More ID

I know, I know, I’m guilty of beating a dead horse when it comes to intelligent design, but what with the Pennsylvania trial in the news, I think the topic requires continued scrutiny. On that note, some of the facts coming to light in the trial are making the school board’s efforts to wedge ID into the curriculum look less like strides toward “well-rounded education” and more like Christian activism.

According to one teacher who testified at the trial, long before the school board starting pitching ID, some of its members were actually pushing for full-blown creationism to be taught alongside evolution.

Outside the courtroom on Tuesday afternoon, Alan Bonsell, a board member who the plaintiffs said was leading the charge against evolution in the science curriculum, said the board wanted students to learn about competing theories only because it was "good education."

The board ultimately abandoned the equal time idea, stopped using the term "creationism," and instead required that ninth graders listen to a brief statement encouraging them to learn about intelligent design as an alternative to evolution.

I think this lays bare the school board’s motivation for advocating the introduction of ID material. They realized that their attempts at integrating creationism into the biology curriculum would never fly, so they disguised their Christianity inside the Trojan Horse of ID and smuggled it into the classroom. Are we honestly to believe that the proselytizers on the school board suddenly dropped their campaign for Christian education in favor of one for “good education” based on competing theories? That’s a leap of faith I am unwilling make.

What truly bothers me is not that ID proponents are Christian, but that they shroud their obvious religious biases under the veil of “good education.” To the ID crowd out there, I say be honest with people. Let them know that you believe Christ died for our sins and that we should therefore mandate that public schools teach the religion of his followers. But don’t try to hoodwink us. I don’t think Jesus would approve.

--Matthew McCoy