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| Home | > | Persuasive | > | Controversial Topic: Counterpoint |
This assignment aimed to give us experience in persuasive writing on a topic related to current events.
Intelligent Design
The topic of intelligent design, particularly whether educators should teach it alongside the theory of evolution in federally-funded biology classes, has grown into a major national debate in the past few years. This has mainly been due to several brave individuals who have had the courage to stand up to a secular government that refuses to recognize intelligent design as a viable alternative to the theory of evolution.
The concept of Intelligent Design is very simple. Life is too complex to have happened without supernatural guidance. Supporters make no claims that this intelligent supernatural being is a Christian god, or a deity of any other particular religion. It doesn't even suggest that it is a god, merely an intelligent guiding power. Though the government seeks to be secular, it must recognize at some point that its people are overwhelmingly people of faith, regardless of which one they practice. Teaching a theory with as wide a scope as Intelligent Design does not amount to a government establishment of religion because the theory does not endorse a single religion. It's that simple.
Working class religious parents deserve this small favor from the government. These people want their children to have some notion of a creator, but can't afford expensive parochial schools and don't have the time or the energy at the end of the work day to sit down and talk to them about such things themselves. The public school system, in many cases, is the only place where parents can reinforce the ideas children hear in church. Taking 5 minutes out of the curriculum to explain Intelligent Design to students will not cost the taxpayers a cent more than teaching evolution does, and at the minimum, makes the students aware of the debate on the issue. I believe many would agree that is often more important than the theories being taught themselves.
What ID proponents are proposing is not a total abolishment of the theory of evolution in schools, merely a broader perspective. Teaching children a single theory wouldn't work in English or Social Studies classes. Somehow, because it involves a science course, Intelligent Design's detractors seem to believe that only one theory is worthy of teaching to children. They seem to believe that Intelligent Design seeks to completely discredit the theory of evolution. This could not be farther from the truth. ID seeks to satisfy an element of evolutionary theory that is unsatisfactory: that new and complex species can come about randomly with absolutely no outside guidance.
There is, of course, a concern from atheists that endorsing intelligent design offends their beliefs and is in violation of the Constitution. This theory places no undue burden on people who do not believe in intelligent design. I think we can agree that education is not and should not be persuasion. Informing children of atheist parents that such a theory exists is not detrimental to them. If anything, it makes them more aware of the world surrounding them. Atheist parents who want their children to grow up free of faith need to understand that to educate is not to endorse, it is merely to inform.
