I created a
blog entry on this after reading a ten day old
Reuters article. Sorry if it's been mentioned before. I did a search but could not find it here, so here goes:
A school district in Pennsylvania has added a "science" called intelligent design to its curriculum. I'm a pretty curious guy, and so I'm normally glad to see new science taught in public schools. So, I wondered, what is this "Intelligent Design" all about?
Proponents of intelligent design argue that the complexity of nature is such that it could not have occurred by chance, as Darwinian theory holds, and so must have been created by some all-powerful force.
Wait, that sounds familiar. That's right, it's called creationism. It seems creationists have not accepted the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in
Edwards v. Aguillard and have simply renamed their "science" in preparation for another attempt to force it into public schools. They've revamped some of the language to sound more scientific, but a rose by any other name...
Now, I have no problems with parents teaching their children about creationism or any other beliefs about our origins (or anything else for that matter.) But please do not repackage religious beliefs under a different name and force it into public school curriculum. Teach it at home, send your children to private schools, ask their godparents to help out. All those and more are excellent ways to pass on your beliefs. But, with all due respect, you do not have the right to decide what religious beliefs all children should be taught. Disguising religion as science surely violates the ninth commandment, no?
Mark my words: this is just the start. If it hasn't begun already, there will be a wave of school districts across the nation pressured to teach intelligent design. The movement to get it into Pennsylvania schools began long before the election, and with their perceived mandate you can bet the religious right will be pushing hard to get creationism into school districts in all 50 states.
Is this what 51 percent of Americans really voted for? Did they realize they were voting for creationism? And after this, how far behind is the new push for payer in school and other religious initiatives?