Random Chance in Delaware
Last year, a court in Dover, Delaware, struck down as unconstitutional a school district policy that required the city's schools to tell students about "intelligent design", a growing academic movement that questions some of the assumptions behind and conclusions of Darwinistic evolution. The court's opinion is a fun read if you like to watch people shake in their boots over the grave threat posed to the foundations of our society by people who follow Jesus.
What really struck me about it, though, was how out of date the whole debate was, at least as shaped by the parents challenging the school district's policy. The Darwinists set it up as a confrontation between agenda-driven Christians who want to get a foothold in the schools and unbiased, reasonable scientists who only want to get at the truth. At one time, this was a powerful and effective argument -- the guys in the white lab coats versus the Bible-thumpers. In the twentieth century, the white lab coats won every time.
BUT THIS IS THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY!!! We're all post-postmodern now (or at least postmodern). White lab coats are no longer the privileged authority figures they once were; scientific rationalism has no more claim to our allegiance than Christian fundamentalism. Or economic consumerism, utilitarianism, idealism, or any other view of reality. In the new order of things, all worldviews are equally "privileged", and the ones that are most suspect are those in power, especially those who use that power to shut out other viewpoints. Like scientists in white lab coats who get together with judges and courts to shut out the voices of those who favor intelligent design.
Sure, the Darwinists won in Dover. And you can't blame them for using last century's battle plans when those plans work. But I wonder if they realize just how tenuous science's hold is on the role of "reality definer" for our society. They may have swept the schools clean of any references to intelligent design (or even a designer), but those same schools teach students every day of the week under the labels of "tolerance," "multiculturalism," and "diversity" that no single viewpoint or model of reality should be privileged or empowered above others, and that all truth is relative. Good luck to the Darwinists on trying to get that out of the schools.
Last year, a court in Dover, Delaware, struck down as unconstitutional a school district policy that required the city's schools to tell students about "intelligent design", a growing academic movement that questions some of the assumptions behind and conclusions of Darwinistic evolution. The court's opinion is a fun read if you like to watch people shake in their boots over the grave threat posed to the foundations of our society by people who follow Jesus.
What really struck me about it, though, was how out of date the whole debate was, at least as shaped by the parents challenging the school district's policy. The Darwinists set it up as a confrontation between agenda-driven Christians who want to get a foothold in the schools and unbiased, reasonable scientists who only want to get at the truth. At one time, this was a powerful and effective argument -- the guys in the white lab coats versus the Bible-thumpers. In the twentieth century, the white lab coats won every time.
BUT THIS IS THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY!!! We're all post-postmodern now (or at least postmodern). White lab coats are no longer the privileged authority figures they once were; scientific rationalism has no more claim to our allegiance than Christian fundamentalism. Or economic consumerism, utilitarianism, idealism, or any other view of reality. In the new order of things, all worldviews are equally "privileged", and the ones that are most suspect are those in power, especially those who use that power to shut out other viewpoints. Like scientists in white lab coats who get together with judges and courts to shut out the voices of those who favor intelligent design.
Sure, the Darwinists won in Dover. And you can't blame them for using last century's battle plans when those plans work. But I wonder if they realize just how tenuous science's hold is on the role of "reality definer" for our society. They may have swept the schools clean of any references to intelligent design (or even a designer), but those same schools teach students every day of the week under the labels of "tolerance," "multiculturalism," and "diversity" that no single viewpoint or model of reality should be privileged or empowered above others, and that all truth is relative. Good luck to the Darwinists on trying to get that out of the schools.
posted by Under The Mountain | 9:40 AM
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