TELL BUSH TO SUPPORT SCIENCE EDUCATION AND OPPOSE INTELLIGENT DESIGN!

[Ian David]

Date: Fri, 05 Aug 2005
From: Center For Inquiry

TELL PRESIDENT BUSH TO SUPPORT SCIENCE EDUCATION AND OPPOSE
INTELLIGENT DESIGN!

On Monday, August 1, in response to a query from a Texas
reporter, President Bush said that he believed that both
evolution and Intelligent Design should be taught in the schools
"so people can understand what the debate is about."

During the 2000 campaign, Bush said several times that local
school boards should decide about teaching evolution and
alternatives; he also indicated support for teaching
creationism.

Intelligent Design (ID) is a theological concept. It is not
science; it cannot be tested, as a scientific theory should. It
seeks to contradict scientific theories, advocating religious
beliefs over scientific research. ID as a general theological
theory is non-falsifiable as science. However, some advocates of
ID have introduced claims that can be falsified, and have been,
as in Ken Miller's criticism of Michael Behe.

TAKE ACTION NOW and tell the President why Intelligent Design
has no place in a science curriculum!

Intelligent Design is a fundamentally religious assumption
unsupported by evidence and has no place in the science
classroom. We must counter the proponents of ID who wish to
introduce their ideas by appealing to arguments for "equal
time," falsely implying that Intelligent Design is as
scientifically valid as evolution.

In response to this threat to scientific literacy, the Committee
for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
(CSICOP) and the Center for Inquiry will be increasing its
efforts to defend evolution and science education and are
forming a task force for this purpose called "Activists for
Science."

Activists for Science will work to develop a network of
pro-science advocates across the country who champion the
integrity of science on the local and regional level. We will
feature regular articles on the matter in Skeptical Inquirer and
issue activism alerts such as this one. We will continue to
sponsorlectures and events to educate the public about evolution
and the Intelligent Design movement and Inquiring Minds program
will be working with educators to develop effective supplemental
material on the Evolution / Creationism issue. We have recently
launched the CreationWatch web page to monitor the issue. It
features articles and resources, curricular material, and
headlines from around the world on creationism, intelligent
design, and evolution.

JOIN US in defending science education!

By following the directions included in this e-mail, you can
send a message to President George W. Bush. A strong show of
support for scientific standards will send a resounding message
to the President and the public that our children's education
should not be compromised by the teaching of Intelligent Design!
Sign this petition either via email (please see directions
below) or via the web at:
http://ga1.org/campaign/intelligentdesign/

We encourage you to take action by September 19, 2005

Bush Supports Teaching Intelligent Design

INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE WEB:
If you have access to a web browser, you can take action on this
alert by going to the following URL:

http://ga1.org/campaign/intelligentdesign/


Petition:

You recently stated that "part of education is to expose people
to different schools of thought." I wish to express my agreement
with this point of view, though I have two concerns. The context
of this remark was an important one: the public debate over the
teaching of evolution and Intelligent Design.

The first concern regards the part of the school curriculum you
believe is appropriate for Intelligent Design. A vocal minority
of your supporters believe that Intelligent Design should be
given equal weight in the science curriculum alongside
evolution. This displays a lack of understanding of the nature
of science. Science is based on a critical approach that
requires all hypotheses and theories to be tested against
observable phenomena. In the last 250 years, we have made
immense strides in scientific research and understanding and
have come up with a number of ideas, solidly based in rigorous
observation and experiment, which can be relied upon to help us
to understand our world and our place in the universe. That's
how we managed to put men on the moon.

One of these ideas is the theory of evolution. The evolution of
organisms involves a process of natural selection by which some
individuals in a population are more likely to survive because
of novel variations that make them better able to deal with the
pressures of their environment. This selective pressure and the
introduction of new variations by genetic mutation cumulatively
causes organisms to be modified over time - to evolve - in order
to adapt to their changing environments. The theory of evolution
was originally based on observations from paleontology,
comparative anatomy, and experiments in animal and plant
breeding. Additional evidence for modern evolutionary theory is
found in molecular biology and the structure of DNA. The entire
discipline of biology is structured around the theory of
evolution.

Intelligent Design is an idea of a different kind. It cannot be
tested by experiment and has no evidence in its favor beyond ad
hoc explanations and straw-man criticisms of evolution. It has
no place in the science curriculum. It may be useful at an
introductory level to illustrate the differences between science
and nonscience and teach invaluable concepts about the nature of
science. Creationism and Intelligent Design may be appropriate
in other parts of the curricula - perhaps in philosophy,
comparative religion, history, cultural anthropology, or social
studies - where it would not be out of place to speak of an idea
with a fundamentally supernatural basis.

The second concern I have is the issue of our children's well
being. Failure to distinguish between testable scientific
hypotheses and faith-based ideas is bound to confuse a large
proportion of students and inhibit improvements in science
literacy across the nation. Not only is an understanding of the
evolutionary sciences a matter of mental and intellectual
fitness; it is also a matter of survival. We live in an
increasingly competitive world, and if our children are to
obtain the skills that they will need to compete in the global
marketplace, they must be guaranteed an education in which
science is not adulterated with religion or mysticism.

I realize that you receive advice from all quarters of the
nation, but I hope that the sound advice you receive from
leading science organizations and your own scientific advisors
will demonstrate that the issue of science literacy in schools,
and the importance of the theory of evolution in understanding
life on earth, should not be sabotaged by the religious
proponents who clamor for your attention.

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[Spock_is_Skeptical]

1. done!

[immoderate]

2. I did it too.

I'm going to write a note to the president on the White House website, too

--IMM

[Doubting Thomas]

3. Did it, too.

Thanks for the references.