Yes, thankfully. It seems we shouldn´t give in to stereotypes just yet - the University of Kansas has decided to include intelligent design in a course that explores religious mythologies. After all, says department chair Paul Mirecki, both intelligent design and creationism are mythologies - not science.
Ah the relief. This is great news. And I sincerely believe that until these creationists can come up with a scientific basis for their claims (if that is at all possible), this is as legit as they should ever be able to get in terms of academia.
Coming from Kansas, this means a lot; one does not need to look too far back to see the bad choices that state´s school board has made in terms of science education and its approach to intelligent design. It is a wonderful thing to see that not all is lost in Kansas.
Not surprisingly, the director of the Intelligent Design Network (John Calvert) in the area has already proclaimed that Mirecki will, because of his decision, go down in history as a "laughingstock". In a completely incoherent statement, Calvert said that this is just one more example of how proponents of intelligent design are constantly being labeled as religious nuts.
Uh, excuse me - are they not? And someone should give Calvert and his acolytes a mirror, since they apparently lack the insight to realize that they have already become the laughingstock of much of the nation (the good part of the nation, that is).
I applaud the University of Kansas for tackling the subject as it is: an oddity, a ludicrous and religiously tainted attempt at defining the world - our world. This way, the absurdity of intelligent design - a consequence of the blandness and cultural void currenly plaguing America - will not go unnoticed. Hopefully change will come through awareness; hopefully these students, after being exposed to an intelligent discussion over the not-so-intelligent intelligent design and such, will realize that these religious mythologies embody all that is wrong and backwards in this country. Hopefully.
November 23, 2005
NOT ALL IS LOST IN KANSAS
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2 comments:
Hi there. I couldn't help but chime in on this one--I felt the need a few months back to post on the same subject and I agree with your points!
What gets me is that the proponents of ID say that they are not trying to push evolution out, tjust that they want want kids to know that there is a religious point of view that they should consider. In science class.
But if they are tellling the truth, and simply want to expose children to a non-evolutionary belief-based “explanation,” how about the Hindu creation myth? Or why not the ancient Greek belief that a giant bird in the Great Void laid a golden egg with two halves that became the earth and the sky? Hell, why not just teach them that aliens keep us as pets in a big-ass cage and watch us for their amusement?
To be consistent with their own argument for putting their approach in the schools, ID advocates must acknowledge that any and all of these beliefs are equally suitable as their own Christian creation myth to serve as a faith-based alternative to evolution in our schools.
Funny, though, I do not hear a lot of these folks clamoring for any of these other supernatural beliefs! Only their own. I guess they really do think their view is correct and should be imposed on everyone. In science class, of all places.
I'm grateful not to be in Kansas.
-- david
We all are, David.
Sorry it took me so long to acknowledge your comment/contribution, but I have been away and ever since I came back I've been busy trying to get my act together again.
But I must say, ID is a very scary thing for me. And since it is still on the map. chances are I will eb writing more and more about it in the future. Got to have some release, right?
Welcome to the blog, and hope to see you back.
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