Intelligent design sans religion in the debate editorial

Another article, another person who refuses to separate their belief from actual science. In the Daytona Beach News Journal Online, "Intelligent Design sans Religion in the Debate" is a nice try, but a pretty obvious ploy. The Author, Mr. Daniel Price, does a Discovery Institute trick and claims to remove the idea of religion from the debate and then expresses his facts covered in his belief, or in this case his disbelief of evolution. Nothing new here, but it does show you how some people can convince themselves of just about anything.

My posted response to the article:

The reason the 'debate' still rages is because a small segment of mostly Christian fundamentalist want the Bible treated as a biology/Astronomy/Cosmology/Geology/Physics textbook. The very idea that Evolution is correct damages their frail egos! 11,000 Christian Clergy have signed a letter stating Evolution is an accepted fact and not teaching Evolution is a disservice to our young (http://www.butler.edu/clergyproject/rel_evol_sun.htm). Every major scientific organization in the world has accepted Evolution as a valid and compelling scientific theory and that it is the basis for much of Biology. The only people who disagree are fighting against it for religious reasons, no matter how they try and hide their arguments in scientific sounding terms. Just look at this article and the wording: "So let's remove the issue of religion from this discussion . . .", "Let's look at some cold hard facts.", and "The fact is we are too complicated to not have a creator." sounds like rational arguments, but they are all arguments from personal incredulity. In other words "I do not agree, thereby it cannot be true!" That is what is known as am argument from fallacy, and a pretty poor one at that.

But when one's world view is upset, one tends to fight back. They tried for decades and were pretty successful keeping Creationism in the classroom, until recent years. Did you know the Butler Act, the law John Scopes was convicted of violating in the 1925 Scopes Monkey wasn't repealed until 1967? In the 60's and 70's many states required Creationism be taught alongside Evolution -- if Evolution was taught at all. It wasn't until the 80's when science got the upper hand in public school classrooms. And that has been like a sharp needle to avowed Creationists.

We will have to keep fighting this battle, luckily it is a political battle and not one in the science community. But we will have to keep fighting if we want a real education for our children! I for one plan to keep at it!

Luckily there also seems to be plenty of people who don't want a group like the Discovery Institute, or any narrow fundamentalist viewpoint from contaminating education.