The United States of America is the most scientifically advanced country in the world. With only a few top-rank universities, and no more than one in any country except England (Oxford and Cambridge), Europe is a long, long way behind.
And yet, at the same time, the state of Kansas in the US has started teaching Intelligent Design (ID) as science.
Regardless of your individual prejudice to religion; whether you believe in something unproveable or not, there is absolutely no way ID can be considered a science. Science requires the use of theory, based on observation, which is then, where possible, subjected to testing and experiment.
Evolution is being corroborated with each discovery of a new fossil. Every time a fossil is found it matches, at least approximately, what we could expect evolution to have created. I will go out on a limb here and suggest that no human remains will ever be found from the Jurassic period. The creatures of earth today are different to the creatures found here at different periods in the past. Religion, which is the home of ID, will normally tell you that man was created in God’s image. Islam, and less strictly Christeo-Judaism, requires that images of humans or heavenly beings are not created. If God created man in his image, why didn’t he bother until recently? Why were there man-like creatures for several million years?
Science should not be taught as part of a government’s agenda - it should be taught as scientists see fit. No modern government would think it acceptable to intervene in the teaching of history, but for some reason it is acceptable when talking about the truth.
This is a sad day for the US and a sad day for progress.
BBC News article on the subject
November 9th, 2005 at 9:38 pm
I dont want to argue again
(although sometimes I do rather miss you)
but what makes you think the government doesnt mess with the history too.
German accounts of our revolutionary war …say washington led a prodomanitly black platoon, somehow this is not mentioned at all in our history and if you look at the famous painting of him crossing the Delaware there seems to be no black soldiers in the boats. I could list more examples but I wont…You are right though it is a sad day in america……maybe everyday.