Evolution vs. Intelligent Design: A False Debate

by J. Russell Tyldesley

Debating evolution versus intelligent design is useless--one's about science and the other's about theology.

Sheldon Richman is advocating

I am not sure how to take politics out of public education, and private "for profit" schools are inherently discriminatory against the poor. I'm just not sure how to end the debate over curriculum at the public school level. It appears he may be advocating parental control of the school boards. This may be a good strategy but it is idealistic and still begs the question.

I agree that only evolution ought to be taught in public schools, and biology ought to be mandatory, if not cosmology. After the science is taught, then the debate over whether it explains ontology or cosmogony can be taken home, or to one's church, or to a voluntary honors class as an extracurricula activity.

The false debate (because one side is in the realm of science and the other theology) may be good if it stimulates further inquiry and a questioning of authority and one's own belief system.

We all need more information but, meanwhile we act on the basis of what we have. In most of our waking hours we are not torn with existential angst over our cosmic origins--otherwise, we might be mistaken for being captured by mysticism.

The problem as I see it is that an awful lot of people want certainty in their lives. They want everything choreographed to conform to a materialistic dream world courtesy of Madison Avenue. Unfortunately, our schools are mostly complicit in such a conspiracy of fantasy.

It's hard enough maintaining discipline in class without introducing philosophical doubt in immature minds, so we allow the fairy tale version of life to develop in the minds of our children.

It's hard enough maintaining discipline in class without introducing philosophical doubt in immature minds--so we allow the fairy tale version of life to develop in the minds of our children until they are at least 18 years old, creating the anxieties and tensions that often lead to neurotic behaviors until they are able to resolve the contradictions much later in life. For some--like Republicans, for instance--the contradictions are never resolved because they are dismissed as unimportant. Well, maybe they are, except to the few who are cursed with inquiring minds.

J. Russell Tyldesley, an insurance executive and real estate developer, writes from Catonsville, Md.

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This story was published on August 29, 2005.