Queensland-based Christian schools receiving millions of dollars from taxpayers are teaching religious myths, including “God’s great creation” and “Noah’s flood”, as part of science classes, it can be revealed.
The Rationalist Society of Australia has discovered that at least two schools from the Open Brethren’s Christian Community Ministries (CCM) network are teaching religious stories in science classes, based on subject handbooks published on their websites.
The RSA examined the websites of CCM schools following The Guardian’s report last month that science teachers from these schools had been forced to attend a creationist conference run by an American fundamentalist group and were told to teach students about vegetarian dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark.
In the ‘Subject Outlines’ for Years 7-10 at Dalby Christian College, students in ‘Science’ are taught that:
“… science provides us with insights into God’s creation, enabling us to appreciate both the unity and order, diversity and complexity of God’s work. … Understanding science helps us make sense of the world God created, contributes to finding solutions for dilemmas in our world, and provides the basis for new scientific research and technologies.”
At Chinchilla Christian College, the ‘Junior Secondary Handbook’ states that students studying ‘Geography’:
“… research and analyse data and information to form well-rounded opinions on the state of the world, through topics on land formations of God’s great creation and Noah’s flood, to understanding the complexities of life- experiences in third-world countries with low Human Development Indicators.”
According to the MySchool website, Dalby Christian College received about $7.5 million in recurring funding from state and federal governments, and $1.2 million in capital expenditure from the state government in 2024.
For the same year, Chinchilla Christian College received almost $8 million in recurring funding from state and federal governments, and $107,000 in capital expenditure from the state government.
The RSA has raised concerns about the schools to Queensland’s Non-State Schools Accreditation Board, which monitors non-state schools for compliance with the requirements for accreditation eligibility for government funding.
Non-state schools are still required to teach the Australian Curriculum, or an approved version of it, with the science curriculum including topics such as evolutionary theory and the Big Bang, and the content based on scientific evidence and methods.
Late last year, the RSA raised similar concerns with the West Australian regulator of non-government schools about the teaching of religious myths as science at one Christian school. Rehoboth Christian College says it gives its science students “different perspectives”, including the creationist perspective, in relation to human evolution.
The RSA has found further evidence of faith-based schools in Queensland mixing religion with science. In its curriculum overview for its science, Citipointe Christian College provides a ‘Christian Worldview Rationale’ for the subject in Years 9 and 10, including the following statements:
“God’s order is reflected in the natural world through scientific laws. Science reveals the harmony of creation, supporting the Biblical view.”
“The course explores God’s creative design in nature and humanity, revealing patterns in the tiniest cell, models of atoms, the ecosystem and the church as the body of Christ. … Man was created in God’s image to have the ability to understand the laws of God’s universe and to be creative in using these laws in our society.”
Speaking today, RSA Executive Director Si Gladman said these cases raise significant concern about the quality of science education being delivered in some schools.
“The teaching of religious myths as science is not education. It’s religious indoctrination and it has no place in science classes,” he said.
“While many faith-based schools appear to be doing the right thing and are teaching science as science, these new examples suggest that more government oversight is needed to ensure all children are getting an opportunity to learn about the current state of the sciences. This is especially so given the huge sums of taxpayers’ money going to these schools.”
In The Guardian, Professor David Geelan, the president of the Science Teachers’ Association of Queensland, said he was “not sure” that all schools were giving children an understanding of the scientific theory.
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Si Gladman is Executive Director of the Rationalist Society of Australia. He also hosts ‘The Secular Agenda’ podcast.
Image: Jametlene Reskp (Unsplash)