The Seattle Times reports:
Bush essentially endorsed efforts by Christian conservatives to give intelligent design equal standing with evolution in the nation’s schools. ... Bush ... compared the current debate to earlier disputes over “creationism,” a related view that adheres more closely to biblical explanations. As governor of Texas, Bush said students should be exposed to both creationism and evolution. Yesterday the president said he favors the same approach for intelligent design “so people can understand what the debate is about.”
Of course, there is no scientific “debate” here, just a manufactured debate that has been “intelligently designed” by religious conservatives as a first step in an agenda that includes eliminating materialistic, naturalistic science and restructuring all of American society along their own religious preferences.
“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.”
Different ideas... like Satanism? Oh, we don’t need to go that far. Why not just have a course taught by an atheist about all the problems, flaws, and fallacies in both theism and in organized religions? That will expose students to all sorts of “different ideas” which they probably won’t hear at home. President Bush supports this, right?
No, I doubt it — he supports exposing people to “different ideas” when those ideas support his religious beliefs, but I don’t suppose he feels the same way when those ideas might undermine his religious beliefs. Besides, science class isn’t an appropriate venue for talking about “different ideas” simply for the sake of exposing kids to “different ideas.” Science class is a place where students should learn the best ideas which science currently has to offer — and “Intelligent” Design doesn’t rate even a brief mention, much less full-scale instruction.
Even Bush’s own science advisor has said that Intelligent Design is unscientific and that evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology. I guess Bush didn’t get the memo that it’s unwise to publicly endorse pseudoscience... oh, wait, he’s not a citizen of the reality-based community where facts matter more than faith. I almost forgot for a second there.
At Panda's Thumb, Ed Darrel writes:
Let’s be clear — it’s not just a small group of “evolutionists” who have a stake in this. It is all of health care and all of agriculture. Beating the cotton boll weevil depends on evolution, not “intelligent design.” Finding oil depends on geology that supports evolution and falsifies creationism and intelligent design. Bush has announced in favor of cancer and malaria. Bush has announced in favor of American captivity to Arab oil.
Well, we aren’t dealing with people for whom reality is significant when it comes to making policy decisions. The current administration is more ideologically driven than almost any other — conclusions come first and data is altered to fit those conclusions.
Read More: