Intelligent Design - Nothing W would know about

BrooklynDodger apologizes for not getting the link; this same interview was covered in the Times and the WaPo. Knight Ridder has maybe added additional bogosities, so it would be good to get the whole text, but too much trouble at this point.

The President endorsing teaching Intelligent Design is almost breath taking. There's a viable philosophical theory that the Deity made up the physical laws of the universe, setting the clockwork in motion sometime before the Big Bang. That would be pretty intelligent, and it's consistent with a kind of Deity emeritus, sitting back and watching things unfold.

But it's not the argument of the Design folks. They argue that the Deity came back into the Universe some billions of years later, actually to our world, and made some life forms. Maybe still makes them from time to time. The when is a little foggy, but it makes little theological sense to put the Deity at an earthly biological Big Bang 5 billion years ago, creating the RNA which became the replicator which made the first cells...But then, which fossil life forms did the Deity create? Is the Deity still tinkering? Will the Deity kill 3,000 people at the World Trade Center because New York City recognizes same sex domestic partners?

Ron Hutchinson [reporter below] ought to do some sourcing on his statement that "Scientists concede that evolution doesn't answer every question about the creation of life..." Which scientists and which questions?

Evolution can't answer the question of whether there was ever a moment when the physical laws operating now did not operate. And, magic did.

This is fundamentalism at its most irrational. And, our president.

Regarding abortion, BrooklynDodger hesitates to do anything that will undermine the marginal support for a woman's right to control her reproductive rights.
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Bush endorses teaching 'intelligent design'

By RON HUTCHESON
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - President Bush waded into the debate over evolution and "intelligent design" Monday, saying schools should teach both theories on the creation and complexity of life.

In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with a small group of reporters, Bush essentially endorsed efforts by Christian conservatives to give intelligent design equal standing with the theory of evolution in the nation's schools.
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Bush declined to state his personal views on "intelligent design," the belief that life forms are so complex that their creation can't be explained by Darwinian evolutionary theory alone, but rather points to intentional creation, presumably divine.

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Scientists concede that evolution doesn't answer every question about the creation of life, but most consider intelligent design an attempt to inject religion into science courses. This is not reporting, this is crap]

Bush compared the current debate to earlier disputes over "creationism," a related view that adheres more closely to biblical explanations. As governor of Texas, Bush said students should be exposed to both creationism and evolution.

On Monday the president said he favors the same approach for intelligent design "so people can understand what the debate is about."

The Kansas Board of Education is considering changes to encourage the teaching of intelligent design in Kansas schools, and Christian conservatives are pushing for similar changes in other school districts across the country.

"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. " You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."

The National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have both concluded that there's no scientific basis for intelligent design and oppose its inclusion in school science classes.

"The claim that equity demands balanced treatment of evolutionary theory and special creation in science classrooms reflects a misunderstanding of what science is and how it is conducted," the academy said in a 1999 assessment. "Creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science."
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He also offered an unequivocal defense of Palmeiro, a friend from their days together with the Texas Rangers in the early 1990s. Bush was the team's managing partner when Palmeiro played in Texas.
The Orioles slugger was suspended for 10 days after testing positive for steroid use, despite his insistence that he never intentionally used the prohibited substance. Bush has been an outspoken critic of steroid abuse.
"Rafael Palmeiro is a friend. He testified in public and I believe him," Bush said, referring to Palmeiro's denials under oath to a congressional committee on March 17. "He's the kind of person that's going to stand up in front of the klieg lights and say he didn't use steroids, and I believe him. Still do."

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He became most animated when pressed to say whether he personally would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned. Bush opposes abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother's life, but he acknowledges that most Americans don't share his views.