![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Let the Children decide?
Aug. 11th, 2005 08:54 amThere was a political cartoon by Tony Auth that ran the other day in my local newspaper. It said Teach Both Theories...Let the Kids Decide
For those reading after the link goes dead or are on dial-up here is what the cartoon consisted of. The first panel was a Dumbledore kind of character and behind him are two charts one labeled Chemistry and the other Alchemy. The second panel had a bald man with a mustache who is wearing a trench coat and behind him are two pictures of brains labeled Phrenology and Neurology. The third is Albert Einstein and he has a magic wand in one hand and a piece of chalk in the other and written on the blackboard is Magic and Physics (E=MC squared). The final panel has a scientist sitting in an observatory with the words Astrology and Astronomy.
This is all in reference to "Intelligent Design" which a group is trying to convince schools to teach along with evolution in biology and let the children make up their own minds what they want to believe. They may have succeeded in Kansas while doing a hard press elsewhere. They claim is that G-d never enters into to it since there is no deity mentioned by name. Instead it is the idea of an intelligent force creating the universe since Darwin's theory is too narrow to explain everything. Now all Darwin was talking about was evolution. He left physics and the creation of the universe to others.
I know a lot of people who would love to go to school that taught everything mentioned in the Auth’s cartoon. It almost sounds like Hogwarts come to life. Now the people favoring intelligent design are suggesting that this be taught in biology but they would understand if it were taught in either philosophy or another required class like say social science. I don’t know many schools that teach philosophy at the middle or high school level and I don't see this as social science either. There is time enough in college for this sort of thing to be taught if the students want to learn it.
Parents do have the choice of sending their children to private schools that teach to their beliefs. Heck in these schools you can have religion classes and no one blinks. If they want to teach “intelligent design” then more power to them but I really don’t think based on the 1987 Supreme Court ruling on creationism that this is going to fly in schools. Or if this flies then they should teach every creation myth known to humanity so the kids could decide what they want to believe.
I am grateful for political cartoons that give me a laugh and make me think.
For those reading after the link goes dead or are on dial-up here is what the cartoon consisted of. The first panel was a Dumbledore kind of character and behind him are two charts one labeled Chemistry and the other Alchemy. The second panel had a bald man with a mustache who is wearing a trench coat and behind him are two pictures of brains labeled Phrenology and Neurology. The third is Albert Einstein and he has a magic wand in one hand and a piece of chalk in the other and written on the blackboard is Magic and Physics (E=MC squared). The final panel has a scientist sitting in an observatory with the words Astrology and Astronomy.
This is all in reference to "Intelligent Design" which a group is trying to convince schools to teach along with evolution in biology and let the children make up their own minds what they want to believe. They may have succeeded in Kansas while doing a hard press elsewhere. They claim is that G-d never enters into to it since there is no deity mentioned by name. Instead it is the idea of an intelligent force creating the universe since Darwin's theory is too narrow to explain everything. Now all Darwin was talking about was evolution. He left physics and the creation of the universe to others.
I know a lot of people who would love to go to school that taught everything mentioned in the Auth’s cartoon. It almost sounds like Hogwarts come to life. Now the people favoring intelligent design are suggesting that this be taught in biology but they would understand if it were taught in either philosophy or another required class like say social science. I don’t know many schools that teach philosophy at the middle or high school level and I don't see this as social science either. There is time enough in college for this sort of thing to be taught if the students want to learn it.
Parents do have the choice of sending their children to private schools that teach to their beliefs. Heck in these schools you can have religion classes and no one blinks. If they want to teach “intelligent design” then more power to them but I really don’t think based on the 1987 Supreme Court ruling on creationism that this is going to fly in schools. Or if this flies then they should teach every creation myth known to humanity so the kids could decide what they want to believe.
I am grateful for political cartoons that give me a laugh and make me think.
