Intelligent Design--Another Salvo

The Prez wandered into the "debate" over intelligent design with a group of Texas reporters on Monday, but it made the front page of The Washington Post today. Although this seems to be the first time he's addressed the subject as president, it comes as no surprise that he thinks intelligent design should be taught in schools. Here's how The Post reported it:

"Both sides ought to be properly taught . . . so people can understand what the debate is about," [Bush] said, according to an official transcript of the session. Bush added: "Part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought. . . . You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes."

Apparently some conservatives are shocked (shocked?) at this. They just clearly haven't been paying attention. Kevin Drum responds with quotes from 1999 when the candidate came out for teaching creation science, let alone intelligent design, in public schools. In a note to unsettled conservatives, Drum writes:

You all knew what you were voting for when you put these guys in power. I'm happy to see you on the side of the angels here, but it's a little late to pretend to be shocked that the Republican leadership feels this way.

PZ Myers, in his own blog and at The Panda's Thumb, provides an extensive list of blogs he claims covers the ideological spectrum that are critical of the Prez's position. And this is just a partial list; Myers writes that he was so overwhelmed by people sending him links that at some point he just stopped adding new ones. As it is, it looks like someone (but not me--I don't have the stamina) could spend days following all of them.

While we're on the subject, Atrios helpfully draws a line between intelligent design and Intelligent Design.

Obviously most people who believe in some form of supreme deity are lowercase intelligent design believers of some kind, but that's entirely different from being believers in the "science" of uppercase Intelligent Design. People are free to believe, if they wish, that aspects of the universe including life suggest to them the presence of some form of divine hand. But that's spirituality and faith, not science. There is no genuine science of Intelligent Design and it has no place in science classrooms.

This shouldn't be a fight between religious believers and nonbelievers. It's a distinction between matters of science and matters of faith, and it also underscores the seemingly ever-narrowing division between church and state.