The RAS Commission considered it unacceptable to refuse to teach Darwin's theory
The Commission to Combat Pseudoscience under the Expert Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) called the refusal to study Darwin's theory in schools unacceptable. According to the commission members, this will lead to “an increase in scientific illiteracy.” The statement in defense of evolutionary theory followed calls for it to be removed from the school biology curriculum.
“The Commission for Combating Pseudoscience under the Expert Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences considers the exclusion of evolutionary theory from a school biology course unacceptable. Discussion of the content of the school curriculum in biology (as well as in other disciplines) is possible only with the participation of specialized specialists, whose opinion should be a priority,” it is written in the document published RTVI October 1st.
From the commission's statement it follows that Charles Darwin's theory of the origin of species connects all branches of biology. In addition, as stated in the document, the presence of a common ancestor between humans and other cellular life forms “is not a matter of dispute among relevant experts” and “is not a matter of faith.”
On September 19, Assistant to the Prime Minister of Russia Muslim Khuchiev at a meeting of the All-Russian Parents Committee suggested Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov to remove Darwin's theory from school textbooks. The official called it erroneous and added that it “contradicts religious education.”
20 Mr. Khuchiev’s position was supported by the Russian Orthodox clergy. Fyodor Lukyanov, Chairman of the Patriarchal Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church on Family Issues, Protection of Motherhood and Childhood, said "RIA Novosti"that Darwin’s theory “is inherently immoral, since it assumes the absence of a Creator in such a complex and beautiful creation as our Universe.”
