Créationnisme : l’Angleterre bannit son enseignement dans les écoles gratuites et les académies

La semaine dernière, le gouvernement britannique a banni l’enseignement du créationnisme des écoles gratuites et des académies du pays. La raison : le créationnisme ne peut être enseigné comme théorie scientifique valide. Cette décision marque la victoire de militants pour la laïcité qui s’opposaient à ce que des notions religieuses soient diffusées dans des cours de sciences. Le 9 juin dernier, le gouvernement a diffusé des documents où le sens du concept de créationnisme est clarifié et où il est affirmé que seule une minorité de l’Église d’Angleterre et de l’Église catholique adopte se point de vue critiqué. Les écoles ou les académies confessionnelles doivent se conformer aux normes britanniques et elles devront justifier la présence du créationnisme dans leur cursus.

Voici les nouvelles clauses destinées aux académies religieuses (church academies) – en anglais :

Clauses 2.43 and 2.44 of the funding agreement… explicitly require that pupils are taught about the theory of evolution, and prevent academy trusts from teaching ‘creationism’ as scientific fact.

‘Creationism’, for the purposes of clauses 2.43 and 2.44 of the funding agreement and clause 23E above, is any doctrine or theory which holds that natural biological processes cannot account for the history, diversity, and complexity of life on earth and therefore rejects the scientific theory of evolution. The parties acknowledge that creationism, in this sense, is rejected by most mainstream churches and religious traditions, including the major providers of state funded schools such as the [Anglican] [Catholic] Churches, as well as the scientific community. It does not accord with the scientific consensus or the very large body of established scientific evidence; nor does it accurately and consistently employ the scientific method, and as such it should not be presented to pupils at the Academy as a scientific theory.

The parties recognise that the teaching of creationism is not part of prevailing practice in the English education system, but acknowledge that it is however important that all schools are clear about what is expected in terms of the curriculum which they need to provide. The parties further recognise that the requirement on every academy and free school to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, in any case prevents the teaching of creationism as evidence based theory in any academy or free school.

The secretary of state acknowledges that clauses 2.43 and 2.44 of the Funding Agreement, and clauses 23E and 23G above do not prevent discussion of beliefs about the origins of the Earth and living things, such as creationism, in Religious Education, as long as it is not presented as a valid alternative to established scientific theory.

La Création d’Adam par Michel-Ange

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