Intelligent Design - A Solution
I just read another article on this sujbect, and I don't have the strength to post it. Seriously, the lawyers on this case, and well as the kansas school boards and other sound-boarding poliicians, are showing their inability to serve the public as leaders.Honestly, does anyone with high level of intelligence and education actually "buy" intelligent design as a scientific priciple? IT is not science. I find it hard to believe that they actually don't understand this themselves. This is a case of pandering to the will of the proles like a bunch scard kids, rather than standing up and defending what intelligence and common sense demand.
Based on this, could there be a way to fulfill "God's agenda" in a modern day classroom? Futhermore, is there a way to reconcile common sense? Absolutely.
Teach IT in literature classes.
IT is not a vaid scientific priciple for understanding the physics of existence, but it's still a valid philosophy. As a holder of a degree in English Education, I would have been more than happy to teach IT in my classroom, and I think you would find many, many in the field who'd relish the opportunity to create such an exciting debate.
And even better, it actually applies to the subject. How can you teach Dante's Inferno without a discussion of Intelligent Design? How can you teach Shakespeare?
Why stop there. As a trained English teacher, I would be more than happy to have a whole Unit on the Bible. Just examining the rich history of the King James version and it's public use, with the simplified 11,000 word lexicon, the use of the printing press, the social cimate and dissatisfaction with the Church, the rise of protestant thought. . . all the concepts and social philosophies that it introduces, like public health, census taking, law building, social resposibility, etc. . . Plus, all of the negative influeces on social thought, such as fueling intolerance, suppressed roles of women and minorities, homophobia, and so on. My swarthy little brain seethes at the oportunity to sponsor such a debate in a classroom.
This truth is, the Bible stands is the most widely printed and distributed work of literature in the history of civilization. Is it science? No. Is it true? Who cares. . . it's still a philosophy with widely felt influences. I'd bet there are thousands of English teachers who would revel at the opportunity to teach it.
English teacher could even drop the whole "IT" catch-phrase, and go right back to calling it "Creationism."
To anyone's knowledge, has this compromise ever been broached publicly? Furthermore, with the careers of so many frightened politicians on the line, would they even care? After all, they're banking their careers on pandering to a popilation that can't find Israel on a globe.
posted by Chris W. @ 7:57 AM
