British Centre for Science Education

The British Centre for Science Education (BCSE) is a United Kingdom organisation formed to campaign against the teaching of creationism in schools and against creationism in the UK in general. It has been in operation since 2006.

The organization describes part of its objectives as follows:

We have become deeply worried about attacks on science education, particularly from creationists funded from the USA, and our campaign is dedicated to keeping all forms of creationism including Intelligent Design out of the science classroom in the UK.

The BCSE protested when the prominent intelligent design group Truth in Science (TiS) sent information packs to every UK secondary school in September, 2006. They estimated that TiS had, at that point, spent around £116,000, including employment of a full-time administrator. Mike Brass, chairman of BCSE, said in a letter to 'The Guardian', "intelligent design (ID) is creationism dressed up in a tux to sneak into our science classrooms." They were even mentioned in an Early Day Motion in Parliament.

The BCSE has been met with hostility by the Discovery Institute, in particular William Dembski has written negatively of the BCSE in his blog, "Uncommon Descent". The Discovery Institute's website suggests that the BCSE is closely associated with the American NCSE and the British Humanist Association. In reality, there are no formal links and it should be emphasised that BCSE (like NCSE, with which it corresponds on occasion) is religion neutral and includes committed believers among its active members and supporters.

The BCSE site is the leading source of information on Creationist and Intelligent Design in the UK, and maintains an active discussion forum.