Website removes creationist lecture

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A lecture by the teacher at the heart of the row about teaching creationism in schools has been removed from a website because it was attracting too much interest.

Colin Hart, the director of the Christian Institute, said the lecture by Stephen Layfield of Emmanuel College, Gateshead had been pulled from the institute's website because of the misreporting of the teacher's views in the media.

"It's getting very, very tedious. Emmanuel College has had a huge number of press calls. This has involved a considerable amount of time for the principal and senior directors of the college," Mr Hart said.

"In order to assist we have temporarily removed a lecture by Stephen Layfield from our website. This lecture was given for the Christian Institute not Emmanuel College," he said.

Mr Hart denied that the college or the Christian Institute were embarrassed about the comments by Mr Layfield, who believes the "new world" creationist view that the Earth is a few thousand years old instead of the billions estimated by scientists.

"It's going to go up again on the website when the press has ceased sharpening its knives about faith schools," Mr Hart said. "It was not a lecture which covered detailed arguments in the creation-evolution debate. I personally wouldn't disagree with Stephen Layfield. I have a big problem with the evidence base of evolution," he said.

"A debate has been started, albeit one which has been clouded by attempts to denigrate faith schools. We believe that it is for others to join this debate."

A copy of Mr Layfield's lecture can still be seen at www.darwinwars.com/lunatic/liars/layfield.html