Creationism vote canceled by Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly
On Monday Europe’s main human rights body canceled a scheduled vote on banning creationist and intelligent design views from school science classes, saying the proposed resolution was one-sided.
The proposed resolution said the Council of Europe’s 47 member states should “firmly oppose the teaching of creationism as a scientific discipline on an equal footing with the theory of evolution by natural selection“.
The resolution, which the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly was due to vote on Tuesday, said attacks on the theory of evolution were rooted “in forms of religious extremism” and amounted to a dangerous attack on scientific knowledge.
Some conservative groups in the United States, both religious and secular, have long opposed the teaching of Darwinian evolution in public schools but U.S. courts have regularly barred them from teaching religious views of creation.
Pressure to teach creationism is weaker in Europe, but an Assembly committee got active because a Muslim creationist book has appeared in several countries.
The resolution would not have been binding on member states. Source
Creationism makes a comeback in U.S.
Meanwhile, on Monday in America, three of the Republican presidential candidates do not believe in evolution, high-tech creation museum opened in Kentucky and controversy has been fueled by a book claiming the Grand Canyon, one of America’s most well-known landmarks, was carved by Noah’s flood rather than by erosion.
Grand Canyon: A Different View is compiled by Tom Vail, who has been guiding rafting trips down the Colorado River for 25 years and became a Christian convert a decade ago. His a full colour coffee-table book, features expensive paper, sophisticated layout, spectacular photos, lots of quotes from the Old Testament and scientific language.
The American Geological Institute and other groups have demanded the book be removed from the national park.
