Kansas Evolves Back

[kliljedahl]

NEARLY FIVE YEARS into the 21st century, the Kansas State Board of Education has begun an earnest discussion of whether schools in that state should teach science that was obsolete by the end of the 19th century. The board is holding hearings into proposed changes to its model science standards, changes intended to cast doubt on conventional evolutionary biology and inject into classrooms the notion of "intelligent design" -- the idea that the complexity of life can be explained only by some conscious creator's having designed it.

Intelligent design is not your parents' creationism. It's a slick set of talking points that are not based on biblical inerrancy but framed, rather, in the language of science: molecular biology, the structure of DNA and holes in the fossil record. Moreover, the ostensible justification for the changes is a seductive one. Proponents say they mean merely to ensure that schoolchildren are given a full sense of the scientific controversy over evolution so that they can make up their own minds. Who can object to that?


But there is no serious scientific controversy over whether Darwinian evolution takes place. Intelligent design is not science. Whatever its rhetoric, the public questioning of evolution is fundamentally religious, not scien-tific, in nature. That is not to say that wonder is illegitimate; it is a perfectly reasonable response to the beauty and enormity of the universe to believe that it could not have happened without a divine hand. But the proper place to discuss such belief is not the public schools. Biology classes need to be taught with sensitivity to the religious sensibilities of students but not by casting doubt on evolution.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/07/AR2005050700943.html


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[NMDemDist2]

1. "devolves?" n/t

[kliljedahl]

3. That wouldve been my choice

But its not my editorial


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[rurallib]

2. Maybe they could solve their problems by creating a class

called something like "Theories of creation: from the crazy to the ludicrous". They could teach every crackpot theory thay could get their hands on, from ID to the Hindi to the snake handlers etc. Make it a mandatory class so they feel that everyone is exposed to their version of intelligence. The students would get quite a chuckle out of such a blowoff course; no college could take such a grade seriously.
Then they could leave biology alone to be taught by professionals.