More 'creationist' schools revealed

Fundamentalism » State-funded Christian, Muslim and Jewish schools are disputing the theory of evolution

Children in at least 10 schools in Britain are learning creationism, the literal, biblical explanation of how the world was made by God in seven days.

Last week scientists, humanists, philosophers and church liberals joined forces to denounce the Emmanuel City Technology College in Gateshead. The school, which is backed by evangelical Christians and funding from one of Britain's millionaire car dealers, Sir Peter Vardy, has presented creationist theories to children as part of their science lessons.

Headteacher Nigel McQuoid says that Emmanuel offers a variety of views, including the Biblical one, and the pupils are free to make up their own minds. He argues that committed Darwinism is as much a religious stand as a fundamentalist Christian one. Ultimately, he says, both creationism and evolution are "faith positions".

Ibrahim Hewitt, of the Association of Muslim Schools, said that his members' schools, including six state-funded ones, taught children about Darwin, because they had to, but they also taught a different, Koranic view.

The state-funded Seventh Day Adventist school, John Loughborough in north London, takes a similar, biblical, line, in apparent conflict with the National Curriculum. And so do the high-performing Hasmonean High Schools for girls and boys, which educate more than 1000 strict Orthodox jews in north London.

Last week, Rabbi Mordechai Fachler, director of Jewish Studies at the boys' school, made it clear that he would prefer Darwin to be dropped from the national curriculum.

Meanwhile the group behind Emmanuel College is planning a sister school in Middlesbrough, and the Association of Muslim Schools believes it has won government backing for another Islamic state school in Balham, south London.

Yesterday Dr Peter Vardy, religious philosopher and vice-principal of Heythrop College in London – who happens to share a name with the principal backer of Emmanuel, Sir Peter Vardy – said that state funding for faith schools which teach creationism should not be available unless they are prepared to encourage pupils to question what they are taught.

"I'm more worried about some of the schools such as the ones run by Muslims and Orthodox Jews where the idea of an open-minded search for the truth isn't tolerated," said Dr Vardy. "A condition of state funding should be an opened-minded education which involves taking GCSEs and A-levels."

Scientists including geneticist Professor Steven Jones from University College, London, and Oxford's Professor Richard Dawkins, who is against organised religion, have asked Ofsted to reinspect Emmanuel College.

Scientists and philosophers have signed a petition drawn up by the British Humanist Association which calls for the National Curriculum to be re-written to prevent creationism being taught as a straight alternative to evolution.

The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev Richard Harries used Friday's Thought for the Day slot on Radio 4 to say that biblical literalism "brings not only the Bible but Christianity itself into disrepute".

The National Secular Society warned: "Mr Blair's enthusiams for faith schools will give the green light to every crackpot religious group to start peddling their own mad fantasies in schools that are paid for by the taxpayer."

Britain still has a long way to go before it succumbs to the fundamentalist fervour of America. The Rev Canon Dr Martin Percey, director of the Lincoln Theological Institute who has made a special study of the subject said there is no comparison: "There isn't a proper fundamentalist tradition in the mainstream of Britain in the way you could find in the American South."

In southern USA the debate has moved beyond the simple Bible vs Science match. Now the question is whether evolution is a random, brutal, amoral phenomenon, or a process guided by the unseen hand of God, often known as "intelligent design".