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August 3, 2005
Update on President Bush and Intelligent Design Creationism
Yesterday Abnormal Interests and well over 150 other blogs (Pharyngula has a list of many of them) condemned the President for his irresponsible remarks advocating the pseudoscience of intelligent design creationism.
In addition to PZ Myers response on Pharyngula, four other responses struck me as particularly cogent. Carl Zimmer at The Loom asks,
Mr. President, I would ask, how do you reconcile your statement that Intelligent Design should be taught alongside evolution with the fact that your administration, like both Republican and Democratic administrations before it, has supported research in evolution by our country's leading scientists, while failing to support a single study that is explicitly based on Intelligent Design? The National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and even the Department of Energy have all decided that evolution is a cornerstone to advances in our understanding of diseases, the environment, and even biotechnology. They have found no such value in Intelligent Design. Are they wrong? Can you tell us why?
America Blog asks more bluntly,
Does the President believe students should be taught about astrology? Does the President believe students should be taught about crystals/New Age therapy?Does the President believe students should be taught the theory that the US landing on the moon was faked? Why not? There are dozens if not hundreds of books pushing this theory. A certain percentage of the population believes it and it was even the subject of a primetime documentary on Fox? What possible justification could the President offer for keeping this "debate" from students? And why doesn't that justification apply to creationism as well?
The 43,000 member American Geophysical Union issued a press release that contained the following,
"President Bush, in advocating that the concept of 'intelligent design' be taught alongside the theory of evolution, puts America's schoolchildren at risk," says Fred Spilhaus, Executive Director of the American Geophysical Union. "Americans will need basic understanding of science in order to participate effectively in the 21st century world. It is essential that students on every level learn what science is and how scientific knowledge progresses."[snip]
"Scientific theories, like evolution, relativity and plate tectonics, are based on hypotheses that have survived extensive testing and repeated verification," Spilhaus says. "The President has unfortunately confused the difference between science and belief. It is essential that students understand that a scientific theory is not a belief, hunch, or untested hypothesis."
"Ideas that are based on faith, including 'intelligent design,' operate in a different sphere and should not be confused with science. Outside the sphere of their laboratories and science classrooms, scientists and students alike may believe what they choose about the origins of life, but inside that sphere, they are bound by the scientific method," Spilhaus said." [emphasis added]
And finally, National Science Teachers' Association has issued a statement on behalf of its 55,000 members that says in part
The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the world's largest organization of science educators, is stunned and disappointed that President Bush is endorsing the teaching of intelligent design - effectively opening the door for nonscientific ideas to be taught in the nation's K-12 science classrooms."We stand with the nation's leading scientific organizations and scientists, including Dr. John Marburger, the president's top science advisor, in stating that intelligent design is not science. Intelligent design has no place in the science classroom," said Gerry Wheeler, NSTA Executive Director. [emphasis added]
Posted by Duane Smith at August 3, 2005 2:24 PM | Read more on Evolution |
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