respect the different traditions from which these children come".
Science teaching is under threat because the government accepts that theories such as "intelligent design" can be discussed "in the context of being one of a range of views". Teachers are scared of being thought racist, he says.
It's come to something when Dawkins feels he has to make these points. We have an education system that is supposed to educate, and give the best theories that are to hand so far on such subjects as the creation of the universe. And, because teachers (like so many other bodies) wish to kowtow to Muslims, whether because of this silly racism thing (Islam is a religion, not a race) or because they want to seem politically correct, we get our kids being taught creationism (whether the long or short variety).
Islam, along with some types of Christian fundamentalism, is backward-thinking and we have a supine government that allows lies to be taught as facts in a Western country in the twenty-first century. It beggars belief. Or, rather, it buggers belief in anything that's sensible.
