Physicist Lawrence Krauss on Tuesday defended calling the teaching creationism a form of child abuse, saying that withholding education was harmful.

Krauss acknowledged on The David Pakman Show that teaching creationism to children was not on the same level as sexual abuse, but insisted it should still be considered abusive because it put the children at a disadvantage. He warned that teaching creationism could cause children to distrust science in general, obstructing their progress in a society that is increasingly dependent on technology.

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“Sure, it is mild child abuse, but it is,” Krauss said. “We need to encourage our children to question freely and try to think for themselves. Anything we do that counters that is unfair to them.”

The leading researcher said he had no problem with parents using the Bible to teach moral lessons to their children. His problem was with parents who taught the Bible was historical truth and that the world was only 6,000 years old.

“If you’re introducing it as reality, if you’re telling your kids the world is 6,000 years old, and they shouldn’t believe scientists because there is no way humans are related to other animals, and don’t believe any of that stuff you learned in school, or take you kids of out of school because they are learning something, then it is like the Taliban at some level, which is an extreme form of child abuse,” Krauss said. “The Taliban doesn’t want girls to be educated or people to be educated because if they do they’ll understand the myths they are learning are crap.”

Four states have considered legislation this year that would weaken the teaching of evolution and allow a variant of creationism known as Intelligent Design to be taught in science classes.

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