LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I like Daily Kos. Yes, it's a steaming pile of Democratic and liberal opinion, mixed with heady wit and insightful writing, but I am there for the heady wit and insightful writing. So, here's a small taste of it to get you hooked.

By now everyone's heard of the events in Kansas:

The hearings in Topeka, scheduled to last several days, are focusing on two proposals. The first recommends that students continue to be taught the theory of evolution because it is key to understanding biology. The other proposes that Kansas alter the definition of science, not limiting it to theories based on natural explanations. [...]

"Part of our overall goal is to remove the bias against religion that is in our schools," said William Harris, a chemist who was the first witness to speak Thursday on behalf of changing the state's curriculum. "This is a scientific controversy that has powerful religious implications."

Ok, here we go.

My problem with this debate is that this isn't about being pro-religion or anti-religion or faith-neutral; it's about institutionalizing stupidity as a valid lifestyle choice.

There are plenty of individuals in the world -- people of deep faith, regular churchgoers, etc. -- who see no conflict between faith and science. It requires significantly less imagination, if you are of both a scientific and a religious bent, to imagine the universe being set into motion through a single, unimaginably powerful spark of existence -- a singularity of time and space that gave birth to all that followed -- than it is to imagine the earth, heavens, animals, plants, elements, galaxies, fossil records, tectonic processes, quantum effects, etc., etc., etc., each being laid out one-by-one like props on a television set, all waiting to be set into motion at once when an unseen director cries action on the two poor unknowing saps gorging themselves at the buffet table. Science, as it turns out, requires that you believe in a much more powerful and ingenious God than the God of fundamentalist Topeka, Kansas.

Institutionalizing stupidity... that sounds a lot like "No Child Left Behind", doesn't it? And the virulent anti-science (not just anti-evolution, anti-science, folks!) tack is scary. What kind of country will this be if our kids aren't taught proper scientific theories and then try to get an advanced education? How will we compete in science and technology? We won't. We're already slipping. I can care less if creationism is taught in schools (in mythology class, maybe)- unless it is taught in place of science. That is what these people in Kansas are aiming to do- replace real rough-and-tumble, always being refined and re-defined science with a nice, hermetically sealed 'irreducable complexity' load of nonsense called "Intelligent Design"- the creationist wolf in nicely repackaged sheepskin.

I feel sorry for our kids. Seriously.