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Saturday, October 08, 2005

Intelligent Design? Evolution?

On March 13, 1925 marked a monumental date in history. It was on this day that landmark legislation was made. The Scopes Monkey Trial ended with the jury deciding that any teaching at any state-funded educational establishment in Tennessee, of "any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals," was forbidden. This is often interpreted as meaning that the law forbade the teaching of any aspect of the theory of evolution.
Today, a new battle ensues over this same topic. However, it now takes on a different twist. Intelligent design states that that certain features of the universe and of living things exhibit the characteristics of a product resulting from an intelligent cause or agent, not an unguided process such as natural selection. This often times alludes to mentions of God in creation. This topic is very volatile as far as debate is concerned since it puts many conservative religious groups and "liberal" activists groups against one another in head to head confrontation. Currently, it affects what is taught and what may be taught in schools.
What do you think? Should one concept over the other be considered correct? Or should be taught equally and further expose students to the impact of science on society and the way we view the world? Before answering take notice that a theory explains why a law works as it does. Therefore the theory of evolution seeks to explain the law or process of evolution. Also, check out the links about the intelligent design debate: FOR and AGAINST and A VIEW FROM BOTH SIDES.

1 Comments:

Blogger Dr. Pryor said...

The Greensboro News
& Record for Saturday,October 8, 2005, discussed the Intelligent Design debate using some posts from a blog by Nancy McLaughlin. The two views are these: Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection cannot fully explain the origin of life or the emergence of highly complex life forms (supporters of Intelligent Design). Intelligent Design is merely creationism --a literal reading of the Bible's story of creation--camouflaged in scientific language (supporters of Evolution). See if you can access this edition of the News and Record to see the comments given by readers or access the blog http://blog.newsrecord.com/frontpew/

12:20 AM  

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