RE: E-M:/ President Bush's support of the teaching of Intelligent Design

["John Rebers" <jrebers@nmu.edu>]

As noted before by several EM participants, a key issue here is a misunderstanding or misuse of what science is all about. The Bush administration has shown a constant reluctance to use the scientific process and to accept scientific data. A prime example is the refusal to accept conclusions on global warming.

 

There was an excellent article about the specific issue of teaching intelligent design published in TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution Vol.18 No.10 October 2003

 

Evolution: what’s wrong with ‘teaching the controversy’

Eugenie C. Scott1 and Glenn Branch1

1National Center for Science Education, PO Box 9477, Berkeley CA 94709-0477 USA

 

A new slogan in the fight against evolution education in the USA and elsewhere is ‘teach the controversy’. Although there are scientific controversies about the patterns and processes of evolution that are appropriate topics for the science classroom, and there is a continuing social controversy in certain circles about the validity of evolution, it is scientifically inappropriate and pedagogically irresponsible to teach that scientists seriously debate the validity of evolution.

 

I would be happy to send the pdf of the complete article to anyone interested.

 

John Rebers

Central Upper Peninsula Sierra Club member and Professor of Biology at Northern Michigan University