09.20.06
DeVos Confirms Support for ID in Public Schools
Dick DeVos, the Republican candidate for governor in Michigan, has confirmed what we already knew from the report of one of our MCFS members in a letter to the editor last week, that he advocates teaching ID in public school science classrooms. The Detroit Free Press reports:
“I would like to see the ideas of intelligent design that many scientists are now suggesting is a very viable alternative theory,” DeVos told the Associated Press this week during an interview on education. “That theory and others that would be considered credible would expose our students to more ideas, not less.”…
DeVos told the AP this week that allowing school districts to include intelligent design in science classes lets them to “expose students to a multitude of ideas, … to think through the challenges, to learn to discern between multiple theories.”
Up until now, of course, ID advocates have not developed an ID theory, their rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding, nor have they published any research supporting intelligent design. And as the Free Press notes, a Federal judge in Pennsylvania last year ruled that ID is merely a religious viewpoint wrapped in a thin veneer of scientific-sounding language and that it is therefore unconstitutional to teach it in public school science classes. DeVos’ policy, like the various legislative attempts to open the door to the teaching of ID in science classes, would lead local school districts into a Dover Trap, inviting them to violate the constitution and risk losing expensive lawsuits.