THE latest move to provide teachers with advice on how to deal with creationism is misguided. Councillor Anna McNair Scott, chairman of the county's Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education admits that creationism is not science yet SACRE feel the need for open discussion about it within science.

They are also providing support to Intelligent Design Creationism which purports to be a science. For any science to be recognised it should have a body of evidence that is accepted by the scientific community. Evolution is just such an explanation. Intelligent Design has no published peer reviewed research and one by one its central arguments, e.g. that some things are so complex they could not have arisen without a designer, are refuted by science.

There also seems to be a misunderstanding about evolution in the advice. Evolution is not about the origin of life, it is about the development and diversity of life on Earth.

If we are to introduce non science into science on an equal basis then I move for lessons in astrology, complementary medicine and colour therapy. Why also is it just a Christian perspective that is being looked at? Why not the Native American Iroquois story of the sky spirits or the Aborigine creation myth of the Sun Mother? I envisage other religious groups now vying for time in the science curriculum to present their creation myths and stories.

One thing is clear, if and when creationism is brought up in the science classroom, as it surely will be, then teachers need to respond. The response is quite simple. Creationism is a matter of faith and belief and neither of these require evidence. Science is about the acceptance of evidence and evolution has so much evidence in its favour that to not teach it as accepted scientific fact would be perverse, just as perverse as teaching that gravity is just a theory and hasn’t been proven.

There is currently more than adequate provision for the discussion of myths and stories related to creation, science is not the place for such discussion. To advise that it is provides them with a false authority.

James D. Williams, Lecturer in Science Education, Sussex School of Education, University of Sussex.