Thursday, May 12, 2005

Kids' book on evolution stirs censorship debate in Monticello

Kids' book on evolution stirs censorship debate in Monticello A fair and balanced article. It avoids painting advocates of Intelligent Design or critics of Darwinian macro-evolution as anti-science flat-earthers. The cries of "censorship!" come across as shrill and hysterical (which they are), and the school administrators come across as spineless (which they are). Yes, it's appropriate for a school set policies to teach certain topics at certain grade levels, but come on! My kids were exposed to the "origins story" in Montessori preschool. Elementary kids are into dinosaurs. The topic comes up. Instead of "caving in" to "religious extremists" - those horrible bogeymen - the school has caved to the Darwinian Dogmatists. Micro-evolution is observable. Macro-evolution is not. It's an assumption. Common Descent has not been proved. There is evidence that supports it, but the same evidence can be interpreted in support of Intelligent Design. The problem that the Materialists have is that Intelligent Design requires an Intelligent Designer, and despite IDer's assurances that it doesn't matter whether the Designer turns out to be Christ, "I AM WHO AM," Zeus, Odin, Vishnu, or Barney, if a student is allowed to think about Design, he or she might utter the Forbidden Word - you know, the one that begins with a "g" - in a public school, which would directly contravene many postmodern jurist's reinterpretation of the Founding Father's Original Intent, resulting in the collapse of Western Civilization. Or at the very least Barry Lynne (the founder of People United to Censor Public Expressions of Faith) would be offended, which could be worse. After all, he gives press conferences and files lawsuits.

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