An Intelligently Designed Post

So the New York Times (and much of the rest of the liberal media) predictably screamed when President somewhat (somewhat) endorsed intelligent design. Now, I am in no way in favor of intelligent design and it clearly has no basis in science so it should in not be admitted into the classroom (as an aside, an agnostic amigo told me the first time he came into contact with ID was in his philosophy class - that seems more fitting).

But, I have to admit that I got a certain perverse pleasure from seeing the Left and its talking heads squirm at the thought of something outside of Leftist orthodoxy introduced into the classroom. Maybe they'll finally realize what others think when they force their doctrine - deconstructionism, multiculturalism, relativism into the classroom.

On a related note, scientific principle aside, I think that Bush was right in saying what he did as it would serve to redirect authority from Washington to the local level. Further, with some notable exceptions (namely a nationally mandated and designed civics program), it's arguably correct for municipalities and states to have a greater degree of control over their education curriculum than Washington and decidedly lefty teachers unions (in another aside, I may be totally wrong about this, but I think we've shown that national control and strict guidelines only produces bureaucracy and endemic failure). And if local control's really the issue at stake here, as I suspect it is, then we're going to see ID rising regardless, just check out these numbers. They show 54% of Americans disputing evolution, up from 46% in 1994, though interestingly, the number of people who say that Darwin's theory is proven by the fossil record has actually increased since just last year! Plus apropros to our discussion, it is worth noting that 55% of those surveyed believe that ID, creationism, and evolution should all be taught in school.

More generally, this may be the wave of the future - social conservatives looking to solidify their control and roll back Washington big-government behaviors. We'll see if I'm right - I hope I'm not.