Dover teachers must read this to their students:
Because Darwin’s theory is a theory, it continues to be tested as new evidence is discovered. The theory is not a fact. Gaps in the theory exist for which there is no evidence. A theory is defined as a well-tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations.
Yeah, evolution is a theory. Gravity is another theory. You may have heard of germ theory.
Theories in science are treated as fact, as the best available explanation of how things are. They aren’t just good guesses – that would be a hypothesis. If you don’t know the difference, you shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a science advisory board.
The central tenet of intelligent design is that any mysteries in nature that we can’t explain today are the result of manipulations by some intelligent designer. This designer doesn’t fall under any of the rules of nature or science that we understand, and so is by definition “supernatural.” The very idea of teaching a science which is based on something that is inherently unexplainable by science must make your head ache, if you can wrap your mind around the basic absurdity of the whole enterprise.
Besides the silliness involved in invoking a magical invisible being to explain anything we don’t currently know, it is dangerous. If you decide that some things are just unknowable, scientific research stops. When research stops, progress in the sciences stops. When progress stops, society stops. See Dark Ages, a period where scientists were told that all which was knowable was known – 400 years of utter societal and political stagnation resulted.
Deus ex machina is no basis for a science program.
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The situation in Dover leaves me nearly speechless, and makes me stand firm in my determination to die an atheist of free mind and will. People “of faith” have asked me many times how I can stand to not believe in God, if I don’t fear the unknown, the things for which there are no answer if there is no God to safely explain them away. I always tell them, I would rather be afraid, than to give in to superstition and put my life in “the hands” of some imaginary deity they cannot prove exists. Besides which, the unknown doesn’t frighten me. It intrigues me, because the answers are there, we just haven’t found them yet. “It’s the question which drives us.”
I am quite tickled by a recent quote, in a snippet about “March of the Penguins”. In reference to a report that family values groups have been driving up the box office for that movie, one film journalist wrote… “To be honest, this is good news. If American Christians want to go public on the fact that they’re now morally guided by penguins, at least we know where we all stand.” Thou shalt not worship false idols!! LOL
The question drives us. As opposed to the ID approach, “eh! We will never know, so let’s stop asking dangerous questions.” There are no dangerous questions, unless you’re afraid of what the answers may tell you.
Also, there is a deliberate conflation of evolution with the origins of life – evolution is just the theory on how life speciates. As of yet, there is no widely accepted theory which acceptably explains the actual origins of life. Of course, there are scientists working on that. The ID folks already have their answer, so they don’t care to ask any more dangerous questions which might upset their applecart of beliefs.