Posted on 11/28/2005 6:54:46 AM PST by Right Wing Professor
Intelligent design — already the planned subject of a controversial Kansas University seminar this spring — will make its way into a second KU classroom in the fall, this time labeled as a “pseudoscience.”
In addition to intelligent design, the class Archaeological Myths and Realities will cover such topics as UFOs, crop circles, extrasensory perception and the ancient pyramids.
John Hoopes, associate professor of anthropology, said the course focused on critical thinking and taught how to differentiate science and “pseudoscience.” Intelligent design belongs in the second category, he said, because it cannot be tested and proven false.
“I think this is very important for students to be articulate about — they need to be able to define and recognize pseudoscience,” Hoopes said.
News of the new class provided fresh fuel to conservatives already angered that KU planned to offer a religious studies class this spring on intelligent design as “mythology.”
“The two areas that KU is trying to box this issue into are completely inappropriate,” said Brian Sandefur, a mechanical engineer in Lawrence who has been a vocal proponent of intelligent design.
Intelligent design is the idea that life is too complex to have evolved without a “designer,” presumably a god or other supernatural being. That concept is at the heart of Kansas’ new public school science standards — greatly ridiculed by the mainstream science community but lauded by religious conservatives — that critique the theory of evolution.
Hoopes said his class would be a version of another course, titled Fantastic Archaeology, which he helped develop as a graduate student at Harvard University.
The course will look at the myths people have created to explain mysterious occurrences, such as crop circles, which some speculate were caused by extraterrestrials.
The course will explore how myth can be created to negative effects, as in the case of the “myth of the moundbuilders.” In early American history, some people believed the earthen mounds found primarily in the area of the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys were the works of an ancient civilization destroyed by American Indians. The myth contributed to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which relocated American Indians east of the Mississippi to lands in the west, Hoopes said.
“It was that popular explanation that then became a cause for genocide,” Hoopes said.
That example shows the need to identify pseudoscience, he said.
“What I’m trying to do is deal with pseudoscience regardless of where it’s coming from,” he said.
But Sandefur said intelligent design was rooted in chemistry and molecular biology, not religion, and it should be discussed in science courses.
“The way KU is addressing it I think is completely inadequate,” he said.
Hoopes said he hoped his class stirs controversy. He said students liked to discuss topics that are current and relevant to their lives.
“Controversy makes people think,” he said. “The more controversy, the stronger the course is.”
Now there are two ways to learn about Intelligent Design at KU: ID as mythology, and now ID as pseudoscience! But I betcha some IDers will still not be satisfied!
ID belongs in a Comparative Religion class.
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Super! The ID/Creationist conspiracy theory finally finds some usefulness.
What do philosophers know about either? You get a good archaeologist and you'll do just fine.
Coyoteman (an archaeologist)
Now don't you think "theocracy" is somewhat of an overstatement, Professor?
They already are. It has been recently reported (in the K.C. area media) that the ID proponents are more upset than ever that it is being taught as a myhtology (along with other religions' doctrines of earth/species origins).
“Controversy makes people think,” he said. “The more controversy, the stronger the course is.”
He's teaching the "controversy". I was under the impression this is what the IDers wanted.
Not at all. I think it describes the situation in Kansas accurately. The sectarian views of a particular religious group are being imposed on the whole community.
Exactly right.
Intelligent design emerged with the work of biochemists such as Michael Behe.
But science is the one curriculum that apparently is not helped by controversy. Students must learn the absolute dogma of Darwin. Randomness is the ONLY possible explanation for the complexity of life.
Science will absolutely collapse and be destroyed if intelligent design is even mentioned as an alternative viewpoint. No amount of hyperbole is too much in defending science from these crusaders.
What religious group would that be?
LOL. Love the way you think.
Most of these disciplines are defended in the same way, wearing bizarre blinders. They all employ "cafeteria" science, appeal to oppression by The Vast Conspiracy To Suppress The Truth, and an implied license to lie, cheat, and steal to make a point. The association makes sense to me. A pseudoscience cult is a pseudoscience cult.
Fundamentalist Christianity. But you knew that.
You could learn a little about evolution yourself. Certainly, if you think it's driven by randomness, you are seriously misinformed.
The controversy is really between Christian culture and the homosexual agenda. Choose your side!
BWAHAHAHA!
(That was a joke, right?)
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