Serbia wises up

Posted 9 September 2004 by PZ Myers

↗ The current version of this post is on the live site: https://pandasthumb.org/archives/2004/09/serbia-wises-up.html

Good news! Serbia has retracted their retraction of evolution from their schools.

The Serbian government has reversed an order to ban Charles Darwin's theory of evolution from schools, following widespread criticism from scientists.
"I have come here to confirm Charles Darwin is still alive," said deputy education minister Milan Brdar.
His boss, Ljiljana Colic, who had announced the controversial policy, had gone "away on business", he said.

I sincerely hope "away on business" is not a euphemism for anything harsher, but this is excellent news for the schoolkids of Serbia.

10 Comments

Reed A. Cartwright · 9 September 2004

Damn, that was quick.

Too bad politicians in America tend to hold on to their bad ideas about education.

Great White Wonder · 9 September 2004

I wonder what kind of "mark" Ljiljana left on her way out the door.

Steve · 9 September 2004

We apologise again for the fault in the schools. Those responsible for sacking Darwin, have just been sacked.

Signed RICHARD M. NIXON

RBH · 9 September 2004

Someone on II had the perfect comment, regretting Serbia's retraction of the policy on the grounds that it would have given US creationists a place to move where education takes creationism seriously.

RBH

David Heddle · 10 September 2004

I agree it's good news. There is no better way for students to see the foolishness of evolution than for students to see the foolishness of evolution.

Alan Gourant · 10 September 2004

There is no better way to see the foolishness of David Heddle than for everybody to see the foolishness of David Heddle.

Les Lane · 14 September 2004

AIG's perspective on the Balkans

Great White Wonder · 14 September 2004

It appears that Serbia's education minister misjudged the level of intensive international scheming to undermine any effort to allow students to hear alternative views on origins. Unfortunately, her strategy also appeared to be a bit misguided. While students should be free to hear other views, it would be counterproductive to force hostile, pro-evolutionary teachers to teach the creation alternative that gives credit to God. Instead of relying primarily on the arm of government and secular schools, concerned citizens need to know that the most effective way to 'turn the world upside down,' according to the example of the New Testament Christians, is to boldly proclaim the authority of God's Word and to give solid answers that explain the hope of the gospel.

Ignoring for the moment the unfounded charge that the science teachers in Serbia's public schools are "hostile" to Christianity, the last quoted paragraph seems at odds with the Discovery Institute's plan for spreading the gospel of ID. Interesting. Oh, and it also begs the question as to why forcing teachers to teach creationism is "counterproductive" when it comes to "turning the world upside down," but "boldly claiming the authority of God's Word" is not. To date, neither approach appears to have been a particularly successful method of convincing intelligent people that evolutionary biology is a great big fraud.

G3 · 14 September 2004

Hey, how's everyone been? I've not checked in for a while - got busy at work. Anyways, totally off topic, but I don't know how to submit article to P.T. I was wondering if some of you educators who are perhaps involved in writing high school biology texts (or know those who are), could incorporate the following into a high school biology text as a lab assignment : click for article. This would be really great for showing students how evolution can lead from unicellular to multicellular organisms due to predation.

My apologies for the off topic post. I am not a biologist, but if anyone wants to pursue making this part of the high school curriculum, I can help with funding, proofreading, or other.

Also, if anyone who is actually a biologist would like to figure out how to make this experiment repeatable (at least most of the time), and economical for high schools to use, I would be glad to help in any way I can.

-G3

A. Clausen · 22 September 2004

Sigh, I wonder where in AIG's soon-to-be-released (I'm sure) ID curriculum will the section on "man's rebellious heart" be found.