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« on: April 15, 2009, 02:10:04 PM »
I don't think it necessarily has to be black and white. I heard that the Vatican accepts evolution as fact. As mentioned in South Park, evolution could be "the answer to how and not the answer to why." I believe that the two views could co-exist without any dangerous consequences.
But from an academic standpoint, intelligent design is a very religious (and unscientific) subject, and schools are focused on what is concrete to our current understanding of the universe. Evolution has been proven by my knowings (although how it works is still theory), and so it ought to be taught. And given the number of religions today (all with different ideas on the start of mankind) I don't believe explicitly pushing the Christian view of ID (if that is the one in discussion) on students is needed. However, I do recall my textbook in middle school briefly mentioning man's early ideas of the planet (Hindu for example), before moving on to the scientific bulk of the subject about the planet. I'm not exactly sure. A passing reference to intelligent design is ok in regards to learning about man's understanding of the planet, but making the idea a solid part of the curriculum as cold, hard fact isn't necessary.