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Chris not Christians
By Steven | February 19, 2009
I’m not a Christian. I think the Biblical creation story is daft. I don’t think it should be taught in schools. But I do think that when a serious radio programme debates the issue “Should creation be taught in schools?” the station should at least find someone who thinks it should to include in the discussion.
Chris Laidlaw’s “Sunday Group” slot last weekend took up this question. Chris posed the issue as:
should creation stories be taught as part of the science curriculum or any other part of the curriculum in New Zealand schools?
Laidlaw described creationists as “those who believe in a literal six-day creation of the earth, as described in Genesis”. Nope. The essence of creationists is that they think God created the earth. Some allow a bit of literary wiggle room with the 6-day thing. But heck, let’s lump them all in the extreme basket.
Laidlaw then said creationists were “battling to have evolution removed from the curriculum and to have the creation story taught in schools”. Not so much. The more sensible ones are simply arguing that creation should be taught as a theory alongside evolution. That almost starts to sound reasonable, so we’d better not mention that.
So, how many of Laidlaw’s three guests argued for creationism to be taught in schools? Not one. All of them, it seems, agreed with Chris’s position. (At one point he asks: “Why is it so hard to persuade so many people that evolution is utterly logical?”)
He’d got guests, it seems, from a recent conference in Christchurch on biological education celebrating Charles Darwin. They were certainly qualified to talk about the issue, and said some interesting things. But it was no real debate about the issue. As I understand it, creationists have some good points about holes in the theory of evolution. We didn’t hear about that. They have some arguments to support their concept of intelligent design. We didn’t hear any sympathetic treatment about that either. They presumably have a view that what they argue is sensible and well-motivated. Laidlaw was reduced to asking his guests about the motivations of the creationists. The guests were polite, but not surprisingly thought the creationists were confused and misguided. Those guests’ views would have been much more interesting and vigorous had they been contrasted with someone speaking thoughtfully for the creationists.
Oh, and having a creationist in the discussion would also have complied with the balance standard in the broadcasting code of practice. I think this programme was in breach. No matter how the BSA twists things to avoid balance in talkback, it seems hard to escape the conclusion that the Sunday Group was a discussion of a “controversial issue of public importance”, and an obvious “significant view” was lacking. Listeners surely did think they were going to get a discussion not a venting of one-sided opinion.
The broadcaster might argue that it was merely supplying “background information” that casts light on the issue, as in this case, which involved a RNZ programme called “Outspoken” about the foreshore and seabed issue that lined up speakers from one side only. I think that case was wrongly decided – another part of the BSA’s trend toward whittling away the balance standard. But even if you think they got it right there, it’s hard to conclude that Laidlaw’s show was merely providing factual background, or historical, legal and factual context.
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