Does intelligent design have any place in the science classroom?
Perhaps. ID clearly is not an idea that is in step with modern science, and so science teachers could easily dismiss it as not relevant. Yet, archaic ideas often are mentioned in passing as historical curiosities in the science classroom. I, for example, in my Evolutionary Biology class, find it useful to go over a few of the fundamental problems with intelligent design before pushing on to modern science. But what school boards are trying to do is to force the teaching of ID as an alternative to evolution. They see this as a fairness issue and Americans are all in favor of fairness. President Bush has even weighed in on the issue by saying “both sides ought to be properly taught.” It is hard to know what to make of such a comment. There really aren’t two sides; scientists don’t argue about this anymore. In fact, I really don’t know what anyone would teach under the heading of “intelligent design” except to say that it was a miracle. Does religion in general have any place in science?
