Bells may be tolling for religion in the classroom

IN 2005, a man wrote a letter to the Kansas State School Board. The Kansas Board were considering whether to allow the teaching of ‘Intelligent Design’ (the idea that the Universe has a ‘designer’ i.e. God) alongside the teaching of evolution.

Bobby Henderson argued to the board that if they were to teach one idea which competes with evolution — the one favoured by conservative, Bible-belt Christians — then they should teach them all. Henderson maintained that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster, that he was part of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (they have a website, they call themselves Pastafarians), and that his belief should also be taught to school kids. (He also provided an intriguing graph that showed a correlation between the rise of global warming and the demise of pirates; but that’s another story.)

Kansas decided to teach Intelligent Design without endorsing it, a fudge which attempted to keep both Christians and Scientists happy and only served to enrage both. Henderson’s imaginative interjection was ignored, and so too was the serious point behind it: that in a multi-faith society, where what binds people together should be the rule of law and a set of agreed societal ideals, to favour one religious belief over another is wrong. You either teach the creation theories of every religion, or none of them.