Here we go again. I hate it when Christians sound like fools in public.
To the editor, Baton Rouge Advocate:
Wright’s First Rule of Rhetoric states, When people are in error they will not only contradict but even refute themselves. As evidence I submit letters to the editor in support of the Louisiana Science Education Act (SB 733 or however it is packaged now).
The bill – we are told – neither intends nor permits teaching religious beliefs in the public (science) classroom. Interestingly the day it came before the House Education Committee (May 21, 2008) appeared a letter from Harold Daigle about Intelligent Design and how “mixing religion and science” could improve how Louisiana ranks in public education. Hey look at the quality of religious schools on Baton Rouge.
Then and recently (June 11, 2008) Daigle suggests the reason Louisiana public education lags by comparison is precisely because those who support the teaching of evolutionary theory and/or oppose the teaching of Intelligent Design are in charge. But then writes, “Intelligent Design is a pimple on the face of a school system dying of cancer. The cancer is not coming from intelligent design but from within. It is the people who are in charge of the curriculum and implementing that curriculum who are killing the patient.”
Being a graduate student in biology Daigle should know good science also involves (1) alternative explanations and (2) experimental controls. By what experimental evidence do we know that the current (science) curriculum is why Louisiana public education ranks so low? And therefore “mixing religion and science” is the solution? By what controls do we exclude a host of other possible explanations?
Of the 46 states that rank higher in public education how many reject the approach that Daigle and SB 733 supporters advocate?
Finally – so if Episcopal High does not teach Intelligent Design it is “secular” and not “religious”? Setting aside the illogic of the implied insult Daigle would have us believe secular (non-religious) schools do not teach Intelligent Design.
Presicely.
Yours most sincerely,
Richard M. Wright
pastor, adjunct faculty (Old Testament)
