8.02.2005

Bush Thinks Intelligent Design Should Be Taught

In a roundtable interview with reporters from Texas newspapers on Monday, Bush said local school boards should decide whether to teach evolution or "intelligent design."
"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."
It's an extreme example, but would he then be in favor of exposing students to the "school of thought" that the Holocaust didn't happen? that we didn't land on the moon? (Following Bush's logic, why was he against the 9/11 commission? Why did his lackey Pat Roberts stall Phase Two of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's investigation into the administration's use of intelligence on Iraq during the march to war?)

All that aside, why not teach "intelligent design"? Why not use it to show what a theory is not? to show how the scientific method works? Present the strongest argument for life being "irreducibly complex" and then tear it to pieces. At the very least, show how our lacking an explanation for a phenomenon—a "gap" in our understanding—does not justify positing a "god" to fill it.

No comments: