There's a story in the Grauniad to day about the prevalence of Young Earth Creationism amongst undergraduates (link, via Stephen Law).

Such views are less unusual among UK students than you might think. In a survey last month, more than 12% questioned preferred creationism - the idea God created us within the past 10,000 years - to any other explanation of how we got here. Another 19% favoured the theory of intelligent design - that some features of living things are due to a supernatural being such as God. This means more than 30% believe our origins have more to do with God than with Darwin - evolution theory rang true for only 56%.

Whilst this is worrisome in itself (though you're entitled to have whatever views of the origin of the Universe you may want to have), it's not that big a deal. What is a big deal, though, is this:

In the Opinionpanel survey, nearly 20% said they had been taught creationism as fact by their main school. Most thought it would be best to teach a range of theories, but nearly 30% of those who supported creationism felt that pupils should learn about creationism alone.

That creationism is being taught as fact in school is utterly, utterly ludicrous. As Stephen says in his blog post:

Shouldn't checking up on this - and doing something about it - now be priority for the Government and for OFSTED? For as I said elsewhere, teaching children that Young Earth Creationism is supported by the available empirical evidence involves teaching them to think in way that are, quite literally, close to lunacy.

Oddly enough, I was thumbing through a book of quotations earlier and came across the following apt remark, written on a student paper by Wolfgang Pauli:

[That theory]'s not right. It's not even wrong.

The key here is the "not even wrong" bit. If is not possible for a theory cannot be proved false then it is not a valid scientific theory and can never be held to be true. Creationism falls into exactly that category.

Back from Lexington; tired, grumpy, ready to eat brains (though I might have to have diet brains because, as always seems to be when I go away for work - and especially to Americky - I've put weight on again). More on that another time, perhaps.

But I just wanted to say that the Bishop of Lancaster is a fool. Education is bad, apparently:

Bishop O'Donoghue, who has recently published a report on how to renew Catholicism in Britain, argued that mass education has led to "sickness in the Church and wider society".

"What we have witnessed in Western societies since the end of the Second World War is the development of mass education on a scale unprecedented in human history - resulting in economic growth, scientific and technological advances, and the cultural and social enrichment of billions of people's lives," he said.

"However, every human endeavor has a dark side, due to original sin and concupiscence. In the case of education, we can see its distortion through the widespread dissemination of radical scepticism, positivism, utilitarianism and relativism.

From BBC News:

A prayer group in Washington DC is claiming the credit for the recent sharp drop in the US price of petrol.

Rocky Twyman, 59, a veteran community campaigner, started Pray At The Pump meetings at petrol stations in April.

So, market forces anyone? Well...

Mr Twyman is sceptical that market forces might be responsible for the lower prices.

But there is an upside to this silliness:

But he and his prayer warriors have changed their motoring habits.

"We believe not just in prayer - because we believe that faith without works is dead. So we've encouraged people to car-pool more and organise their days more, because it's a combination of faith with these other factors."

I just wish we could get the second part of this without people saying "but we need God to sort things out for us."

Well, it doesn't entirely surprise me that someone lumps us atheists into that category, but still. Birmingham City Council has put in place software that blocks people from looking at atheist websites whilst allowing some other belief systems through (link, via Pharyngula:

The authority's Bluecoat Software computer system allows staff to look at websites relating to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and other religions but blocks sites to do with "witchcraft or Satanism" and "occult practices, atheistic views, voodoo rituals or any other form of mysticism".

The irony of atheism being categorised with mysticisms of any kind nonwithstanding, this is plain, old fashioned discrimination, which I hope will be dealt with in due course:

National Secular Society president Terry Sanderson said the city council's rules also discriminated against people who practise witchcraft, which is also classed as a legitimate belief.

He said the society would initially contact the council and ask for the policy to be changed, and otherwise pursue legal action.

Graham Binns posted a photo:

Three hundred and sixty-odd days of 2008, day 208

I'm not dead.

This is Norwich Cathedral, taken on a shockingly sunny Sunday with my new Nikon D300 (woot).

And yes, I will fill in all of days 190-207, once I have the time.