Darwin's Revenge

The forces of reason are fighting back in Kansas, trying to take the state schoolboard back from the conservative majority that has been moving to place unscientific religious beliefs into the school curriculum as science. I think the best quote in the story is this one:

“When the mainstream scientific community determines a theory is correct, that’s when it should be in the schools,” Ms. Waugh said. “The intelligent design people are trying to cut in line.”

That's exactly what the ID people are trying to do. Have you ever heard an ID argument? The only reason some people accept ID is because its assertions match their already held world view. All "evidence" for intelligent design boils down to one, unsupportable assertion -- that the natural world is too complex to have come into being without a creator. It's a cop out. If science followed the standards ID proponents maintain for their "theory" technological progress would be an oxymoron. After all, I can't remember the last time God plopped a computer or car or x-ray machine, fully formed, down in somebody's backyard.

Saying "God did it" is not a valid theory. It's a religious belief and it has no place in any science classroom. If ID proponents want to have their ideas accepted as science, they need to follow the process real scientists follow to get their ideas accepted by the scientific community. Unless they can do that, no schoolboard has any business forcing ID on students.