Science Programs on Radio, TV and Internet

We're talking about what do you teach in high school science class. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude, well, you teach science.So, what a high school teacher does, say in biology, is take a look at the whole field of biology and say, "Okay, for high school students the most important things for them to learn are this, this and this. Now how do I translate this into something that is understandable to high school students who don't have any background? Well, I guess we have to leave out that and that, but what we'll do is we'll build the curriculum around these principles this, this, this and this."Now, what the Intelligence Design people, and the creation science proponents before them, wanted to do is say, "Okay, in addition to teaching the consensus view of science in a biology class, we want you to teach something that hasn't been accepted yet by scientists. We want you to bring in something that's outside of the general scientific canon, because we think it's really a good idea to give the students all views.And that has a tremendous amount of attraction, unless you really think it through, because in essence what they are doing is something that's really very, very unfair. They're really cutting to the head of the line here, you know. They're saying, "Take our idea and teach it in high school even though the scientific community hasn't accepted it yet, even though we haven't done an adequate job of presenting these views to the scientific community, and working them through and really trying to earn our way, so to speak, by convincing the professional scientists."My answer to that is to say, "Well, once you convince the professional scientists, then you may indeed trickle down into high school, just like all other new ideas."

Haggard: We fully embrace the scientific method as American evangelicals, and we think as time goes along, as we discover more and more facts, that we'll learn more and more about how God created the heavens and the earth.Dawkins: The scientific method clearly demonstrates that the earth is more than four and a half billion years old. Do you accept that?Haggard: What you are doing is, you are accepting some of the views that are accepted in some portions of the scientific community as fact, where in fact your grandchildren might listen to the tape of you saying that and laugh at you...Dawkins: You want to bet?Haggard: Sometimes it's hard for a human being to study the ear or study the eye and think that happened by accident.Dawkins: I beg your pardon, did you say by accident?Haggard: Yeah.Dawkins: What do you mean by accident?Haggard: That the eye just formed itself somehow.Dawkins: Who said it did?Haggard: Well, some evolutionists say it.Dawkins: Not a single one that I've ever met.Haggard: Really?Dawkins: Really!Haggard: Ooooh!Dawkins: You obviously know nothing about the subject of evolution...Haggard: Or maybe you haven't met the people I have. But you see, you do understand, you do understand, that this issue right here of intellectual arrogance is the reason why people like you have a difficult problem with people of faith. (imitating Dawkins) "I don't communicate an air of superiority over the people, because I know so much more. And if you only read the books I know, and you only knew the scientists I know, then you would be great like me." Well, sir, there could be many things that you know well, but there are other things that you don't know well. As you age you'll find yourself wrong on some things and right on some other things, but please, in the process of it, don't be arrogant."

I think you would agree that the proper role of religion in education is the study of religion, not the indoctrination in a religion.