UPenn vs. Dover
This has already been brought up at The Panda’s Thumb, but this open letter from UPenn faculty to the Dover school board deserves even wider distribution. I like it as a short, simple statement of why we shouldn’t be peddling Intelligent Design creationism in classrooms.
5 January 2005
Dover Area School Board
2 School Lane
Dover, PA 17315An Open Letter to the Dover Area School Board:
As scientists, scholars, and teachers, we are compelled to point out that the quality of science education in your schools has been seriously compromised by the decision to mandate the teaching of ‘intelligent design’ along with evolution. Science education should be based on ideas that are well supported by evidence. Intelligent design does not meet this criterion: It is a form of creationism propped up by a biased and selective view of the evidence.
——-snip—-plenty more to read–
(Via Pharyngula.)
this is precisely what universities should do when faced with this sort of thing in the u.s. they should send a letter explaining their position and what they think should resolve the issue.