Topic: The Mutating Mars Hoax

[Clive]

For the seventh year in a row, the Mars Hoax is infecting email boxes around the world. Passed from one reader to another, the message states that on August 27th Mars will approach Earth and swell to the size of a full Moon. "NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN," the email declares--always in caps.

FULL STORY

[Simon]

Thanks for the warning, Clive. 

[sam]

I just don't understand how people believe this, then again I think the level of teaching in science makes this easily believable especially when there is some hype about it.

[GillE]

If you saw how science is taught in faith schools, Sam,  you'd understand exactly how people can believe such things.  Richard Dawkins broadcast a programme called Faith Schools Menace a couple of weeks ago, which I've recorded.  Some of his interviews with pupils and teachers would make you think we were still living in the mid 18th century.

[sam]

well I have seen how teaching in schools works, and I agree though I'd say its not from lack of scientific knowledge on the part of the teachers - though I do worry about the lack of people going into teaching that have had any real scientific experience - I just don't think a 3 year undergraduate course is enough for people to get a real grasp of how science progresses.

[GillE]

It's got very little to do with a lack of scientific knowledge, Sam - it's got a lot to do with teaching in a way that doesn't explain the science properly.  F'rinstance, I'm not educated to science undergraduate level yet even I know that the Theory of Evolution says humans and the great apes share a common ancestor.  In the faith school in Dawkins' programme, the teacher said that according to the Theory of Evolution, humans were descended from chimps.  She also said that the school's pupils were presented with all the evidence and left to make up their own minds independently.  All sixty pupils in that year independently decided to reject the Theory of Evolution.

[sam]

well the faith schools are a fairly extreme example and there aren't large numbers of them. I think all schools should be equally the same (of course in practice that will not happen). I don't agree with faith schools, grammar schools or any school where you pay. Still I do agree that students should be presented with evidence and left to come to their own conclusion, still though you have to equal show the facts.

[GillE]

A third of all schools in Britain are faith schools.  Their growth has been encouraged by the Government since 1997 and continues to be encouraged.

[sam]

are they? I've had a look around and can't seem to find a definite number or some stats on this.