OHIO'S GOOD DECISION

Thanks to the recent Ohio Board of Education decision, the Discovery Institute, probably my least favorite think-thank in the United States (and unfortunately based in my favorite city, Seattle), must be scrambling now for a new platform to use in their defense of intelligent design.

In the past, the Discovery Institute made ample use of that board's 2002 requirement that 10th-graders learn how "scientists continue to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory." Whenever the opportunity presented itself, the institute cited the Ohio standards as a model the rest of the nation should be following.

It all changed with the outcome of the Dover, PA case. Not only the Ohio Board of Education is not interested in being sued as the Dover board was, but even Ohio Governor Taft expressed concern over the possibility that the 2002 standards might have paved the way for intelligent design to be taught in science classes.

Characteristically, the Discovery Institute's reaction was one of arrogance and oblivion. Casey Luskin, an attorney for the institute, claimed that the reversal of the 2002 standards is "based on false fears" and that it will keep relevant information from students.

Interesting - see, that is exactly my position on the issue. Intelligent design and similar theories of creationist character are, to me, based on fear. Fear that the world and we as human beings might really have sprung out of nothing, or at least out of nothing immediately recognizable and identifiable to most people. Fear of the natural world, of the complex, of the premise that we as self-determining agents are both personally and collectively accountable for what surrounds us to an extent. Which in turn could mean that redemption as a life goal is an obsolete concept.

It is very comforting to see the Ohio Board of Education coming to terms with the fact that the so-called "critical analysis" imposed in their 2002 curriculum standards was biased from the onset. Under the creationist banner, critical analysis consisted of a group of questions carefully and intelligently designed by the Christian conservatives populating organizations such as the Discovery Institute to undermine the credibility of evolutionary theory, while pushing for a religious agenda in public education (and public life, for that matter).

The tactics might have worked on 10th graders, since they are obviously more easily swayed. Growing up in such a framework, said 10th graders might have led the country to a progressively more conservative stance. This is why it is so important to pay close attention to what happens across the United States on a school district level.

By reversing their own 2002 decision, the Ohio Board of Education is taking an invaluable stand against the predatory politics of the Discovery Insitute, and an even more invaluable stand for the celebration of science and the separation of private and public spheres, i.e, religion and state.