GERMANY:A German minister for culture and education has come under fire for suggesting that the biblical story of creation should be discussed in school science classes.
The suggestion by Karin Wolff, culture minister in the western state of Hesse, appears to call into question the separation of church and state in German schools and has caused alarm among left-wing politicians.
They are wary of the "creationist" teachings of some evangelical Christians in the US, in particular the idea of "intelligent design": that many life forms have elements too complex to be explained by the random process of evolution, proposed by Charles Darwin in 1859, and must instead have had a creator.
Ms Wolff, a theologian and former religion teacher, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper that she saw "no contradiction between biological evolution and the biblical explanation for origin of the world".
"In fact there is an extraordinary overlap between the Bible's explanation of the seven days of creation and scientific theory," she said.
Social Democrat and Green politicians have attacked Ms Wolff as a "Christian fundamentalist" while the Catholic Bishops' Conference said that biology class was not the right forum for creationism.
School teachers and scientists have dismissed her suggestions as unhelpful.
"One has to engage intensively with scientific theory to explore competently the barriers of scientific knowledge," said Dr Ulrich Kutschera, an evolutionary biologist.
Ms Wolff has since claimed she was misinterpreted and that she favours discussing the limits of science in biology class "to make students vigilant against anti-scientific ideas of creationists".
She has received the backing of several conservative German bishops and the theologian Hans Küng. He told German radio that that biology classes must retain their evolutionary theory basis.
"But if a question arises of what existed before the big bang, that is a question where all sensible scientists reach their limits and where questions of belief begin. Immanuel Kant said that," he said.
"To dismiss as nonsense the question of God and creation is a dogmatic claim that is completely unacceptable . . . and one that only helps the fundamentalists. One has to differentiate between science and belief."
Pope Benedict has firmly rejected speculation that he favoured intelligent design, saying last year that researching the origins of life is an interplay between faith and science. However, he also criticised evolutionary theory as "not a complete, scientifically verified theory".