The ID Flame War
Well, interesting series of events today. On my post about the upcoming Ben stein movie, I got a comment from someone over at TheScroogeReport. It is basically nothing more than a link to their post about the movie taking a pro-Ben pro-ID stance.
Now, as I am all about free speech, I approved the comment. I also posted a comment linking back to this site. Lets see if they return the favor. From their post:
The opposition to the Intelligent Design school of thought is so strong that not only have jobs been placed in jeapordy, but censorship reigns free.
The movie’s exposition of censorship in the educational system should no longer be a stretch in anyone’s mind. Those of you that peruse the internet, blogging and chatting, should already know about the ID hate that is out there.
Fair enough. Everyone can have their opinion. Calling the pursuit of legitimate science over mythology “censorship” may be stretching the facts a bit.
I believe the word “Censorship” generates an immediate visceral reaction from most people. We have been trained to perceive it as an especially evil activity, and to fight tooth and nail against it. The use of “Censorship” in regards to ID therefore is purely inflammatory, and not a proper use of the term.
Creationism and intelligent design are not legitimate, provable scientific theories. They have no factual basis beyond the unshakable belief of their proponents. There are no supporting facts and no provable experiments or mathematical formula to support the idea. All evidence provided up to now has proven to be overly broad, vague or highly discredited.
For this reason, its not science. It does not belong in a science class. I support the teaching of ID in mythology, philosophy or any of the other format where the story is not perceived to be delivered as fact.
Not teaching ID in science class isn’t censorship anymore than not teaching it during drivers ed would be. its placing the relevant information into proper context. You can believe what you want, but do not present your unsupported beliefs as science. The fight is not against the idea of ID, its against presenting that idea as something its not.
