an update on dr reiss & his ‘creationism’ comments

I see today that Dr Reiss has resigned from his position as director of education at the UK’s Royal Society, following the furore over his reported comments on the approach teachers should take to creationism. Having read the original report in the Guardian, and listened to the audio clip of his interview, I have to say that I’m a bit ambivalent over this news. I know that some see the resignation as a victory for truth (or at least, scientific accuracy) – but at the same time, you could say that the worst he was guilty of was a rather sloppy use of words, perhaps reflecting what’s been called an ‘accommodationist’ approach that seeks to avoid offending what you might term the ‘moderate creationists’. I said earlier, & still feel, that we don’t tread too carefully around other misconceptions & non-scientific worldviews, so why should this particular issue be any different? But having said that, Dr Reiss issued a statement of clarification, and the RS did likewise, so was the resignation really necessary? (You can guarantee that in some circles it will be used as an example of how the evolutionary ‘establishment’ won’t tolerate dissent from the party line – a rare case, perhaps, of this attitude having a small grain of truth at the core of its rhetoric.)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *