our schools need more intelligent design

sweet. (NY Times article, free registration required.)

and while we're on the topic, let me just register my disbelief that any of our kids would be taught that god made the world in a science class. It has nothing to do with hating religion or separation of church and state or anything like that. As I understand it, science is the commonly-accepted technique for observing and interpreting events, and something about hypothesis-testing.

Observing, seeking, or interpreting the existence of a creator is not an observable or testable event. One can hypothesize, and one can examine libraries full of circumstantial evidence, but one cannot ever verifiably say "God created (this/us/everything), and this is how I know that." On the other hand, one can easily say, "I know how much gravity is pulling on this object," because gravity is a clearly-defined, measurable value.

I would prefer that my children (and everyone else's, too, for they will be a large part of my life over the next 50 years) use their science class to learn science; the measurable, quantifiable values of our universe and the relationships between them. Questions of metaphysics like intelligent design should be discussed - we would be remiss if such a large part of Western European and American history were to go ignored - but it must remain a study in culture, in history, and in the philosophical meaning of life.

yay for brains.