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Grrrr. Or Why Intelligent Design Supporters are SOOOO Stupid.
posted by GJ on June 7, 2007 @ 12:54PM
I heard the following crap make it's way out of John McCain's mouth during the Republican debate the other day. It went like this: "School boards should have the right to set their own education policy. It's my opinion that all views, all theories need to be taught to our children." This is code for "I want schools to be able to teach Intelligent Design if they so choose." The backers of ID say, hey, evolution as a theory has lots of holes, and this ID is a competing theory. We've been over this before in the blog--ID is not a theory. See, a theory about the origin of species has so say something other than "Evolution is wrong, and here's why." So, ignore for a second about me not thinking too fondly of ID. Imagine, instead, that the 9/11 conspiracy nuts get in on this argument. Shouldn't then "Loose Change" be shown along with "Fahrenheit 911" when talking about the events of that day in history class? How about letting Holocaust deniers have a say when talking about what the Germans did to the Jews and other undesirables during WWII? What about the moon landing hoax supporters? Should they not get to counter the "theory" that we actually landed on the moon? Of course not, right? These are all crackpot ideas. You have to draw the line somewhere, and you draw it with the evidence stick. Have evidence to back up your theory? Is it compelling? Are there any obvious flaws that your theory cannot explain? That is how we figure out what theories are the wheat, and what are the chaff. Not all wheat theories hold up, but the chaff ones never do, so why bother wasting time with them? So, let's be clear. The proponents of ID want ID taught in school to counter the teaching of the theory evolution and show students that there is a "scientific" alternative to evolution that leaves room for some kind of something: God, The Force, something. However, it's not scientific, as it makes no provable claims about the origin of species. Nada, nothing. Does evolution have holes? Of course it does--any theory does, and you work to close those holes over time. Maybe someday we'll find a problem with evolution model, and discard it in favor of a better working model...but until that model comes around, evolution is the best explaination for the origin of species. So, of course, the IDers want to push the teaching of ID in via the political process. This is the problem--just because a bogus theory is popular, it does not make it any more functional or valuable. There are a lot of people in the world that believe that 9/11 was an inside job--but they have virtually nothing beyond circumstantial evidence, and a lot of problems within itself that cannot be corrected. As a result, we will not be teacing that in school--so why try to teach ID? It doesn't pass the theory test, either. So, thank you John McCain, and the rest of you politicians who have stated this opinion. You're not getting my vote to help turn our science education in this country into a joke.
| Tags: woo, religion, politics, science
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