Teaching of "Intelligent Design" in American schools?

I am actually going to try and give a reasonable answer that doesn't insult anyone. First off, I am not a Christian. Secondly, if they present Darwinism I believe they need to present it as a theory, which is not provable, nor concrete beyond any reasonable doubt. It is however, generally accepted by the majority of the scientific community.

Intelligent design should be shown as a theory on equal footing, that also have both scientists and laypeople believe. It should be said that this is not provable either, and be handled without bias as to who the intelligence would be--as in public schools there are many who believe in different creators. Someone may believe Allah created, another YWH, and someone else may think it was the Tuatha de Dannan, or people from another planet. It is not a school's place to teach religion or to treat one as greater than another.

If they teach these two, I also think they should spend time on Theistic evolution, which is a blend of both beliefs, and too show that to believe one does not say that there is no higher power, whatever it may be.

However, it is my belief that both should be abstained from until college or higher education, when people can make decisions on their own intelligence and beliefs. It would be near to impossible to find a teacher who did not teach it with a evolutionary or design slant, even if they did not intend to do such a thing.

Edit: The problem with having a consistent ID theory is that there are literally multiple creation stories, none of which could be discredited in a classroom for fear of offense or repercussion. There are various theories, the problem is, no one agrees on them because the Christians oppose anything that isn't Genesis and are afraid of masking it, while others are afraid to let religion into the schools.

Aside from Darwin's Black Box which is quoted all too often, there are theorists at Trinity College, Columbia, Yale and Oxford. The thing is they never get time because they aren't loud and brash about it.

And unfortunately, I've never studied them in depth enough to give overviews of their theories off the top of my head without my notes.

(I had to do a twelve page paper on the subject when I went to Christian high school, they didn't like me there much.) At any rate, I'm going to be over here in the corner with my belief to say that we don't know enough to say with evidence how we came to be, though there are very good and solid theories.

Since the Dead Sea scrolls were written, there has never been any change in Intelligent Design.

However, I do NOT like the terminology "Intelligent Design". It should be called what it is, which is Biblical Creationism.

Since you state that this lacks any real consistent theory at the moment, how and when have you managed to change the Genesis account?

I was heretofore unaware of momentary inconsistencies. Yes, God did it. Do you have a better answer?

Edit: Ah, evolution! Why didn't you say so? We creationists have no theory; it is called the Bible. The Bible ISN'T theory. It is history, law,prophecy, poetry, science and physics, gospel and epistle, but not theory.

BTW, we're homeschoolers, and my children are taught the truth of God's word.

It wasn't taught in mine.

ID isn't an actual theory. It's the philosophy that evolution might not be true. By "evolution," they mean everything from macroevolution to the big bang theory. Microevolution (evolution within the same species) is generally accepted by ID supporters.

The only ID education I've heard of is a little sticker on the back of the book that says "evolution is only a theory, and other theories might exist that can explain how life was created."

I read some interesting answers . . . some of them do demonstrate a total lack of understanding of public education, history, the Constitution. About the separation of church and state: the establishment clause exists as much to protect the church from the state as it protects the state from the church. Currently, there is no time in the school day to teach science and social studies as the entire school curriculum has turned teachers into Test Preparation Agents for the State. Though through standardized tests CANNOT assess creativity, critical thinking, resilience, motivation, persistence, curiosity, endurance, reliability, enthusiasm, civic-mindedness, self-awareness, self-discipline, leadership, compassion, empathy, courage, imagination, resourcefulness, or humility. According to some, teaching the Theory of Evolution, one of the cornerstone principles of the biological sciences IS a leftist teaching, not just science, but teaching Creationism ISN'T teaching religion. And OMG!!!!! History shows unions in a favorable light. OMG!!!!!!!! Unions ended child labor, gave us the forty-hour work week, a safe workplace, decent wages, a middle class. Currently the "reform" in education is nothing near leftist. The goal of NCLB is to turn public schools in to a privatized worker delivery system. If this "reform" is allowed to continue, then the United States will become the land of economic apartheid. It is already hard on those in poverty, despite having access to public education. But to focus on standardized test, charters, and privatization will guarantee public schools will fail. That would be BAD, as in COLOSSALLY BAD for the United States.

I think both Evolution and ID should be taught, along with each's controversy. A lot of people are Evolutionists because that's what they were taught to be at a young age by a teacher- who is one of the most influential people in a kid's life. People ought to be allowed to make a decision rather than be spoon-fed one and only one theory.

Intelligent design is the belief that a god or gods created everything.

End of lesson.

There is no evidence to substantiate this theory and if they want to use the Bible as "evidence", then they must also allow equal time for the creation stories of all the other religions.

I guarantee you the fundamentalist Christians will fight that tooth and nail.

EDIT- Micheal Behe's big argument to prove intelligent design is that if you look at Mount Rushmore, you know there must have been a sculptor (creator).

Now google Watchmaker's Argument refuted to see why this logic fails miserably. I have read his book and would like that 8 hours of my life back.

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/behe/review.html

Evolustion lacks consistant theory. No one can answer any of the question logically they just say "One theory is....". They have absolutely no proof of evolution. Scientist are the most closed minded people in the world and have natroiously igored one view in order to believe in the other. If they were real scientist they would have the intelligence to look at all views and they may at get the truth. But they are incapable of getting any truths because they never really experiment but believe without real proof. Until they are able to answer a question without starting with "One theory is..." then maybe they will have a leg to stand on. Unfurtunetly they have scammed the judicial system into believing their bs and now schools are forced to teach children things that are not proven to be true. If the judicial system really beleived in not mixing religion with politics then they would have evolution removed from schools until the truth is fully known.

Oh, they have all sorts of stuff. You should hop on some ID sites and read up. (Some of it's pretty funny. Like the bit about a wall of water in the sky, that fell, creating the flood. They have a whole "scientific" explanation of how this happened. A real hoot!)

And there's a bunch of stuff on "microevolution" -- and other stuff.

I believe there is a god and I also believe that everything that exists is by His intelligent design. However, I also believe that Jesus had a good reason for saying, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's." He was referring to the paying of taxes, but it's my personal belief that the same logic should be applied to the teaching of religion in our public schools.

I.D. is a Philosophy topic, which isn't often taught in elementary or secondary schools. If it's not taught in the context of philosophy, it shouldn't be taught at all. Under no circumstance whatsoever should it be taught in science classes.

And for that matter, theoretical Darwinian evolution should be left out of high school science as well. Stick to what is observable, and leave theory to higher levels of inquiry, such as college.