Passions flare as Turkey excludes evolution from textbooks

Source: BBC News

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Image captionCharles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is set to be expunged from textbooks used by 14 and 15 year olds in Turkey

“This is bigotry, this is all about being a fanatic. How are they going to teach biology now? How are they going to talk about science?”

On an online forum about the government’s decision to exclude the theory of evolution from the national curriculum, a passionate discussion is under way.

“Evolutionary theory is one of the most powerful and fundamental theories in modern science. To describe it as ‘controversial’ is unbelievable,” says one commenter.

Another argues that the theory was not well taught anyhow: “Once the teacher asked us who believed in evolutionary theory. I raised my hand. The teacher said: ‘Are you a monkey then?'”

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