The warning from Britain's leading scientific academy comes amid increasing concern over the attempts by religious fundamentalists to challenge the theory of evolution in schools and colleges by teaching the idea that a god created the world, as if that were a scientific theory.

Teachers' unions yesterday also voted to ban further government funding for faith schools. However, delegates in Gateshead, attending the annual conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, rejected proposals for new laws to prevent the growing influence of religious organisations in state education, including the teaching of creationism.

Last night, the Royal Society gave a public platform to Steve Jones, the award-winning geneticist and author, to deliver a lecture entitled Why Creationism Is Wrong and Evolution Is Right. Professor Jones said that suggesting that creationism and evolution be given equal weight in education was "to me, rather like starting genetics lectures by discussing the theory that babies are brought by storks."

The Royal Society had invited Prof Jones, of University College London, to deliver a lecture at its headquarters in London because of concern that many students now believe that creationism and evolution are equally valid theories. An increasing number of Christian and Muslim fundamentalist students argue for a literal interpretation of the Bible or Qur'an. Prof Jones said that a Gallup poll of teenagers in the US last year indicated that 38% believed that God created humans within the past 10,000 years and President George Bush had said that "on the issue of evolution, the verdict is still out on how God created the Earth." In a BBC poll; 48% opted for evolution and 39% for creationism.

"I like the quotation from Darwin, 'ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge; it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science'," said Prof Jones. "Science has proof without any certainty, creationists - certainty without proof."

He said he believed that creationists were worried that evolution showed humans to be only "chimps in dinner jackets". He added that "evolution is as inevitable as gravity".

The Royal Society issued a statement aimed at "opposing the misrepresentation of evolution in schools to promote particular religious beliefs." It said that "young people are poorly served by deliberate attempts to withhold, distort or misrepresent scientific knowledge ... to promote particular religious beliefs."

Professor David Read, vice-president of the society, said: "We felt that it would be timely to publish a clear statement on evolution, creationism and intelligent design as there continues to be controversy about them in the UK and other countries. The Royal Society fully supports questioning and debate in science lessons, as long as it is not designed to undermine young people's confidence in the value of scientific evidence."

David Rosevear, of the Portsmouth-based Creation Science Movement, said yesterday that he was not surprised at the Royal Society's move. "It is an atheistic faith position," he said. "Atheism is as much a religion as the Church of England and they pursue it with real vigour ... Not all scientists are evolutionists but they have to go along with it."

In Gateshead, teachers backed a resolution stating that "the government's policy of increasing numbers of faith schools will hinder integration, foster religious divisions and provide fertile ground for religious and ethnic conflicts." But after a heated debate the motion was watered down by rejecting the call for legislation to prevent the teaching of creationism.

Proposing the motion, Hank Roberts from the union's national executive, questioned the government's policy of increasing faith schools and doing nothing to curb religious fundamentalists such as the millionaire businessman Sir Peter Vardy and the three schools run by his Emmanuel Schools Foundation.

"No government action has been taken to prevent Sir Peter Vardy from teaching creationism in schools - actually ours, we pay for them," he said. "Instead of government action to stop this, which this motion calls for, what's happening? Vardy is putting up a further £2m to gain control of yet another school."

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said: "Neither creationism nor intelligent design are taught as a subject in schools, and are not specified in the science curriculum."

Backstory

While some creationists believe in a biblical interpretation of the creation - that God created the Earth in six days and that Adam and Eve existed - others suggest that mankind is the result of "intelligent design" by a superior being. Creationists believe Darwin's evolution theory should be taught as just one possibility of the development of man. The movement enjoys widespread currency in the US and is gaining support in the UK through Christian and Muslim fundamentalists. There is a creationist museum in Portsmouth, run by the Creation Science Movement.