I don’t know if it’s truly conservative to throw federal education dollars to the states without setting any expectations for how the money will be used. But that’s basically what Michele Bachmann is proposing. Of course, she also thinks it would be a swell idea if local education boards included discussion of the Intelligent Design theory in the core curriculum of their students. I find this theory particularly odd. I don’t really understand why the theory of evolution precludes intelligent design. Yes, I get that it contradicts the Book of Genesis explanation for the origin of mankind, but there’s nothing about the theory of evolution, or the laws of nature for that matter, that precludes the idea of a Creator. If we just look at the Big Bang Theory, which is currently in good standing in the scientific community, we can always ask who lit the match. If you don’t insist on having a Sunday School understanding of the Cosmos, it’s really not too hard to reconcile a belief in God with science. But, if you’re still thinking about the world like there is heaven above with a sky-god looking down, you’re not going to do too great of a job teaching kids what we’ve learned about our universe. In any case, you can’t understand biology if you don’t learn the theory of evolution. You won’t be able to become a life scientist or even a decent doctor if you don’t understand how life forms evolve and mutate. Just think about the flu shots that people get each year. Studying Intelligent Design is not helpful and it’s basically just a way to shield kids from the fact that we’ve learned some stuff in the last six or seven hundred years.
