Letter to the Editor
Bush said that schools should teach the so called Intelligent Design theory in schools. Intelligent Design merely states that life is complex and had to be designed by "someone", and stops there. But when you ask who the designer is, they don't want to talk about that, because all of a sudden ID becomes a thinly veiled front for Creationism. If life requires a designer, then who is the designer and who made the designer? If you think through what ID is saying, you could conclude that God doesn't exist because something as complex as God couldn't "just happen".
The difference between science and fictional beliefs is that science isn't afraid of scrutiny. Those who promote ID run when you ask the question, "Who is the designer?" Science isn't afraid to think things through and ask the tough questions. Trying to rename Creationism as Intelligent Design is dishonest, and Christians aren't going to win over any souls by being caught taking liberties with the truth. They should think about their own commandments about bearing false witness.
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Read more on the Church of Reality Evolution Page.
Posted by marc at August 3, 2005 08:35 AMHello. I just read your letter in today's BuzzFlash mailbag. (I have no idea what URL refers to, so I doubt that you'll get this message.)
Here's the letter I sent (too late to get published on Buzz this afternoon).
(I hope I can copy/paste it.)
OK -- here goes:
Subj:Why not equal classroom time for flat-earthers too??
Date:8/3/05 5:38:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From:catsmeow0528
To:buzzflash@buzzflash.com
CC:mailonbuzz@yahoo.com
I haven't had my blood pressure checked lately (no medical insurance), but I'm sure it went up considerably as I read two articles in today's NYT. (In addition to foaming at the mouth, I seem to be connecting many dots these days. Nothing like being underemployed to stimulate one's brain.)
First, I read the piece about the Chimp's advocacy of giving "intelligent design" equal time with evolutionary theory. (Frankly, I HATE the claim that evolution is ONLY "a theory," thereby open to attack by wingnuts who have their own theories to oppose it. As anyone who follows science knows, the test for SCIENTIFIC theory is much more rigorous and specific; i.e., to even QUALIFY as theory, a concept goes through many tests. In contrast, a theological, Bible-centric "theory" is actually nothing but a faith-based belief. (Note to devout, literal-minded Christians: I don't have the answers -- but FAITH DOES NOT QUALIFY AS SCIENCE.)
When you couple the push toward teaching "Intelligent Design" on a par with Darwin's (and subsequent developers') evolutionary theory in classrooms throughout the nation with the simultaneous movement to disembowel the public school system -- primarily though the EXTREMELY UNDERFUNDED "Leave No Child Behind" act -- and turn students from "failing" schools over to private academies owned and operated by the religious right -- you get a recipe for brainwashed students who don't recognize the boundaries between religious faith and true science.
It's been happening here in Georgia, at least in the 9 years I've been living here. More and more parents (the ones who can afford it) are sending their kids to private schools. Some are overtly religious. Others, supposedly secular, are covertly religious. I used to work with two people whose kids attended "private" schools -- one overtly, the other covertly religious. Since I work as an editor (and no, I write too fast to edit my own emails! Forgive the typos!!) their moms (with whom I worked) gave me their papers to review. BOTH schools -- the overtly religious one and the faux-secular one -- were teaching a version of creationism and calling it science. I was appalled.
I don't know how to transition from this message to the fact that, in 48 hours, 20 more U.S. troops have been blasted to oblivion -- in what has been called the "last throes" of the Iraqi insurrection. I grieve for the parents, wives, children, friends of those killed. But I grieve equally for our country. Being lied into an unjust war, being lied to about the prospects for actual withdrawal from Iraq, being lied to about almost everything this administration has had a hand in is enough to have made our Founding Fathers call for revolution. Further impoverishing the already the poor by denying them decent health care, housing, child care and other benefits -- and then shuffling their children into religious-right-run schools where they'll be brainwashed to believe that their poverty and submission to those in power is God's will -- hey, anyone remember the promise to Christianized slaves: "You'll have pie in the sky when you die" ? --disgusts me so much that my only response is an upset stomach and a whole lot of anger.
Barb in Athens, GA
Blue soul in Red state
We are so going backwards in this country. I'm sure its all some part of the machines plan to take us to that imaginary time that never existed where this country was like 'Leave it to Beaver' and 'Andy Griffith Show'. I thought we had proved that we share like 98% of our genes with primates - After that I mean seems kinda silly on their part to keep at the point that we have not evolved or adapted.
Minerva Jones
Personally, I believe in The Flying Spaghetti Monster theory of intelligent design.
Posted by: Adam at August 28, 2005 01:25 AM