The Rationalist Society of Australia has asked the federal education minister whether his department will be investigating to determine the extent of the problem of taxpayer-funded religious schools teaching religious stories as science.

In a letter to Minister Jason Clare (pictured) earlier this month, the RSA said it was “alarmed” to discover several examples of faith-based schools including religious stories in their science classes and suggested it may be a widespread problem.

Executive Director Si Gladman pointed Minister Clare to the RSA’s recent reports involving two Christian schools in Queensland – Dalby Christian College and Chinchilla Christian College – and West Australian school Rehoboth Christian College.

According to handbooks and other content posted on their websites, these schools are, respectively, teaching that “science provides us with insights into God’s creation”, “God’s great creation and Noah’s flood” in Geography class, and “different perspectives”, including the creationist perspective, in relation to human evolution in biology classes.

Also in Queensland, Citipointe Christian College provides a ‘Christian Worldview Rationale’ for science classes in Years 9 and 10, with a subject handbook saying that “God’s order is reflected in the natural world through scientific laws” and that “science reveals the harmony of creation, supporting the Biblical view”.

In his letter to the minister, Mr Gladman said these schools each receive millions of taxpayers’ dollars in recurring funding.

“We believe most Australians would be shocked to learn that their taxes are facilitating the teaching of religious stories as science in faith schools,” he wrote. 

“Given that many religious schools do not publish such handbooks and subject overviews online, the discovery of such examples suggest this may be a much wider problem.”

“Will the federal education department be investigating how widespread this problem may be?”

The RSA also asked Mr Clare whether he was satisfied that these schools were meeting the national curriculum requirements in order to receive recurring funding from the federal government.

Non-government schools are required to teach the Australian Curriculum, or an approved version of it, with the science curriculum based on scientific evidence and methods and topics such as evolutionary theory and the Big Bang.

The RSA has raised concerns about the schools with the non-state school accreditation bodies in both Queensland and Western Australia.

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Si Gladman is Executive Director of the Rationalist Society of Australia. He also hosts ‘The Secular Agenda’ podcast.