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Banks believes in Bible's account of creation

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World created in six days, says Banks

3News NZ

John Banks

John Banks

By 3 News online staff

ACT Party leader John Banks has told a Christian radio station he believes the Earth was created in six days, as told in the Bible.

"That's what I believe, but I'm not going to impose my beliefs on other people, especially in this post-Christian society that we live in, especially in these lamentable times,'' Mr Banks told New Zealand's Rhema, according to The New Zealand Herald.

According to Genesis, the first book of the Bible, God created the Earth in six days, and rested on the seventh.

Mr Banks said he wouldn't "impose" his beliefs on others. He said he was too old to be "judgemental" of other viewpoints.

"There are reactionaries out there, humanists in particular, that overrun the bureaucracies in Wellington and state education.''

According to the Oxford Dictionary, humanists have a "a rationalist outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters".

Yesterday Fairfax NZ reported a faith-based group called the Manukau Charitable Christian Trust is planning to set up a charter school that teaches creationism.

Other religious organisations such as Destiny Church have also expressed interest in setting up schools that would receive taxpayer funding.  

Introducing charter schools, or "partnership" schools as they're officially known, was one of the prices the National Party paid to secure the ACT Party's support in confidence and supply agreements.

Mr Banks is Associate Minister of Education. New Zealand's Rhema is a Christian radio station. Its owners, the Rhema Broadcasting Group, also run Christian stations Life FM and The Word, and television channel Shine TV.

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Comments

27/08/2012 4:51:40 a.m.

Archie Hicox wrote:

Disgusted. Schools should be helping children to overcome ignorance, not reinforce it. Those who claim there is no evidence for evolution are delusional. Just open a textbook or go to a museum and read. It is as indisputable a theory as gravity or the germ theory of disease. If you believe you can disprove it, please write it down and collect your Nobel prize. To have a person with so much disregard for fact making important decisions on children's lives is not only a travesty, it is abuse.

25/08/2012 2:53:09 p.m.

steve wrote:

Well said Peter,Nigel,if you study the bible you will understand its not just a story of cave men and people with goats,people have emotions,do you really think that life is everything science?Man can not live by bread alone.

24/08/2012 12:39:01 p.m.

nigel wrote:

Steve evolution is “scientific theory”, not something dreamed up over a cup of coffee with mates. A scientific theory is entirely different from a “theory” as commonly understood which are supposition, speculation and guesswork, you are confusing the two. Scientific theory starts with a hypothesis which can be tested, is predictive and the best method we have for understanding the natural world. Aeroplane design is based on scientific theory, not faith thank god, as is the computer screen you are looking at right now. Without scientific theory we would still be living in caves. The Genesis story was written by people trying to make sense of a world they didn’t understand, who, if not living in caves, were not far removed. Their primary occupation was goat herding and I suppose they knew a lot about goats. John Banks by association must know a lot about goats as well, therefore he could herd goats if he wanted to and that’s my theory.

23/08/2012 6:25:47 p.m.

steve wrote:

evolution theory is what it says,a theory,not fact,guess work,do your own study stop living through other peoples guess work.

21/08/2012 5:34:36 p.m.

Dick Head wrote:

Lost his marbles!!

21/08/2012 4:51:06 p.m.

Craig Young wrote:

Well, if it is taught in these charter schools, one hopes that the NZQA refuses to provide them with recognised certification in science, because creationism/intelligent design is not orthodox science. And the same applies to Maharishi charter schools and transcendental meditation.

21/08/2012 12:01:44 p.m.

Tim wrote:

Part of my personal belief is that no one really believes in the stuff in the bible but it is rather forms or symptoms of other issues; contrariness, indoctrination, tradition, lack of education or low IQ. The thought that creationism is to be taught in schools as an alternative theory is heinous. Evolution is not a theory as in it is lacking in fact. Scientific facts are put forward as theories. Creationism is not real and should not be taught with public funds.

21/08/2012 10:53:25 a.m.

Cassandra wrote:

Good on him!

20/08/2012 10:47:32 p.m.

Barry wrote:

I don't agree with John Banks' politics, but having read some of the nasty comments below I would rather stand on the side of the angels than with those who oppose Banks.

20/08/2012 10:24:43 p.m.

Peter wrote:

What never ceases to amaze me is that no matter how educated they are I have never come across a single person who does not ultimately refer to some third party expert "they" when they seek to prove evolution. No one has ever been able to provide anything more than a "everyone believes it so we do too" Sounds a lot like what people said to Galileo when he proposed that the earth orbits the sun and not vice versa.