The Marion Chronicle-Tribune, ever a font of wisdom offers up this wishy-washy editorial in support of the Governor’s position on Intelligent Design. The Governor’s position is that the state shouldn’t be micromanaging school curricula. That’s true, as far as it goes, but there is an easier answer with respect to putting Intelligent Design in science classes: it’s not science. Intelligent Design doesn’t depend on observation of natural phenomena or the testing of falsifiable hypotheses: both corner stones of the scientific method.
The threshold question is not about evolution and intelligent design, or whatever you want to call it. The threshold question – the real one that matters – is whether the legislature should tell local school boards and school systems what specific topics must be taught in school.
Nope. The threshold question is whether Intelligent Design is science. It’s not. I’m glad that under the Governor and the Marion-Chronicle Tribune’s standard, ID won’t be mandated by the state. But really, it’s just a way of passing the buck in a way that doesn’t alienate a part of the political base that is willing to degrade science to shore up their faith. As many have noted, some even around here, science need not be perceived as a threat to one’s faith. Though, I would say that, the more dogmatic one’s faith, the more likely science will pose a threat to one’s beliefs. I don’t think we really need to cater to a constituency that is so dogmatic in its faith that it feels threatened by the scientific method.
Karen Francisco writing in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette (h/t the Indiana Law Blog) notes that the GOP is being too cute by half with this Intelligent Design issue:
Intelligent design – a creationist curriculum poorly disguised as science – was not [a priority], [a House Republican spokesperson] insisted, and it was inaccurate to characterize it as such.
But that’s not what the Speaker of the House was saying. In that very day’s edition, the Indianapolis Star reported that Republican Brian Bosma wouldn’t say that a bill mandating the instruction of intelligent design in Indiana schools was a priority; but neither would he confirm that it wasn’t a priority.
So which is it? It depends on whether you’re a member of the bedrock conservative base that the GOP caucus wants to preserve. It’s the wedge issue du jour – designed to energize the faithful and paint the opposition as godless.
Ms. Francisco suggests that the priorities should be property tax relief, cherry master gambling machines, and local government consolidation.
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