Natural science

Published on 29/10/2012 00:00

I WAS concerned to hear from a friend that her son’s primary school regularly makes pupils sing God Made The Rainbow, which includes the line: “It surely can’t be chance.”

Now, we all sing harmless Christian myth at school and at Christmas, but the pointed “it surely can’t be chance” line goes too far as it is the very argument used by creationists to deny evolutionary science.

Schoolchildren regularly repeat the times tables to drum them into their heads, so the weekly performing of this song – amounting to 38 times a year – takes on a more sinister tone. I am concerned, however, not to appear churlishly opposed to group singing so I have penned the following non-theistic alternative:

To understand the birds that fly, we need the wondrous science eye;

The joy and thrill of truth will trump these myths about the 
camel’s hump;

What made the butterfly that flits? A mutant gene, an allele twist;

So talk of God is mere distraction. Rainbows are caused by light refraction.

Neil Barber

Saughtonhall drive

Edinburgh