"Bush backs teaching intelligent design

By Ron Hutcheson
Inquirer Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - President Bush waded into the debate over evolution and
intelligent design yesterday, saying schools should teach both theories
on the creation and complexity of life.

In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with a small group of
reporters, Bush essentially endorsed efforts by Christian conservatives
to give intelligent design equal standing with the theory of evolution
in the nation's schools.

Bush declined to state his personal views on intelligent design, the
belief that life-forms are so complex that their creation cannot be
explained by Darwinian evolutionary theory alone, but rather points to
intentional creation, presumably divine.

The theory of evolution, as articulated by British naturalist Charles
Darwin in 1859, is based on the idea that life organisms developed over
time through random mutations and factors in nature that favored certain
traits that helped species survive.

Scientists concede that evolution does not answer every question about
the creation of life, but most consider intelligent design an attempt to
inject religion into science courses.

Bush compared the current debate to earlier disputes over creationism, a
related view that adheres more closely to biblical explanations. As
governor of Texas, Bush said students should be exposed to both
creationism and evolution.

Yesterday, the President said he favored the same approach for
intelligent design, "so people can understand what the debate is about."

The Kansas Board of Education is considering changes to encourage the
teaching of intelligent design in Kansas schools, and Christian
conservatives are pushing for similar changes in other school districts
across the country.

"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools
of thought," Bush said. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to
be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes.""

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Now kids, in science class here we revere Galileo for determining the diameter of the earth by consulting the actual visual experience of the world, and measuring the shadows on the moon -- a classic example of the best scientific method for discovering new things, such as the roundness of the Earth.

At the same time, there are equally strongly held views that this is all a sham, and that any fool can see the earth is flat just by standing at one edge of a cornfield in Missouri and looking for himself. We are obliged by law to present you with both hypotheses. AFter all, they are just theories.

You must decide these things for yourself; that's the American way...."

Dear God, preserve us from such fools...


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