Equal Time

Salt Lake Tribune wrote Intelligent Design: Why limit equal time to biology class? President Bush has thrown in with those who think that an idea called "intelligent design" should be taught alongside evolution in the nation's schools. "I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," the president told some visiting newspaper reporters from his native Texas.

Everyone is making it look like this is a new initiative GWB is launching. Actually he just answered a reporter's question. But I agree with his answer.

Evolution, the unifying explanation of all life processes on Earth, is the approach taken by serious scientists as they examine how everything works. But it is not a flawless explanation of absolutely everything, and it is clearly troubling to some who are bothered by the apparent meaninglessness of it all. Thus the growing movement to have intelligent design - the idea that it all had to have had some mindfulness behind it - included, as the president says, as a different school of thought.

Basically what is being taught is the Secular Humanist view, supported by athiests and agnostics, that Evolution is a completely natural process, and that no Supreme Power is involved. But the vast majority in this country are monotheists, i.e. either Christians, Jews, or Muslims. What is wrong with teaching that evolution might well have been one of the tools God used when he created the Earth (and everything else).

OK. But why stop there? While the science teacher is at it, he might make the study of astronomy more poetic by including the theory that the sun is not a frighteningly impersonal thermonuclear furnace but actually the flaming chariot of Phoebus Apollo streaking across the sky.

Perhaps Greek Literature would be a better place for that.

Or he might calm the students' fears of being adrift in a soulless universe by casting aside all this Copernican nonsense and admitting that, as any fool can see just by looking up, the Earth stands still and the sun, moon and stars revolve around us, er, it.

Actually there are scientific proofs dispelling that theory, while there are no scientific proofs supporting the theory that evolution is just a matter of chance, and that there is no supreme power involved

And in civics class, why limit students to an understanding of representative democracy, checks and balances and the rule of law? What about equal time for fascism? It's clearly a less complicated, more efficient system of government, one that dispenses with such bothersome notions as elections, free speech and minority rights.

Civics is a study of our system of government, but fascism should certianly be covered in history.

Or whatever happened to good old monarchy? It provides better costumes, pageantry and music, and helps everyone remember to keep their place.

There are a number of monarchies in the world, some are constitutional monarchies (like Britain) where the monarch does not have much power, but it retains the pagentry and music

.... But given the limited time and resources of our schools, and the sometimes minuscule attention span of our students, we need to make sure we don't lose our focus. In science class, focus on established science.

Actually because of the limited time, I would rather see them spend their time on the three R's: Reading, Riting, and Rithmetic (Reading Writing, and Arithmetic). But if they do have time for science, they should teach a secular version that is not at odds with the beliefs of over 80% of the people.

Why are the rabid left so insistent in pushing a secular approach to everything. It is not establishing a particular denomination as the official church of the US to admit the existence of God. Christianity, Judiasm, and Islam all believe in the existence of God. The secularists would have children taught that everything was formless and empty, with all matter contained in a Cosmic Egg, which exploded in the Big Bang. But who, or what, created the Cosmic Egg, and who or what, caused it to explode into a huge blast of light and energy.

What is there in the Big Bang theory that disproves this version: Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

After the Big Bang the Secular version of creation says that the particles from the explosion eventually coelesed to form planets, and that at least on this planet small single cell and then multicell organisms appeared in the water, and then evolved into plants and then animal life on dry land. Why is this not an equally valid explanation: And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

People say they have trouble believing in God because they have not seen him. But why have they not seen him? It is somewhat difficult here in the city, because of light polution, but if you go out in the country, on a clear night, you can look up into the sky, and see the results of Creation. I dont see how one can look on such a magnificant scene, and not see the face of the Creator. And when one looks at the vastness of Creation, and realizes what a small, insignificant part of it we are here on Earth, how can one not appreciate the fact that creator loved us so much that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

And if you cannot travel to the country to see the face of the Creator, why not visit the maternity ward of any hospital, and look through the window at the innocent faces of some of His latest creations. They just came from Him, and if you look closely at their innocent faces, you should be able to see Him. Mankind cannot create a single, undifferentiated, stem-cell, and God just created each of those innocent lives you can see through the window.