2008 Woodie Awards
The design debate . . .
Should intelligent design be taught in the school house or should it remain in the church house?
Sara Dunn
Issue date: 10/13/05 Section: Opinion
Where did we come from? In our primarily Anglo-Saxon society, we're told that God created the earth and everything that exists on it.
Children are taught this concept and even if it isn't through church, most children have heard it and believe that God created this world.
These children go on to middle school where they learn about gravity and dinosaurs, both of which are theories rather than facts.
Then they learn about Darwinism, evolution and the big bang concept ... all theories. Everything in science is a theory.
To be quite clear, theories are not facts - they are just widely believed statements that have a lot of empirical evidence supporting them.
It is a theory that dinosaurs existed. Scientists can never go back in to the Mesozoic Era to see it the Tyrannosaurus rex was a predator and not just alien garbage dumped onto Earth, which could have been a landfill for extra-terrestrials.
Now some schools, like Dover High School in Pennsylvania, are trying to mandate the teaching of "intelligent design" as an alternative to evolution - some things that cannot be explained in Darwin's theory, such as the origin of life or the emergence of complex life forms.
Intelligent design is a belief that earth and life on earth are products of an unidentified intelligent force - and then evolution took hold.
Most critics say intelligent design is creationism disguised as science and it does not belong in a school curriculum.
This is true. Intelligent design does not belong in a classroom but some people are against it for the wrong reasons.
The teaching of intelligent design doesn't force any religion on the students, it just informs them of a religious point of view.
What the teaching of this does violate is the establishment of one national religion.
If schools teach students about theories that have non-scientific/religious connotations, then all religions should be included.
If not, then schools are establishing a solid belief that there is a higher being and that can, and probably will, lead to an establishment of a national religion, which goes against everything this country was built on.
Children are taught this concept and even if it isn't through church, most children have heard it and believe that God created this world.
These children go on to middle school where they learn about gravity and dinosaurs, both of which are theories rather than facts.
Then they learn about Darwinism, evolution and the big bang concept ... all theories. Everything in science is a theory.
To be quite clear, theories are not facts - they are just widely believed statements that have a lot of empirical evidence supporting them.
It is a theory that dinosaurs existed. Scientists can never go back in to the Mesozoic Era to see it the Tyrannosaurus rex was a predator and not just alien garbage dumped onto Earth, which could have been a landfill for extra-terrestrials.
Now some schools, like Dover High School in Pennsylvania, are trying to mandate the teaching of "intelligent design" as an alternative to evolution - some things that cannot be explained in Darwin's theory, such as the origin of life or the emergence of complex life forms.
Intelligent design is a belief that earth and life on earth are products of an unidentified intelligent force - and then evolution took hold.
Most critics say intelligent design is creationism disguised as science and it does not belong in a school curriculum.
This is true. Intelligent design does not belong in a classroom but some people are against it for the wrong reasons.
The teaching of intelligent design doesn't force any religion on the students, it just informs them of a religious point of view.
What the teaching of this does violate is the establishment of one national religion.
If schools teach students about theories that have non-scientific/religious connotations, then all religions should be included.
If not, then schools are establishing a solid belief that there is a higher being and that can, and probably will, lead to an establishment of a national religion, which goes against everything this country was built on.