EDINBURGH, Scotland – A Scottish politician recently described Biblical creation as “patently absurd rubbish” during a debate over the teaching of origins in Scottish schools.

Two Scottish public schools have come under fire in recent month for allegedly sanctioning the teaching of creation in classrooms. As previously reported, one of those instances involved two instructors who distributed Christian literature to school children. Following public furor, both of the instructors were removed from their teaching positions.

Last month, Scotland’s Minister for Education, Alasdair Allan, mailed a letter to the Scottish Secular Society, in which he claimed that Biblical creation “is not a scientific theory.”

“I will stress that Creationism is not a scientific theory or a topic within the curriculum framework in Scotland,” Allan wrote, according to a statement from the secularist society. “I can fully understand your concerns at the recent instances reported and I welcome the steps by the authorities to keep parents informed about the swift action taken.”

Caroline Lynch, Chair of the Scottish Secular Society, praised Allan’s remarks.

“We are very pleased that Mr. Allan has made a statement excluding creationism as educationally valid,” she wrote in the statement. “This represents a very significant concession from the government, that has until now refused to officially recognise that creationism and its later re-incarnation of Intelligent Design (ID), has no place within Scotland’s schools. It actually goes much further, as Mr Allan has stated categorically that these issues should not be within the curriculum framework in Scotland at all.”

Scottish political leaders have also weighed in on the topic. Patrick Harvie is a member of the Scottish Parliament and co-leader of the Green Party. According to Herald Scotland, Harvie referred to Biblical creation as an “eccentric ideology” during a parliamentary discussion over education last week.

“I do hope that there isn’t any complacency on this issue on the part of the government,” he said, “because it’s very clear that whatever measures are currently in place have been inadequate to prevent certain—shall we say—eccentric ideologies being promoted in schools.”

“We are not talking here about creation myths being presented in the context of myth, in the context of comparative religious study,” Harvie continued. “We are talking about the promotion of the idea the earth is 6,000 years old and that during that time human beings co-existed with dinosaurs, or other such patently absurd rubbish.”

However, others have disagreed with Harvie’s claim that creationism is “patently absurd rubbish,” arguing that the evolutionary “big bang” theory is itself an illogical belief.

“We don’t want anyone peddling the absurd nonsense, that all we see around us was the result of nothing,” one commenter wrote. “[T]he belief in the great and all powerful nothingness is … the patently absurd rubbish that we would [not] want to be taught in the classroom.”

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