According to academics, including well-known naturalist Sir David Attenborough and atheist Professor Richard Dawkins, the UK government should ban the teaching of ‘creationism’ in science lessons in schools.

In the opinion of these academics, teaching the school students that God created the world is dangerous; and it is imperative that there are laws in place to prevent such a teaching.

Attenborough and Dawkins, along with three Nobel Prize winners, have made a statement on the new campaign website, demanding that creationism and ‘intelligent design’ – the proposition that God fine-tunes evolution – should be banned outright.

Among the other prominent signatories on the statement are: neurobiologist Prof Colin Blakemore; Sir Paul Nurse, the President of the Royal Society; and Royal Society’s ex-director of education Rev Prof Michael Reiss.

Urging the government to tackle the teaching of ‘creationism’ to school children, the academics have called for a curriculum change – in favor of ‘evolution not creationism’ - such that evolution is taught from when children begin their schooling.

The academics are concerned over the fact that the national curriculum does not feature the teaching of ‘evolution – that is, the idea that humans are shaped by beneficial genes being passed through generations over billions of years – until the time of GCSEs.

Noting that though UK schools are instructed not to teach creationism and intelligent design, still doing so is not unlawful, Reiss said: “If creationism is discussed, it should be made clear to pupils that it is not accepted by the scientific community.”