Conservatives push evolution controversy
Permalink | August 21st, 2005
The debate over “teaching the controversy” and including Intelligent Design in the public school curriculum is continuing to gain momentum. The NY Times writes,
When President Bush plunged into the debate over the teaching of evolution this month, saying, “both sides ought to be properly taught,” he seemed to be reading from the playbook of the Discovery Institute, the conservative think tank here that is at the helm of this newly volatile frontier in the nation’s culture wars.
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Mainstream scientists reject the notion that any controversy over evolution even exists. But Mr. Bush embraced the institute’s talking points by suggesting that alternative theories and criticism should be included in biology curriculums “so people can understand what the debate is about.”
However, just like that slipping top layer of snow on a mountain, this whole issue is about rip out of control and come down on us like an avalanche. Red State Rabble refers to a very interesting, highly provocative, and heated article posted on Slate titled “Evolution vs. Religion: Quit pretending they’re compatible.”
The president seems to view the conflict between evolutionary theory and intelligent design as something like the debate over Social Security reform. But this is not a disagreement with two reasonable points of view, let alone two equally valid ones. Intelligent design, which asserts that gaps in evolutionary science prove God must have had a role in creation, may be — as Bob Wright argues — creationism in camouflage. Or it may be — as William Saletan argues — a step in the creationist cave-in to evolution. But whatever it represents, intelligent design is a faith-based theory with no scientific validity or credibility.
If Bush had said schools should give equal time to the view that the Sun revolves around the Earth, or that smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer, he’d have been laughed out of his office. The difference with evolution is that a large majority of Americans reject what scientists regard as equally well supported: that we’re here because of random mutation and natural selection.
This is not an issue that will quietly go away overnight, nor be solved during a few debates on national television or in a lecture hall. No, this will continue to widen that ever growing rift between the conservative right and everybody else the liberal left. One nation … split.
