The Verdicts Of Others

"Reluctant Fundie"

Another blogger records some of his interactions with the BCSE:

Mailbox

Here are some endorsements from around the Internet received by "BCSE Revealed", or sent directly to my mailbox:

I am ... not a Creationist, or ID supporter...

However, I have been reading with great interest your blog on the BCSE & think you're doing a great job exposing their dishonesty.

...

Looks like there is a deliberate block from your site. In Firefox, hitting the "reload" doesn't work, but if I put the cursor at the end of the address in the address bar and then hit enter.

Since it's so easily defeated, I can't believe how petty they're being!

I may not be able to go with you on creationism/intelligent design, but really these [sic] BCSE mob are beyond belief!

Another:

... the bcse website ... was brought to our attention just last week.

At first we were very alarmed, but as we got into the sight we, like you, were struck by the anonymity of those responsible for it and also the lack of scientific reason, argument and debate. The sinister tone of the site is most unpleasant. The sense of 'organised conspiracy' ... is almost amusing.

Another:

I came across the BCSE website when I was doing a search related to creationism. I am grateful to BCSE for directing me to your website...

I was not surprised by their dishonesty, but amazed by the inaccuracy and incompleteness of information about creationist scientists and organisations known to me.

...

If they are genuine scientists, I would like to know why they are so incompetent as researchers of information that is so readily available. If they were serious about accurate research, they could ensure that they were better informed by subscribing to the various creation magazines.

To which I say, "hear, hear". Had the BCSE even a weak knowledge of their opponents, then fiascos like the one exposed in their "research" over aliens would not occur.

Unfortunately, though, I don't think this is going to happen. The BCSE's leaders remind me of Richard Dawkins in his attacks on Christianity. Dawkins represents Christianity so poorly that no knowledgeable Christian could possibly be swayed by such a grotesque distortion. Unfortunately, though, Dawkins is so confident of his own correctness that he sees no need to do the proper research that would show him otherwise.

Similarly, the BCSE's leadership are so poorly informed about creationist or Intelligent Design arguments that nobody with even a meagre familiarity with them could find their counter-arguments even relevant, let alone convincing. But at the same time, they are so sure that they are right that they see no need to do any proper research which might convince them otherwise.

In October 2006 I reported: The great majority of the mailbag has been sympathetic.

1. One man had seen the BCSE's letter in "The Times", and had contacted the BCSE to try to more accurately establish their position. He had received a most unnecessarily insulting response, and so was writing to me to relate his experience and express support.

2. A number of correspondents bemoaned the lack of engagement you'll find with the scientific issues on the BCSE's website. One said, "... their approach reminds me of the Dawkins / National Secular Society strategy which is simply to pour scorn on Creationists and Christians. No reasoned debate or engagement with issues, just mockery" . That's very insightful, and we hope to come back to it later.

3. I've had a few e-mails from people, previously personally unknown to me, who have pages named after them in the BCSE's "database". Their general comment was that their pages were full of factual errors, bare assertions without any evidence, and "2+2=5" type deductions. This tallies with what I have seen on the pages of the few people in this database that I have some personal knowledge of. Here's one such correspondent's comment:

The BCSE website contains numerous errors and gives every impression of having been put together in a hurry without adequate checking of the facts. For example, the BCSE consistently refers to me as (snip - correspondent mentions his job title), which I'm not!''

Another correspondent, along similar lines, notes that his page accuses him of lacking experience of experimental science, when in fact he has done 8 years post-doctoral research.

Further responses from around the Internet:

To counter Intelligent Design in [Britain], a copy of the NCSE (American version) was established. [Not] as official and as grandiose as this name may sound, there is only one PhD. in the entire organization, and none of them have experience in Science Education.

The purpose of the Centre is described very well at IanB's blog here. The BCSE is essentially an organization founded to dig up dirt on Christians and Creationists in an attempt to discredit them and keep evolution an unquestioned dogma.

This organization is pretty much as new as it can be, and already they have become full of [blatant] lies and distortions in an attempt to fool the public into believing inane things about anyone who disagrees with evolution. An example would be the BCSE's claim that Answers in Genesis was

"going round the UK telling all in [sic] sundry that UFOs, manned by aliens who believe in the theory of evolution, are busy abducting people."

This one is one of my favorites:

"Much of the movement is deeply anti-intellectual. Moreover, even at the top there is a widespread belief in wackiness such as UFOs and flying saucers, dinosaurs roaming the British countryside in Tudor times and fire breathing dragons."

Wow... Just wow.
Source

After reading the above link I feel dirty from all the political agenda driven propaganda.

There is in the Blogosphere a fellow named David Anderson who has a blog called The British Centre for Science Education: Revealed and up to this point he has been trashing the Centre all over the place. Way to go David for Sticking it to the man!!!

http://cremnant.blogspot.com/2007/02/british-centre-for-science-education.html

Here's another:

BCSE REVEALED

The BCSE is a very interesting lobby group. Unlike the NCSE, the BCSE is rather forward about its intentions, copying off of the American NCSE, or national center of science education (aka national center for selling evolution). The NCSE and BCSE do not really live up to their names. From the title, one would expect something more substantial than simply a group which argues against creationists. Some have even gone as far as to accuse them of false advertising as this self-proclaimed "National Center" for "Science Education" has nothing at all to do with science except writing apologetics articles for the theory of Evolution and seeks political action against people who question the theory... nothing more.

The BCSE is pretty much the same, although they have been much less successful. A renagade [sic] weblog called the BCSE REVEALED has done irrevocable damage to this lobby group, and torn through the BCSE like a shredder shreds paper. My favorite part of his site, where the BCSE members are caught in blatent [sic] dishonesty.

Most of the real contributors have now left the BCSE, and Dave has pointed out a sharp decline in posting among other things that point to its end. I was going to go over there and stirr [sic] up some mischief myself, but then I realized I would probably do best to simply ignore them. There are enough battles to fight, so that's all for them.

http://ownzor-pwnzor.blogspot.com/2007/05/bcse-revealed.html

Another:

Just a quick note to further publicise this amusing "debate".

The BCSE (British Centre for Science Education) has been formed solely to try and stop Creationism or Intelligent Design being taught alongside evolution in our schools. It is seeking to do this by publishing "research" on people that believe in a young earth - so you will find much (what amounts to) dirt digging on individuals, churches, Bible seminaries etc.

The balance is being struck, though, by Derby minister David Anderson, who has started a blog to pick up on the inadequacies of the BCSE argumentation. The blog makes very interesting reading as you discover that the leaders of the BCSE have no scientific qualification (David has a science degree) and are proven to make up some of the contents of their articles.

In reading through both sites it quickly becomes evident that David Anderson is putting forward careful, reasoned argument, whereas the BCSE is quick to resort to blatant name calling when they run out of other words!

So, please have a read of these sites and be informed of the battle going on out there. I'm increasingly persuaded that atheists are the next "minority" group to be pushing for their voice to be heard, at the expense of anyone elses beliefs.

http://truthliving.blogspot.com/2007/01/bcse-vs-david-anderson.html