DescriptionIt’s a combustible mix — God, science, politics and the classroom. After a 1987 Supreme Court decision banned the teaching of creationism in public schools because it violated the separation of church and state, the Discovery Institute began a campaign for schools to question evolution. In 2005, President Bush threw some fuel on that mix when he expressed support for schools to combine its traditional evolution lessons with discussions of “intelligent design,” the theory that the origin of life can be scientifically explained by an intelligent designer as opposed to natural selection. ABC News correspondent Chris Bury reports on the campaign to bring intelligent design to the national debate. Correspondent: Chris Bury
This Nightline is useful for, if anything, its capturing a snapshot in time of a doomed political movement, “Intelligent Design.” Its most remarkable feature was a “debate” of sorts, ostensibly on a scientific topic, by two conservative journalists–Cal Thomas and George Will. The back-and-forth is too short, too unstructured, and too short of expertise in relevant fields to be of any pedegogical importance, but Will’s presence in itself demonstrates that one need not be a liberal to accept and advance good science. There was a time when I admired Thomas for a principled stand he took on censorship, but that was many years ago, and since then I think he’s gone increasingly off the rails in his efforts to promote a religious right ideology that eclipses reason and good sense.
Rating: 3 / 5