Evolution on the Defensive

NYT reports When President Bush plunged into the debate over the teaching of evolution this month, saying, "both sides ought to be properly taught," he seemed to be reading from the playbook of the Discovery Institute, the conservative think tank here that is at the helm of this newly volatile frontier in the nation's culture wars. After toiling in obscurity for nearly a decade, the institute's Center for Science and Culture has emerged in recent months as the ideological and strategic backbone behind the eruption of skirmishes over science in school districts and state capitals across the country. Pushing a "teach the controversy" approach to evolution, the institute has in many ways transformed the debate into an issue of academic freedom rather than a confrontation between biology and religion.

Dems seem to realize they must at least pretend to be religious if they ever hope to regain power; why then are they so frightened to allow school children know that there is an theory that supports what they learn in Church, and at the same time embraces the scientific theory of evolution. But just they insist on maintaining abortion on demand, even in the third trimester, they insist on teaching children the Secular Humanist version of Evolution, instead of one that describes Evolution, but has an answer for the many gaps in the theory of evolution.

Mainstream scientists reject the notion that any controversy over evolution even exists. But Mr. Bush embraced the institute's talking points by suggesting that alternative theories and criticism should be included in biology curriculums "so people can understand what the debate is about."