I'm listening to NPR on the way into work today (I don't particularly care for NPR since they "Jumped the Shark", but I like sophomoronic "Morning Zoo" programming even less) and I caught a piece about the troubles they're having in the Dover, PA school system. Seems that the School Board has decreed that in their Science classrooms, when they get to the part of the Biology book that discusses Darwin and Evolution, a "School Official" must come into the classroom and read a 1-minute canned statement (approved by the Board, no doubt) that states that Evolution is ONLY a THEORY, it's not proven, AND there is another point of view called (wait for it...) INTELLIGENT DESIGN...
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The Wheelman's blog | 1 comment

A friend just sent me a link to Hendrik Hertzberg's commentary in the August 22, 2005 issue of The New Yorker. Mr. Hertzberg weighs in on President Bush's recent regretful remarks promoting the teaching of Intelligent Design in the science classroom, and the Bush administration's antagonism towards science in general. Given the wide range of criticism directed at President Bush I am more hopeful these days that rationality has not been totally abandoned in the U.S. A brief excerpt:

Looked at one way, this colloquy is an occasion for national shame, albeit with a whiff of the risible: here is our country's leader, the champion-in-chief of educational standards, blandly equating natural science and supernatural supposition as “different schools of thought.” Looked at another way, it represents progress of a sort. Twenty-five years ago, Ronald Reagan, then the Republican candidate for President, endorsed the teaching of “creationism”; five years ago, George W. Bush did the same.

 

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