Honest debate needed

Recently there's been a lot of talk about evolution being taught in schools, most notably, in Dover, Pa. Dover's school board has drawn national attention, from ABC's "Nightline" and others, for mandating that intelligent design be taught alongside evolution.

Dover's policy has drawn criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union-no big surprise-but also from Discovery Institute, the leading intelligent design think tank. Discovery Institute said that while they think Dover's hearts are in the right place, the way they went about it was wrong. Discovery Institute said they applaud the idea of intelligent design being taught, but it shouldn't be taught at the expense of evolution and intelligent design should not be made mandatory. What they want is a discussion of the pros and cons of Darwin's theory, and if intelligent design is part of it, then so be it.

A lot of the Dover school board's problems were mostly self-inflicted. The wording of the policy is too vague, the board meetings have become a religion versus science debate-which you never want when discussing a biology curriculum-and the board members and science teachers weren't always on the same page. The school board said they worked with the science department to come up with a statement to read before they begin teaching the theory of evolution. The science teachers said they didn't work on that statement and haven't gotten any guidance from the board on how to answer intelligent design questions without offering religion as an answer. Personally, I would recommend talking to your science teachers before telling them what to teach in science class - just a thought.

A basis for the problem stems from the confusion between intelligent design and creationsim. This includes a lot of people against intelligent design, and many people for it. Intelligent design is not creationism. Creationist believe that the earth is about 10,000 years old, it was made in seven days and it was made as it is now. This is religion. This is not intelligent design. Some people in Dover fail to see the difference and use the terms interchangeably. This idea helps no one and only fuels the idea that intelligent design is just religion masquerading as science.

I always try to keep that in mind when I'm watching a news program like "Nightline," to not associate an entire group of people by what I see on television. My point is, people you see on television are the extremes of that group, most people are somewhere in the middle, but that makes for boring television. Not all atheists want the word 'god' out of the Declaration of Independence or want mandatory 'happy holidays' instead of Merry Christmas. Not all Christians blow up abortion clinics or think if you read Harry Potter you're going to hell, and not all Muslims are terrorists and so on and so on.

My view on evolution, like a lot of my views (abortion, gun control, drug legalization), lies somewhere in between the two extremes. I believe in evolution, but I also believe in God. Kind of like when people ask if you believe in God or the big-bang theory. I believe in both. I just think God used a big bang. I can totally understand the ACLU's view on this (which is a lot like the NRA's on gun control) If they allow intelligent design into a public classroom, they think we're one short step away from calling that designer God and allowing religion into the public classroom. However, I understand that evolution is still controversial. Having an actual debate (not an 'If you believe in evolution you're a bad Christian,' or 'You're-dumb-if-you-don't-believe-it' debate) on the pros and cons of it isn't a bad idea. I believe this should stand for everything. Evolution, global warming, Christopher Columbus, the Vietnam war - everything.

I consider myself liberal and I consider being liberal as having an open mind. I think a lot of liberals-myself included-sometimes aren't as open minded to some ideas as we claim to be. Honest debate is always a good thing. Personal agendas (like the Dover's school board) aren't.

Benjamin Cox is a junior in music history. He can be reached for comment at benny083002@yahoo.com.