Comments on: Petition: Withdraw support for creationist zoo in schools

By: nullifidian

nullifidian — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:48:14 +0000

Oh, yes, they're certainly creationists. Which other zoo do you know has materials not just for science classes but for RE classes?

By: nullifidian

nullifidian — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:11:37 +0000

I'm going to disagree with you somewhat, for two reasons:

1) I've often heard tell of non-adults (i.e. kids) actually becoming more sceptical in their outlook when they've been exposed to certain unevidenced ideas (Santa, the tooth fairy, etc.) I can't cite anything of the top of my head, but I do remember reading an argument about this somewhere (it was a surprise to me as I changed my mind from having quite a strict "tell kids only the truth" attitude); and

2) some adults who act on their unevidenced beliefs (be it religion, CAM, whatever) I could not bring myself to consider "responsible", especially (as you point out) when it comes to telling kids stuff.

I think I see where you're coming from here, but I'd prefer to keep my wording.

With 1 above, I want to clarify that I don't think asserting or confirming batshit insanity to kids is a good idea, but being ambiguous (possibly in an evasive non-committal or answer-a-question-with-a-question way) might be a better way of allowing them to come to their own conclusions.

By: PaulSJenkins

PaulSJenkins — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:10:05 +0000

I too was initially hesitant about this petition, but the zoo's website clearly shows that it's aiming at kids (mentioning stuff specifically targeted to the National Curriculum). There's also blatantly creationist stuff on view at the website, and I don't trust them not to try infiltrating this into the materials they use at the zoo.

By: Peter Magellan

Peter Magellan — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:48:28 +0000

"On one hand, I feel people should be able to believe any bat-shit insane proposition they like."

Personally, I'd modify that slightly: *Responsible adults* should be able to believe any bat-shit insane proposition they like. They shouldn't be able to impress batshit insane propositions onto impressionable young minds. So I'd sign it for both reasons – though I agree that it's badly worded.

Thanks for the heads-up.