item
And God Created Charles Darwin
- Lemma
- I Bog stvori Carlsa Darwina
- Serbian
- Stevanovic, Aleksandra
- Scientific theories and disciplines > Biology:evolution
- 2017
- And God created Charles Darwin
- Radio Televizija Srbije
- Serbian educational system - petition 2017 - Rončevic, Radmilo - Zukorlic, Muamer - Darwinism - Creationism
- 30/8/2017
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One of the important issues stirring up Serbian public, academic and political circles is the recently submitted petition on Darwin’s theory, seeking to reconsider educational program in regard to it.
The broadcast “Oko” (“Eye”) begins by stating that the theory of evolution has already been questioned in Serbian educational system. However, it has survived. There has been a recent initiative to exclude Darwin’s theory from the educational system in Serbia and this time the Ministry of Education and Technological Development will not consider it. However, Senate of the University of Belgrade and Parliament’s Board for Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia will. The polemics also largely relate to whom should address the issue.
The speakers are Dr. Radmilo Rončević, a surgeon and initiator of the petition, Dr. Miroslav Živić, professor at the Faculty of Biology, Dr. Ratko Jankov, a former professor at the Facultyr of Chemistry and a member of the Board for Education and Science, and Muamer Zukorlić, the president of the Board for Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia.
The initiator of the petition, Dr. Radmilo Rončević says that petition has been sent not only to the scientific institutions such as Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, but also to the Parliament since both of them are interrelated and draw decisions on educational and scientific matters in Serbia.
Muamer Zukorlić adds that the Board ought to meet any public demands, therefore, this petition will be taken into consideration and the conclusion would be drawn based on arguments. However, the exact time is not specified yet since it would probably be discussed during a regular meeting, along with other decisions.
On the other hand, Dr. Ratko Jankov, a member of the Board states that the way of dealing with the issue is not right – the matter belongs to the sphere of science, and the Board is a political entity. Therefore political arguments are not the way to address this question. Initially, scientific arguments have to be presented, and perhaps afterwards, a meeting including political entities might be organized.
Professor Miroslav Živić mentions that it is a fact that more than 160 people, mostly intellectuals have signed the petition. That is why the question gained a lot of public attention. However, despite the education of the signatories, there is no one among them professionally studying the problem in question, that is, the theory of evolution. Therefore, the petition would be justified only in the 19th century where any educated person could address any question since science was less developed than now. Today, knowledge is so broad that only those who are specifically educated in a field should discuss that field since they follow the latest researches in it. The way implicitly proposed by the petition leads to a danger of leaning to voluntarism and politics.
Dr. Radmilo Rončević however disagrees and affirms that not only biologists are to look into this questions, medicine is also the field in relation to them because it knows some segments of life better. In addition, the theory of evolution does not show the reality of human life and is not based on scientific facts but speculations.
Due to the interest of public, the rector of the University of Belgrade, Vladimir Bumbaširević said that this issue would be related at one of the senate’s regular sittings, while Muamer Zukorlić agrees that is not easy for children to have one subject teaching Darwin’s theory and the other how God created life and that some solution should be brought to that. Insisting on one side might bring harm to the education, which again does not mean that scientific truths are to be neglected, but children should know both sides of the Darwin’s theory, pros and cons of it, and they should also know that certain number of people opposes it.
Professor Miroslav Živić argues that the entire scientific thought is negated by arguing that evolutionary biology which uses scientific methods such as in physics, chemistry and other natural sciences is not based on scientific facts. Religion and science do not clash, but they have different domains; one is based on doubt, the other on belief.
Professor Ratko Jankov accentuates that Darwin himself was a religious person and it may be difficult to imagine how hard it was for him to expose his findings. It is also known that he kept the script long before publishing it which might be due to the closed society or religion.
The thirty minutes panel seems to bring to resolution to the question of theory of evolution in education. What is evident is that one of the most frequently raised questions is who should decide on the matter.
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