Saturday, December 03, 2005

Intelligent decision

The University of Kansas has decided to cancel a class dedicated to debunking intelligent design. It was offered by a religious studies professor who had childishly sent an email to students: "in which he referred to religious conservatives as 'fundies' and said a course depicting intelligent design as mythology would be a 'nice slap in their big fat face.'"

I think the university is quite right here. There's just something deeply inappropriate about using a classroom to make a political point. The university should be a mental and spiritual refuge from the larger society, a port of call that provides intellectual refuge from stormier seas; it should steer clear of the larger society's political drivel as much as possible. Ideological certainty is not compatible with the objective search for truth.

I do believe that religious studies should be discussing intelligent design, or at least the larger relationship between science and religion. But, not as an attempt to tubthump the party line.

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