Sweden Bans Creationism / ID

**Moridin** · Oct15-07, 05:11 PM

I'm from Sweden and I'd though that this would be interesting for the global community.

The Swedish government is to crack down on the role religion plays in independent faith schools. The new rules will include a ban on biology teachers teaching creationism or 'intelligent design' alongside evolution.

"Pupils must be protected from all forms of fundamentalism," said Education Minister Jan Björklund to Dagens Nyheter. [...] Björklund also said the Swedish National Agency for Education would double the number of inspections of both council-run and independent schools. He also announced a ban on anonymous financial donations to schools and said he would make it easier to close schools that were breaking the rules.

[...]

Björklund also said the Swedish National Agency for Education would double the number of inspections of both council-run and independent schools. He also announced a ban on anonymous financial donations to schools and said he would make it easier to close schools that were breaking the rules.

http://www.thelocal.se/8790/20071015/

Confessional education is getting banned

The education that is controlled by the curriculum should be non confessional. That message was given by school minister Jan Björklund at a press conference Monday.

By confessional, he means the education that aims to a confession or that puts forward a certain conviction of the true teaching. According to Dagens Nyheter, a biology teacher [in a religious free school] will not be allowed to present the biblical account of creation side-by-side with evolution

http://www.dagen.se/dagen/Article.aspx?ID=143564 (Swedish, but translated above)

Religious content shall be banned in schools. That's a decision made by the leaders of the Alliance, the four-party coalition that currently leads Sweden. They will also stop hidden contributions and a mismanaged school will be shut down within 2 weeks. "The pupils must be protected against all forms of fundamentalism" say Jan Björklund, the Swedish education minister.

[...]

Now it's crystal clear; this content will not be allowed. Some statements made by free-schools have given us a worrying picture, say Jan Björklund.

It will still be allowed to read morning prayer, but as soon as the real teachings begin, it must follow the same content that is taught by the other schools.

Problems in religious free schools has been discussed a lot the last few years. Minister of Immigration Nyamko Sabuni (fp) has wanted to ban religious free schools entirely, and as late as last month, the pary secretary of the Social Democrats Marita Ulvskog has called them 'child prisons'.

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1042&a=704437 (Swedish, but translated above)

Swedish Social Democrats [current opposition; actually larger than the ruling government according to recent polls] demands a quick end to religious schools. The Social Democrats demands that the current government quickly create a bill to change the law so that some religious schools can be stopped.

[The Social Democrats is the largest Swedish party and the most likely to win next election]

http://www.dagen.se/dagen/Article.aspx?ID=143546 (Swedish, but translated above)

It is all over the news.

**rewebster** · Oct15-07, 05:15 PM

that clears things up.....

Bush isn't a Swede

**Evo** · Oct15-07, 05:40 PM

Wow, imagine that, schools being required to actually teach real science.

**D H** · Oct15-07, 06:24 PM

No way that would fly here. Public schools, yes. However, I take this as mandating what is taught in private schools as well. That is a bit too intrusive for my tastes. BTW, I'm an agnostic, so I do not have any axe to grind here.

**Moridin** · Oct15-07, 06:29 PM

Independent faith schools in Sweden may be privately owned, but they are largely funded by the government. The country also has a national education standard that apply to all schools.

**Moonbear** · Oct15-07, 06:33 PM

Originally Posted by Moridin

The country also have a national education standard that apply to all schools.

I wish we had a similar standard here. I have no problem with religious schools teaching religious beliefs, but I have a problem with them handicapping their students by teaching them religious beliefs are science (or any other subject other than religion).

**Astronuc** · Oct15-07, 10:18 PM

Originally Posted by Moonbear

I wish we had a similar standard here. I have no problem with religious schools teaching religious beliefs, but I have a problem with them handicapping their students by teaching them religious beliefs are science (or any other subject other than religion).

I have no problem with comparative religion or teaching factual information about religious belief, just as we teach or study different political, sociological or economic systems, philosophies and practices.

I do have a problem of people teaching specific beliefs as being THE one and only true belief exclusive of other beliefs, and I do have a problem with mysticism or mythology taught as being the reality.

And in no way should religion be taught in the public classroom as an alternative to science.

**Hurkyl** · Oct15-07, 11:00 PM

Originally Posted by Moonbear

I have a problem with them handicapping their students by teaching them religious beliefs are science (or any other subject other than religion).

Agreed. But nor should religion be excised from a Science class, or any other class. A religous person has additional educational needs; for example, a political science course in a religious school ought to address the religious issues in civic participation. And if their dogma leads them to significantly different a priori beliefs on some topics, a science class should (properly!) discuss where and how Bayesian inference would lead them to different conclusions than the mainstream.

EL · Oct16-07, 07:17 PM

PZ Myers "Needs more Swedes":
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2...ore_swedes.php

More comments on Panda'sThumb:
http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2007...-bans-bio.html

Sweden’s centre-right coalition government said in a statement it had agreed to clarify regulations to remove any leeway for religious views to influence the curriculum. “This is naturally brought about by the fact that different viewpoints are being discussed, for instance about the creation of the world - one based on science and one on religious views,” Education Minister Jan Bjorklund told a news conference. “Teaching in school must have a scientific basis.” The Council of Europe this month voted to urge European schools to strongly oppose teaching creationism and intelligent design in science classes, saying attacks on the theory of evolution were rooted in religious extremism. Creationism argues God made the world in six days as set out in the Bible while proponents of intelligent design say some life forms are too complex to have evolved without the aid of a higher intelligence. While most schools in Sweden are run by municipalities, a minority are run by various religious groups. Bjorklund said the government, of which the Christian Democrats are a junior member, would restructure supervision of Sweden’s schools and double funding for inspections to about 300 million Swedish crowns (NZ$61.1 million).

**Gokul43201** · Oct16-07, 08:19 PM

Originally Posted by D H

No way that would fly here. Public schools, yes. However, I take this as mandating what is taught in private schools as well. That is a bit too intrusive for my tastes.

Not for mine. I see little difference between preaching religious dogma to children and raising them on a daily dose of crack cocaine - both cause long-term damage to the brain.

**Gokul43201** · Oct16-07, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by Hurkyl

Agreed. But nor should religion be excised from a Science class, or any other class. A religous person has additional educational needs; for example, a political science course in a religious school ought to address the religious issues in civic participation. And if their dogma leads them to significantly different a priori beliefs on some topics, a science class should (properly!) discuss where and how Bayesian inference would lead them to different conclusions than the mainstream.

The difficulty here is the wide variety of religious axioms that you'd have to separately cover. The Young Earth Creationist, the Scientologist, the Mormon...will all need different arguments.

**Ivan Seeking** · Oct16-07, 08:40 PM

Originally Posted by Gokul43201

Not for mine. I see little difference between preaching religious dogma to children and raising them on a daily dose of crack cocaine - both cause long-term damage to the brain.

Then you clearly know very little about crack cocaine.

**Gokul43201** · Oct16-07, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by Ivan Seeking

Then you clearly know very little about crack cocaine.

Okay, I was being a little facetious. But only a little.

Would it make you happier if I replaced the crack cocaine with a heavy knock on the head?

**Ivan Seeking** · Oct16-07, 08:54 PM

Originally Posted by Gokul43201

Okay, I was being a little facetious. But only a little.

Would it make you happier if I replaced the crack cocaine with a heavy knock on the head?

Many of the goups out there are terrifying; even speaking as someone who attended a Catholic school and has been very religious. But, yes, having watched people go down on drugs, I found that statement pretty offensive [philosphically speaking].

We had one hour of religion each day and the rest was spent doing the basics. We also got a better education [including science and math] than did most kids in the public schools, which is primarily why my parents scrimped and scraped to send us there [there were no tax credits back then]. All in all I would have to say that it was a positive experience.

Evolution was taught without equivocation.

**Gokul43201** · Oct16-07, 09:01 PM

Having seen young, pliable minds (incredibly wonderful things, IMO) being destroyed by indoctrination, I find any downplaying of such "murder" pretty offensive.

**ZapperZ** · Oct16-07, 09:10 PM

As far as I know, the catholic schools here in the Chicago Archdioceses do not teach creationism/ID in their biology classes.

And while this is not strictly on-topic, in case anyone missed this, you might want to read this preprint that appeared today on ArXiv (actually, it appeared late last night). It reports on a class for science educators on the consideration of whether ID is a science or not. However, that isn't the important aspect, because once everyone understood what "science" is and what ID is, everyone was unanimous in proclaiming that ID isn't a science. What is more important and disturbing is that a small percentage of the participant still, even after acknowledging that ID isn't a science, that it still should be taught in a science class as an "alternative"!

As the report indicated, it is difficult to reconcile with this inconsistency.

Zz.