70,000 Australian scientists has rejected Intelligent Design
- From: "George" <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 05:59:56 GMT
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16988506-29277,00.html
By Darrin Barnett
October 21, 2005
AUSTRALIA'S scientific community has fired its first broadside in a looming
war over a controversial theory of evolution known as intelligent design.
The theory proposes that evolution alone cannot explain complex biological
processes and that a God-like creator must be behind them.
Advocates claim intelligent design differs from creationism as it uses
science to back its claims.
In the United States, President George W Bush has started a debate by
suggesting intelligent design should be taught in the classroom as part of
the science curriculum.
Intelligent design is not currently taught in science classes in Australian
schools.
A coalition of more than 70,000 Australian scientists has rejected the
theory as scientifically untested, suggesting it is instead aimed at
debunking the theory of evolution and lacks any credible evidence of its
own.
In an open letter entitled Intelligent design is not science, the group
calls on all schools not to teach the topic as science because it fails to
qualify on every count as a scientific theory.
"As Australian scientists and science educators, we are gravely concerned
that so-called intelligent design might be taught in any school as a valid
scientific alternative to evolution," the letter says.
"While science is a work in progress, a vast and growing body of factual
knowledge supports the hypothesis that biological complexity is the result
of natural processes of evolution."
The coalition of scientists rejects the assertion that some living
structures are so complex that they are explicable only by the agency of a
superior force.
They say intelligent design's central plank of a theological or
philosophical notion of supernatural intervention is a belief which cannot
be observed, tested, validated or falsified.
"They are free to believe and profess whatever they like," the letter says.
"But not being able to imagine or explain how something happened other than
by making a leap of faith to supernatural intervention is no basis for any
science: that is a theological or philosophical notion."
To allow the theory to be taught as science would make a mockery of
Australian science teaching and throw open the door of science classes to
similarly unscientific world views such as astrology, spoon-bending,
flat-earth cosmology or alien abductions, the letter said.
Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson said in August he believed
parents should have the choice whether they wanted the theory taught in
schools, but not to the exclusion of the established theory of evolution.
He has since said the theory might be more at home in philosophy of science
or religious classes - but not in the science classroom.
The theory is currently being tested in US courts to see whether it can be
incorporated into science classes.
_________________________________________
Way to go, Aussies!!!
.
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