I’m just curious if the theory we’ve become so fond of in the US, Intelligent design, has been debated at all by political/scientific groups abroad, which is to say is there any signficant support ANYWHERE outside of the US? I listened to an interview with Richard Dawkins where he said that there were a couple of wealthy “fools” in Britain that ran schools and were trying to teach intelligent design, but that’s all I’ve ever heard.
I’m living in Paris right now, and I’ve never heard anything about intelligent design. Then again, French people are just a bunch of faithless depressives right?
There is a very small, but fairly vociferous Creationist/ID movement in the UK; it may even be growing in size, but nobody takes it particularly seriously.
I think the ‘Intelligent Design’ angle is only really significant in the USA because there is much more a constitutional issue about a division between state and religion. ID is simply a deception that tries to pretend it’s a science and not about religion, so that it can be taught in schools. It’s this that causes all the fuss and debate in America.
On the other hand, creationist in most other countries don’t have to be so sneaky. They’re quite straight up about it being a religious position. I much prefer them that way, at least it’s honest.
In the UK the £10 note features the face of Charles Darwin. I have never heard of any controversy around this. I would have expected there to be a fuss if enough people were concerned about it.
Is there a creation story in the Qur’an? And if so, is it legal to teach evolution in countries like Iran?
AFAIK, Iran itself was pretty much forward-facing and educationally progressive up until the Shah’s ouster in the late 70s. Seems it would be hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube.
Had he been an American, it would be interesting to see what would happen if we tried to have him put on our $10 bill. But then, you have to be a president to get on paper currency in the US, so maybe there would be an easy way to quash it.
I seem to recall there was a tiny little bit of fuss, but the English way is usually to complain to each other about how awful things are, then do nothing.
There’s a small yet vocal group who stands outside of the university library in Edinburgh who are seemingly anti-evolutionists. They’re rarely taken on, even by the majority of members of the Christian Union and other religious societies.
I’ve also seen a few British posters on another messageboard espouse anti-evolutionary ideas, but they’re quickly smacked down by the members who are biologists etc.
I would think that the places where you’d find it would not be on the simple-minded soundbite level (where the debate takes place in America as a consequence of political stakes) but rather philosophical discussions of “intention” and whether & how it exists or can exist anywhere if the overall “universe” phenomenon neither possesses nor is precipitated by intent. That kind of thing.
Actually, it often seems that a lot of the discussion about anything in the US tends to take place on a babytalk level
In Germany, not in any mainstream way. My impression is that advocacy of ID (né creationism) in the US is a device to get religion into public schools. In Germany that’s not necessary - Christianity enters school by the front door (religion class), so it does not need to sneak in by the back door (science class).
I don’t think this is a fair characterization. Correct me if I’m wrong, but as I understand it, the key claim of Intelligent Design is that there are certain things in nature that are so complex or “designed-looking” that they could not have just evolved randomly: they had to have been planned by an Intelligent Designer. Unlike (other forms of) creationism, ID doesn’t appeal to scriptures or other religious sources and need not be motivated by a prior belief in God—just by the supposed inability of the theory of evolution to explain Life, the Universe, and Everything without the help of an outside Guiding Force. And this is a claim that science can, at least to some extent, address.
There are ID proponements in the UK - the schools mentioned are"Academies"… state-instituted but privately-run by individuals such as Reg Vardy…
The debate is slowly increasing over here, and ID is increasingly under debate in evangelican christian circles.
I did read an article last week with an ID supporter who was quite certain that his views did not mean the judeo-christian God was “designer” - he accepted that it could be the Flying Spaghetti Monster or any other type of being.
But then, you have to be a president to get on paper currency in the US, so maybe there would be an easy way to quash it.