Push hard by design

- toledoblade.com - Pushing hard, by design Michigan's Republican gubernatorial candidate should have set off alarms among every intelligent voter with his revealing comments about the state's science curriculum. Dick DeVos thinks it should include a discussion about intelligent design, also known as "a 21st-century version of creationism," also known as religion masquerading as science. Michigan voters who may have only been following the governor's race peripherally until now, should closely examine this striking DeVos revelation. It says a lot about the man who wants to lead the state forward while supporting ways to set it back decades with weakened state standards for science classes. At a time when the state board of education is close to adopting new science curriculum guidelines, Mr. DeVos has weighed in on the side of teaching "intelligent design" as part of high school biology. He believes Darwin's evolutionary theory of natural selection - upheld as an unshakable pillar of science by virtually every prominent scientific organization in the United States - is on par with the inherently religious intelligent design theory. Be wary, Michiganders. Proponents cleverly try to bring religion into the science classroom by suggesting students be exposed to multiple theories of creation as if Darwin's theory is merely one hunch among many. They mistake "theory" in the scientific sense to mean "conjecture." In reality, scientists regard it as "a strong, over-arching explanation that ties together many facts and enables us to make testable predictions." Kenneth Miller, Brown University biology professor and author of a biology textbook used in nearly half the nation's schools says, "If you invoke a spiritual force in science, I can't test or replicate it." But there may be an appropriate educational venue for discussing an ideology grounded in religion. Mr. DeVos' Democratic opponent, Gov. Jennifer Granholm, gets it. She says school districts can explore intelligent design in current events or comparative religions classes but schools need to teach the established theory of evolution in science classes. Otherwise, as many in the education and business community attest, Michigan students and the state will suffer. A distorted, politicized science education will put them not only at an academic disadvantage with their peers but ultimately behind competitors for future economic opportunities. In an age when education is more critical for advancement than ever, Republican Dick DeVos doesn't get it. He favors sabotaging state science education standards with "the ideas of intelligent design" that lack empirical evidence and do not belong in a science classroom. Hopefully when Michigan's board of education finally decides what the state's public schools science curriculum should be and how it should approach the teaching of evolution, reason will prevail.