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Parents, not schools, should offer evolution alternative

Re: Pinellas parents back evolution alternative, Dec. 30.

Intelligent design cannot in any way be proven, and is not based on any physical facts or study of tangible elements. It is a religious theory that promotes belief in a higher power, and therefore must be based on faith, not physical evidence. There is no place for "ID" in the science classroom or curriculum.

If parents want their children to have a balanced view of both theories, then it is their responsibility, along with their place of worship, to offer the alternative opinion. Parents of different faiths have plenty of resources in order to send their children to Bible school or one of the many other free faith-based programs, as well as the privacy and freedom of their own home, to teach the alternative.

This initiative is a backhanded way to insinuate religious philosophy into public schools and to undermine scientific theory. Keep religion out of the public school system. It is inappropriate and extremely dangerous to the separation of church and state.

Science by popular vote

Re: Pinellas parents back evolution alternative.

As both a scientist and a Christian, I read with dismay, though not surprise, that parents in Pinellas County would like to see intelligent design taught as an alternative to evolution in school. Some people were quoted as saying that students should be exposed to other theories that explain the origin of life. This, however, demonstrates a lack of understanding as to what constitutes a theory in the scientific sense.

A theory is an idea that is supported by scientific evidence, one that can be tested by observation and experimentation. Intelligent design, which is really creationism with a new title, is neither observable nor testable. If intelligent design must be taught, it should be in the context of a philosophy or religion class.

What the parents of Pinellas County need to realize is that science does not work by popular vote. That a majority of people simply wish to attribute legitimacy to a religious idea does not make it so. Only strict adherence to the scientific method can confer legitimacy.

Faith and science don't conflict

I graduated from college in 1961 with a degree in physics, and a firm belief in my Roman Catholicism. Darwin and the Holy Trinity existed together in my brain and soul, with no conflict. Back in those days, we did not try to deny evolution. We knew what science was and what it wasn't!

Recently, the basic concept of what science is has taken a real hit due to the "either/or" mentality. It's either God or Darwin. Not true. Science is predictable, repeatable, observable and verifiable. Faith is none of those, nor must it be. It is the soul God placed into man when he stood up and began to think; the wonder of a newborn; the laugh of a child; the miracle of a tree. But it is not science.

For parents to believe intelligent design should be taught in the same way as evolution because the complexity of life demands a designer is the same as saying the world was flat until Columbus and Magellan, and that the sun revolved around the earth until Copernicus, Galileo and telescopes changed everything. I recall that fundamentalist Christians fought those revolutionary challenges to God too. Let's leave faith and science in their own places.

Looking ahead

Re: Pinellas parents back evolution alternative.

The intelligent designer must have been a mean guy, as human spines are misaligned and the nerves and retina in our eyes are arranged in such a way as to deny us much better vision. The next time you have back pain, or wonder why you have an appendix, or ponder why the bacteria that penicillin took care of last year must now be fought with something else, just lay it all down to the Intelligent Designer. Oh, and the fossilized remains of steadily more complex creatures layered deep in our planet's crust? Just another funny trick from our perfidious Designer.

When these parents' children are in the work force in a few years, competing against well-trained students from New Jersey to China, the Floridians will surely be happy to know that their minds have been stuffed full of unproven balderdash - something they should have heard at church, not school. They will be delighted to know that their parents and governor were looking out for their interests. At least it will be a consolation when the disease their parents are dying of is cured by Chinese scientists who never had to deal with anything but proven science in school.

A speck in the cosmos

Re: Pinellas parents back evolution alternative.

Everything we see and everything we are is the result of a series of chemical, biological and geologic processes that have been in a constant state of evolution since the earth was formed 4.5-billion years ago.

Who are we, on this tiny speck of dust in the cosmos, to put ourselves on a pedestal and claim a supreme being created us and watches over us?

Fossils, DNA, carbon dating and photographs back evolution while intelligent design has no such credentials.

It is merely another ploy by those who would attempt to force their way of thinking upon others.

Faith should be taught at home

I urge parents who subscribe to a faith, any one of the many faiths centered on the fixed idea of a creator or creators, to fulfill their parental responsibilities. Teach your children your faith. But please don't force the public school system to teach faith and belief and call it science. I hope there will be a continuing and growing discussion and debate about whether evolution or intelligent design better represents the true reality of our existence. But that debate should not take place in taxpayer-supported public schools which students of many religious faiths, and those of a committed nontheistic worldview, attend.

On par with Iran

No wonder Florida gets an "F" in science, if almost 60 percent of the people in Pinellas County think creationism is correct. They are not alone. To find a society as religiously brainwashed as the United States you have to go to ... Iran!

No wonder the rest of the civilized world looks at us with dismay.

Some things can only be God's work

The theory of evolution is like saying the unabridged dictionary was created by an explosion in a printing factory.

Researchers laugh at the thought of a human soul, yet they are not intelligent enough to bring the dead back to life. Why? Because only God can do that.

[Last modified January 2, 2006, 02:30:25]