A couple of useful updates

The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) has posted an article about our ‘Antievolution legislation’ in which they add,

Utahns concerned about the threatened legislation are encouraged to get in touch with Duane Jeffrey, a professor of biology at Brigham Young University and a member of NCSE's board of directors, at duane_jeffery@byu.edu.

Duane Jeffery is also quoted in a recent BYU NewsNet article:

Duane Jeffery, BYU professor of integrative biology, said it is unfair to use intelligent design as an alternative to evolution because it is not a theory in the scientific sense.

“Intelligent design claims to be an alternate theory to evolution,” Jeffery said. “It cannot qualify as a theory.”

A scientific theory, Jeffery said, is a broad summation that pulls together massive amounts of data and gives direction for future testing. The problem with intelligent design is it cannot be tested for validation, he said.

“You can’t test anything with intelligent design,” he said. “There’s no way you can do science with it. Nobody has been able to.”

Jeffery said it is essential to continue to distinguish between hard science and speculation so students become competitive on the international level.

”There’s no question that science is the radical force in society,” he said. “It’s the only thing we have for conserving our natural resources; it’s the only thing that pushes progress. If we teach young students that science is inimical to their religious beliefs then we will fall behind, and we already have.”

Sen. Chris Buttars, who is pushing the ‘Antievolution legislation’ here in Utah, says that teaching evolution without Intelligent Design is just censorship.

Also, the University of Kansas has decided to teach Intelligent Design in a class titled Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design and Creationism. Paul Mirecki, the course professor, had said regarding the class’ creation,

"The KU faculty has had enough," said Paul Mirecki…

"Creationism is mythology," Mirecki said. "Intelligent design is mythology. It's not science. They try to make it sound like science. It clearly is not."

But it sounds like he has since apologized for those remarks. In an article on KU website they mention, “The course description, reading list and syllabus will be released publicly before classes start Jan. 20, 2006.” But what really caught my eye was their plan to make the course lectures available through the Internet. That should be interesting.

Here is the class catalog description for anyone wanting to take the class :^)

REL 602 Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design and Creationism
This course will introduce students to the variety of approaches to myth in the academic study of religion, with special attention to accounts of creation and cosmogony. The focal point will be creationism as a distinctly American phenomenon and its place at the intersection of politics, religion and education
7:00-9:30 pm T 100 Smith Class # 70162UG/70163G Paul Mirecki