Time magazine recently sported a new front page article recording the latest evolution v. creation educational debate.
In America, ever since the much storied Scopes trial (the ‘Monkey Trial’) in 1925, the culture wars have been shaped by the controversial and, in the end, almost universal teaching of evolution in High School classrooms. Various attempts by conservative Christians have been made to challenge this educational hegemony, but none so successful as the contemporary ‘Intelligent Design’ movement.
As evidence of that movement’s increasing influence, witness the concern of various heavy hitting atheists, including Steven Pinker from Harvard University, who equates belief in Intelligent Design with belief that the sun goes round the earth. All this heat and little light seems to mean we are about to enter a new stage in the political sparring match between the religious right and the non-religious left. George Bush, asked his opinion about Intelligent Design, said that it was fair to teach both sides of the debate. To wary liberals that apparently sage advice merely seemed a smoke screen for beginning a process towards a faith-based science.
