Just Say No to Intelligent Design

AquaEyes11010

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Did anyone catch the Nova special on PBS last night? It was about the case of the Dover school board in Kansas and whether or not to include Intelligent Design as an alternative to the Evolution part of the high school biology cirriculum. The teachers stood together against doing so, and when the school board pushed their way through, the teachers took them to court. The case was reenacted in parts, with commentary from figures on both sides interspersed.

I couldn't believe the lengths to which the ID people went to disguise their religion as "science" so as to get it in public school classrooms, but in the end, the judge (someone who actually believes in ID as a possibility) decided that it was not appropriate. Basically, ID was born out of simply changing the terminology of Creationism to remove "god" and replace "intelligent agent." One of the ID people perjured himself in the trial, and their star "expert" (the author of "Darwin's Black Box" which I've actually read) had all his "proofs" of ID knocked down by scientific literature and counter testimony. The whole thing looked laughable to me, but scary in the sense that there is such a powerful force trying to dismantle science education so as to reinforce religion.

Within some of the internal ID propaganda was a statement that the world's moral values have been in decline since the publication of Darwin's theories, and that to reverse the trend, we need to reverse the 150 years of science since then. Yes, this is where the ID movement wants to go.

In the end, what I found most ironic were the "Christian" sentiments about losing this case. The judge and plaintiffs received numerous death threats in mail and email, and nasty remarks by local townspeople in-person. Pat Robertson went on the air and said "Should a natural disaster befall the people of Dover, don't pray to god for help...you already kicked him out of your schools." Yep.

My opinion is that the truth doesn't need to be shoved down someone's throats to be believed because of overwhelming evidence and logic. That's why there isn't such a megafunded body of scientists trying to gain supporters. The whole ID movement has one central goal -- to dismantle any aspect of science that goes against its Christian beliefs.

Anyway, I anticipated watching this special after reading about it in the NY Times, expecting to see a small group of bible-thumpers arguing against a body of scientists. What I saw frightened me, because these bible-thumpers are far more organized and funded than I previously believed, and it angers me that the scientific community has let things go this far without a similarly strong counter-movement to remind people that religion is a faith-based traditional culture, something that doesn't belong in a science classroom.
 

johnnyack

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::sigh::
to believe in intelligent design, one must believe in "God"
whether it be Yahweh, God, Allah, Chi, the idea that there is some sort of divine workings of the universe, etc.
whatever it may be, i personally believe God does not have to be connected to the dogmatic laws of religion.
clearly this is a minority view, but the point is how and you expect children to seriously consider within an education of fact, the concept of belief in a being that cannot be comprehended.
and furthermore, why cant evolution BE intelligent design fuck heads?
people need to read more and stop being so self righteous.

nothing agaisnt anyone here, just venting.
 

Adam875

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Entirely well said, AquaEyes! I couldn't agree more, nor put the case as succinctly and clearly as you. Here we are in the 21st century yet pedalling backwards, it would seem, to medievalism. Religion is frightening, but equally frightening is the fact that it will never go away.

And why is it, dare one ask - from the other side of the 'pond' - that America, of all the advanced and civilised countries, produces such a percentage of population so wilfully gullible?
 

Not_Punny

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Quite frankly, I think that no one has ANY right to teach lies and pseudo-science in ANY school -- pre, elemetary, middle or high-school.

Unfortunately, a lot of crap is taught in school, including many subjects from "sight reading" (learning to read by learning "entire words" and not the pieces that make up the words) to Darwinism (flame me if you will -- the idea possibly isn't off, but many of the concrete examples are) to a LOT of what is taught in history classes. And the "sex education" -- pffffft!

If they wanna teach crap AFTER a kid turns 18 (and by then is hopefully in possession of a mind) then fine.
 

JustAsking

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The amount of money and time that has gone into pushing the snake oil that is Intelligent Design is staggering. The Discovery Institute has a budget of many millions of dollars. Every dime of it is spent on PR and lobbying. None of it is spent on research.

The DI is responsible for pushing for legislation in at least 22 states to change the science curriculum so as to undermine the Theory of Evolution.

First is was ID. When that failed they were the one's that spread the "Teach The Controversy" movement. When that failed (with Dover as the final nail), the mantra is now "Critical Analysis".

Don't underestimate these guys. They are extremely well funded by very right wing Christian Dominionists who have lots of money.
 

jason_els

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Do we suck or what? Proof once again that our public education system is abysmal and has been long enough for us to graduate these people, have them grow to adulthood, and then foist this crap on us.

Education in this country is horrible. Save for university levels, the US just can't compete.
 

JustAsking

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Seriously, it is absolutely frightening when over half the US population believes in a form of Creationism and rejects Evolution.

There is a profound lack of science literacy in the country. I don't mean science facts, but a lack of understanding about what science is and how science works.

This is at a time where we are in the beginning of a new millenium that will be dominated by technological and biological issues. If you thought high tech was big, wait for high-bio.

The question is, will the US be a leader or a follower?

In summary: yes we suck at education below the college level.
 

playainda336

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whatever it may be, i personally believe God does not have to be connected to the dogmatic laws of religion...and furthermore, why cant evolution BE intelligent design?
QFT.

Pretty much sums me up...