An Intelligent Design Forum

Excerpts from the article at the referenced web site discuss a familiar topic- where and if intelligent design should be discussed. My comments are included.

http://tinyurl.com/rtz88

"If any ideas evolved at a forum on intelligent design at Palisades High School on Tuesday, it was that public schools should offer philosophy classes where questions about human origins could be discussed.

[Bradford]: I take it then that OOL or abiogenesis issues are also to be discussed in philosophy classes. If not why?

Sharon Mendelson, one of about 80 people who attended the panel discussion, said the science classroom is the wrong place to discuss whether a higher intelligence has had a role in life. A philosophy class is the better venue, she said, winning applause from audience members at the forum sponsored by the high school's Students for Social Change club."

[Bradford]: Do philosophy classes now accomodate questions related to the origin of the genetic code? If the study of organic chemistry yields no evidence favoring the view that the code was the result of unguided natural forces then why would a discussion of such be suitable in a philosophy class as opposed to a class in biology, genetics, chemistry...?


"Two science teachers, including Palisades biology teacher Pat Raynock, disagreed that intelligent design should be discussed in the classroom. “We look for evidence, testable evidence, not revelation,” Raynock said."

[Bradford]: In that case why not hypothesize as to what the precursor of a minimal genome was and subject whatever that is to selective pressure in a prebiotic environment and observe what natural forces produce? At what point does it become obvious that unguided natural forces are not up to the task at hand?

"Lehigh University biology teacher Steven Krawiec, who noted his church membership, also said that evolutionists are not focusing on the origin of life. Instead, they focus on the changes in species over time, something that can be demonstrated."

[Bradford]: Genetic change is not controversial. The type of change needed to produce a eukaryotic organism from a prokaryote is but, this type of change is exactly what is not demonstrated.