The interesting question to me is how
rigorous the scrutiny of a class about ID or a comparative religion class
should be when an Establishment Clause challenge is brought. Many comparative religion classes have been
criticized for favoring, disfavoring, or ignoring particular faiths. From what I have heard about this course, it
would have been easy for plaintiffs to demonstrate a violation of the
Establishment Clause. But what about
a more balanced, but still biased (or allegedly biased) class about ID or
comparative religion.
Alan Brownstein
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED].ucla.edu [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED].ucla.edu]
On Behalf Of Ed Brayton
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006
8:35 AM
To: Law
& Religion issues for Law Academics
Subject: Re: School
District drops Intelligent Design Class
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
I'm
not certain of all the facts or whether the teacher's purpose was to present
the case for ID only, but from what I know I think Brad is right. What's wrong with teaching the case for and
against ID in a philosophy class? Is it any different from teaching the case
for and against communism in a history or social studies class. As an atheist
and opponent of ID on all sorts of conceptual, philosophical, and moral
grounds, unless there are undisclosed relevant facts, I think there's no
obvious reason why the course should not be taught.
Moreover, with a little more knowledge of the course, I can see myself
suggesting to my daughter to elect to take the course.
Of course, my recommendation would surely prompt my daughter not to even
consider taking it. But that's
not why I'd make the recommendation in the first place. It's
good for everyone to understand ID as a hypothesis
and as a movement.
As I said in my previous post, this just doesn't square with the facts of this
particular class. Even the Discovery
Institute says that this course was not an objective one that taught the case
for and against ID. It was a young
earth creationist course that taught that perspective almost exclusively. In the second syllabus, they rushed to find a
single pro-evolution video to add to the 19 creationist videos they were
planning to show in the class. This
class was simply advocating creationism, plain and simple.
Ed Brayton
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