Intelligent Design and the Public Schools

     So Intelligent Design has gotten a lot of attention lately, especially with the ruling in the Dover case in Pennsylvania.  The case at this point is moot, because the citizens of Dover voted out the whole school board because of their actions.  (To which Pat Robertson warned the citizens of Dover that they had voted God out of their city and to not be surprised if natural disaster hit them… thanks Pat, you’re a real gem.  It’s no wonder people can’t stand Christians, anyway)

My beef with “evolution” is this: it’s not proven.  In fact, no scientific theory is proven.  I was trained in physics so I spent literally hours working with Newton’s laws.  Newton’s laws are not proven.  In fact, to the contrary, they have been found to be less than useful in situations where objects are traveling near the speed of light.  Does this mean that Newton’s laws are wrong?  It’s the wrong question.

Scientific theories are precisely that – theories.  They are explanations of observed phenomena.  They may be more or less useful and accurate, but they are theories nonetheless.  I am not a biologist but unless biology has been exempted from the ordinary rules of science (sarcasm duly noted) one must admit that this is what the theory of evolution is: its an explanation of observed phenomena.  It’s not a fact, its not proven, it’s not some sacred cow that doesn’t deserve to be tested.  

If I taught high school physics it would a high crime again science to teach only Newton’s laws because we live in world where Newton’s laws don’t provide good explanations for everything, but they do do a pretty good job of explaining a lot of what we deserve.  

So here’s my point: does intelligent design deserve teaching in our public schools?  I’m not sure, I’m not up to date on my Intelligent design knowledge.  But let’s be real and honest and stop trying to deceive everyone into believing that scientific theories are unquestionable.  

My second point is this: there is an official religion of public education, secular humanism.  I am not going to say whether this is a bad thing, but let’s stop pretending that by seeking to keep all religion out of public school we’re not appealing to another religion, we are.  Any statement about god is by nature a theological statement, so to say that god does not exist, or god is not, or even god is a pink banana is a theological statement.  Thus, by preventing the teaching of anything about god our public schools are in fact embracing secular humanism as their official religion.  Again, I’m not saying this is a bad thing.  I think if our schools we to embrace another religion it would undoubtedly be far more trouble that it’s worth.  But my point on this is the same as intelligent design, let’s be honest about it rather than pretending that evolution is a proven fact and that there isn’t a public endorsement of a specific religion.