Conservative evangelical Christians are thus actively making things worse for science and reason not just at home in the United States, but around the world as well -- with the latest victim being Hong Kong. Scientists and science educators in Hong Kong only narrowly escaped the weakening of science standards and introduction of Intelligent Design. And they aren't entirely out of the woods yet, unfortunately.
Richard Stone writes in Science, October 23, 2009:
In February ...Dudgeon, Kwok, and like-minded colleagues began making a ruckus over the "New Senior Secondary Biology and Combined Science Curriculum and Assessment Guide," a revision aimed at bringing Hong Kong's education system in line with international norms. Many changes were positive, but one rang alarm bells.
The previous guidance suggested vaguely but, reasonably, that teachers "guide students to review the differences between scientific theories and other nonscientific modes of explanation, e.g. religious, metaphysical or philosophical. The new wording seems to put religious beliefs on an equal footing with evolution: "In addition to Darwin's theory, students are encouraged to explore other explanations for evolution and the origins of life to help illustrate the dynamic nature of scientific knowledge."
"We have kept the creationist barbarians from the gate," says aquatic ecologist David Dudgeon, faculty board chair at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), about a decision last month by Hong Kong's Education Bureau to discount language in new science curriculum guidelines that had opened the door to teaching creationism and intelligent design in secondary schools. But their triumph is bittersweet. The Education Bureau has not revised the guidelines, choosing instead to issue it's pro-evolution statement as an annex. And no one expects the few dozen schools in Hong Kong that openly espouse creationism to suddenly abandon it.
Hong Kong surely isn't the first place people will think about when they think about places that might give in to evangelical demands to undermine science, but most people are unfamiliar with Hong Kong's education system. It might be a secular and high-tech city, but the publicly-funded schools are all run independently -- and many are affiliated with churches. Not every church-affiliated school tries to deny evolution or promote creationism, but not many are required to create problems for the public standards.
Defenders of secularism and basic science like Sun Kwok had to organize quickly and work hard to confront Evolution Denial, pseudoscience, and evangelicalism. Religious groups were already well organized -- a large group of religious leaders supported the Education Bureau's proposed rule changes, claiming that there was a "real legitimate scientific controversy over Darwinian Theory" and insisting that "alternative explanations to Darwinian macroevolution should thus be explored." As in America, then, religious believers were not above lying about science in the effort to promote their faith.
"It appears that the bureau is unwilling to confront the Christian schools openly, and the schools will probably continue to teach creationism as part of the science classes" says astronomer Sun Kwok, HKU's science dean. ..."Fundamentalist Christianity percolates through schools, government, and other authorities in Hong Kong, and it informs attitudes towards gays and other social issues." Dudgeon says. "It is the elephant in the room" that no one talks about.
On the positive side, this may cause more secularists and scientists in Hong Kong to recognize that the threat science is bigger than they realize. If they organize sufficiently and early enough, they have a better chance of effectively countering Evolution Denial and faith-based pseudoscience. Complacency is the enemy here because a lot can be accomplished in the effort to undermine science if people ignore it or are simply unaware of what's going on behind the scenes.