The Waterkooler

Related Story: Can You Believe in God and Evolution?

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 - A sharp debate between scientists and religious conservatives escalated Tuesday over comments by President Bush that the theory of intelligent design should be taught with evolution in the nation's public schools.

In an interview at the White House on Monday with a group of Texas newspaper reporters, Mr. Bush appeared to endorse the push by many of his conservative Christian supporters to give intelligent design equal treatment with the theory of evolution.

Facts and Points of Interest:

• Bush said, "I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," he said, adding that "you're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes."
  
  
• Intelligent design, advanced by a group of academics and intellectuals and some biblical creationists, disputes the idea that natural selection - the force Charles Darwin suggested drove evolution - fully explains the complexity of life.
  
  
• Intelligent design does not identify the designer, but critics say the theory is a thinly disguised argument for God and the divine creation of the universe.
  
  
• Critics argue that by giving "a sectarian religious viewpoint" an "equal footing" with the theory of evolution is unfair to "other religious viewpoints."
  
  
• The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called the president's comments irresponsible, and said that "when it comes to evolution, there is only one school of scientific thought, and that is evolution occurred and is still occurring." Mr. Lynn added that "when it comes to matters of religion and philosophy, they can be discussed objectively in public schools, but not in biology class."
  
  
• Internationally respected creationist and biochemist and one of the world's leading experts in origin of life research, Fazale "Fuz" Rana, PhD, states:
  
  "As currently formulated, Intelligent Design is not science. It is not falsifiable and makes no predictions about future scientific discoveries. At Reasons To Believe, our team of scientists has developed a theory for creation that embraces the latest scientific advances. It is fully testable, falsifiable, and successfully predicts the current discoveries in origin of life research.
  
  

The Evolution Debate

The case against evolution: here

The case against creationism: here

Evidence of Evolution: here

Common myths heard from critics of Evolution: here and here

Second Law of Thermodynamics - does the theory of evolution violate this law?

Yes. No.


COMEDY: Steven Wright on God, Origins, and Science

"My theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted."

"Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have."

"I intend to live forever - so far, so good."

More evolution Jokes here.