I see the stated purpose of the Bill is “to encourage students to critically analyze theories regarding the origins of life or the origins or present state of the human race, consider opposing viewpoints, and form their own opinions”. With this in mind, if a student where to ask his science teacher the critically analyzing question, “what opposing viewpoints to evolution are there, and which scientists are disagreeing with it?” - What would you suggest should be that teachers answer?
A. Tell the kid straight up “Intelligent Design, of course, and here’s Micheal Behe’s book to read (if you’d like to).”Readers of this blog (and that includes any of you Eagle Forum lurkers here): What would your answer be?
B. Silence, look dumb, play dead, or some similar variation.
C. Lie to the kid, and say, “I don’t know”, and try to look really smart.
D. Tell the kid to go talk to his pastor or bishop for more information on science.
E. Tell the kid that it’s against federal law for the teacher to answer that question (then proceed with answer B or D above).
F. Other: ________________________
1 comment:
I would answer "F" and tell the kid:
"Of course there are opposing viewpoints to evolution, just as there are opposing viewpoints to many other scientific theories. As with other topics, not all opposing viewpoints are considered credible by a wide majority of scientists. As you learned back in 7th grade science, that doesn't make them wrong, just suspect.
"The most popular opposing viewpoint to evolution today is called 'intelligent design'. Blah blah blah about intelligent design. [ed: someone more familiar with intelligent design can fill this in].
"Because intelligent design is not accepted by a wide majority of scientists, it should be considered suspect. Why don't you go read the seminal works on Intelligent Design. You can then work out ways to use the scientific method to test both theories. If this really becomes interesting to you, then it can evolve (or grow) into a fine careeer path.
"We won't talk much about intelligent design in class. In High School, we focus on widely accepted theories. Otherwise, our school board would be put in the awkward position of evauting the merits of scientific publications rather than relying on the majority consensus of the scientific community.
By then, the kid will either think, "gee, sorry I asked. Are we done yet?" or "hmm. That's interesting. What will my science fair project be on this year?"
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