Darwin: Debate of theory is a good thing (OneNewsNow.com)

Darwin: Debate of theory is a good thing

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow - 2/12/2009 5:30:00 AM

evolution small As the world celebrates the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, advocates of academic freedom are highlighting the lack of scientific debate in public school classrooms.

Today (February 12) is Darwin Day, proclaimed by its celebrants as "an international celebration of science and humanity." The observance, according to the event's website, "expresses gratitude for the enormous benefits that scientific knowledge, acquired through human curiosity and ingenuity, has contributed to the advancement of humanity."

The same day, a counter-celebration -- Academic Freedom Day -- is being observed, encouraging students across the U.S. to defend their right to debate the evidence for and against Darwin's theory of evolution. John West, a senior fellow with the Discovery Institute, explains that the idea for Academic Freedom Day came from evolutionary critics who believe the pros and cons of evolution should be discussed in public school classrooms.

Male Student "You know, Darwin himself in his own book -- On the Origin of Species -- talks about how the only way his theory can be fairly evaluated is if you balance the facts and arguments on both sides of all the things that he raises," states West. "And so we want to take Darwin at his word and celebrate his theory by promoting an honest and open discussion about the evidence for his theory."

But opponents of "academic freedom" claim that debate opens the door for discussion of intelligent design (ID) or creationism -- something they say violates the supposed separation of church and state. West disagrees and says there is a difference between ID and creationism.

"Well, creationism usually is an effort to try to specifically reconcile the Bible with science -- and that's a valuable thing to do," West admits. "But intelligent design sort of starts from the presumption [of] what can we know just by looking at the natural world. [It basically asks] 'Without looking at the Bible or any other sacred writing, what can we know just by looking at the finely tuned complexity that we see throughout nature?'"

He adds that "even the Darwinists like Richard Dawkins admit that nature is just suffused with the appearance of design."

West says the great irony today of the evolution debate is that so-called "defenders" of Darwin are trying to shut down any dissent or freedom of speech -- even in light of the fact that Darwin admitted debating the pros and cons of his theory is the only fair way to evaluate his theory.

The answer? School choice
Neal McClusky, associate director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute, argues that the problem of academic freedom can be solved by strengthening school choice.

"Ultimately the problem is not that we shouldn't have a debate on evolution," he asserts. "It's that when we have public schools that everyone has to fund, then everyone is paying for a single answer."

Neal McClusky (Cato Institute) He says the solution is to "decouple" school funding and then give the money to parents who can then choose the best school for their children. That way, he explains, if parents want their children to learn about evolution, they can choose a school that teaches evolution -- or if they prefer to send their children to a school that teaches creationism or the strengths and weaknesses of evolutionary theory, they can do so instead.

McClusky believes it is important that parents be able to use educational funds to choose private schools if they wish. It is not true "educational freedom," he says, to only give parents the option of public schools or charter schools -- because charter schools, he argues, are still public schools and are not allowed to teach religion.