Unintelligent Designs on Minds

Preznit Bu$h stated today that evolution should be taught on an equal footing with the mythology his backers support.

Why only his backers? Because the man has a sociopathic regard for human life and is willing to manipulate the lives and welfare of the rest of the human race to achieve his own desires. With an attitude like that, he's no real Christian, although his willingness to pretend to be a Christian leader is a well-learned role.

Pharyngula has it right:

Scientists have established the fact of evolution with thousands of lines of evidence and the work of hundreds of thousands of researchers. This idea is based on material evidence and repeated experiment, extensively documented in the scientific literature.

This evidence flatly contradicts literal religious accounts. Religious conservatives have mounted a long running social and political campaign to get their falsified dogma treated as the truth, despite the absence of any material or logical support for their position.

This debate is not about assessing the evidence, but about getting faith-based bullshit taught as science.

And that is what should be taught: teachers, we need to get in front of our students and expose them to both sides. We need to stand up and plainly state that creationism is a lie and any attempt to incorporate faith and the supernatural into science is as destructive to the enterprise as would be requiring religion to provide concrete, repeatable tests of their beliefs.

That's the only rational version of "equal time" that will work.

Oh, yeah, and we also have to work to make sure that every goddamned Republican in our capitols is out on their ear in the next couple of election cycles. The root of our problem is that the know-nothings and lunatics are in power, and are trying to wreck anything that does not pander to their ideology—and science opposes the Republican agenda.

Want to understand why intelligent design isn't science? Or even basically what science is? Check out what the National Academy of Science says on Teaching Evolution and the Nature of Science. Take your time and enjoy the browse- it's a free on-line textbook.