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December 22, 2005

"What you can't do is teach Intelligent Design as a science"

The O gets one right:

But intelligent design isn't science, either. Science is based on observations that can be tested, repeated and proved. Religious creation theories are grounded in the divine, which is unknowable. Marrying the two is a matter of private faith, not public instruction.

Oregon, to its credit, hasn't gotten caught up in the latest debate. "Oregon has been pretty quiet," said Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, a group that defends evolution theory and monitors state policies.

But Branch added, "You can expect a fight when the scientific standards come up for review."

The Oregon Department of Education says it's already getting calls from both sides. It also hears from educators worried about violating the law.

In truth, current state policy is far less hostile to religion than educators or the public might think.

"You can talk about religion in social studies classes, or literature classes," Education Department spokesman Gene Evans said. "You can even talk about intelligent design in a science class, if you talk about it in terms of current events.

"What you can't do is teach intelligent design as a science."

I'd be sincerely surprised if there was a hard push in Oregon to have ID taught in science class. There are certain hard right winger quarters in pockets around the state. But among these socially conservative groups there are those who believe religion and the state must be remain apart.

Not to mention the pushback from the larger portion of the state that aren't hard right conservative would probably be immense.

When I was a school girl on the east side of Oregon I can recall our social studies class spending a large chunk of time studying the various world religions. Christianity was one of them. My religiously conservative parents embraced the opportunity for me to learn and study about these other faiths.

And as hard core conservative as they are, I don't think they'd support the teaching of intelligent design in a science class.

That might be a question to pose over the family get together at Christmas. Who knows? Maybe we could test another scientific theory: the velocity of mashed potatoes as they're flung across the room.

Posted by Carla at December 22, 2005 08:26 AM