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Post details: Why It's Unconstitutional to Teach "Intelligent Design" in the Public Schools, as an Alternative to Evolution
12/26/04
Why It's Unconstitutional to Teach "Intelligent Design" in the Public Schools, as an Alternative to Evolution
Michael C. Dorf, Michael I. Sovern Professor of Law at Columbia University in New York City, comments on ID in the Find Law's Legal Commentary.
Like so many others, Dr. Dorf claims that our search for the truth about the world is described either "scientifically" or "religiously". Entertaining the possibility of a transcendent reality beyond matter, energy, space, and time, is deemed "religious". Materialists, in their narrowed world view will never allow for the possibility that non-material, transcendent beings (agents) exist, or that acknowledgement of them is "scientific".
Dr. Dorf does offer an interesting take on school curriculum. He states that "there is no general constitutional requirement that public school students be taught the truth." If the curriculum serves the "good" of the state, teach it.
Dr. Dorf claims that ID is not a scientific theory because it conflates uncertainty with error, and it is not an explanation for the reality we discover.
He states, "by contrast, what does it mean to say that species arise or change through 'intelligent design?' Certainly the term connotes intervention by some intelligent agent. But are the intelligent agent's interventions themselves subject to the laws of the natural world, or are they supernatural? Even if one is prepared to accept the possibility that science could, without sacrificing its essential premises, include accounts of supernatural phenomena, the concept of 'intelligent design,' standing alone, is simply a label, not an account."
But, would ID be any less true because the agent chose not to fully reveal the details or overarching plan and purpose of the creation? Remember, though, the constitution does not require that truth be taught in public schools.
Perhaps origins should not be taught in any science class. Maybe Darwinism should be put in its proper place in a Comparative Religion curriculum.
For the full commentary, click HERE.
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