CSICOP Online: Creation & Intelligent Design Watch

Creation & Intelligent Design Watch

Turn out the lights, the “Teach the controversy” party’s over

By Robert Camp

Introduction

“The clarion call of the intelligent design movement is to "teach the controversy." There is a very real controversy centering on how properly to account for biological complexity (cf. the ongoing events in Kansas), and it is a scientific controversy.”[1]

This comment from William Dembski demonstrates the use of what must be the most ubiquitous sound bite offered by “Intelligent design” (ID) advocates. “Teach the controversy” has been employed throughout the breadth and depth of the ID movement both as an attack upon the “academic unfairness” of an evolutionary monopoly on origins instruction, and as a call to arms for those slighted by such perceived persecution. As both a declaration and a shibboleth, it is one of the lashings holding together, if tenuously, the “big tent” of creationism.

“Controversy” rhetoric has likely floated around this debate for as long as individuals have noticed the difference between scriptural and scientific explanations of the natural world. But for the purposes of discussion of ID, we can look to a piece written by Stephen Meyer of the Discovery Institute (an ID think tank in Seattle) for its modern codification as a political strategy. During public discussion of education standards in the state of Ohio, Meyer presented his ideas by way of a brief essay entitled “Teach the controversy.”[2] His piece begins,

“When two groups of experts disagree about a controversial subject that intersects the public school curriculum students should learn about both perspectives.

In such cases teachers should not teach as true only one competing view, just the Republican or Democratic view of the New Deal in a history class, for example. Instead, teachers should describe competing views to students and explain the arguments for and against these views as made by their chief proponents. Educators call this “teaching the controversy.”[2]

Of course what everyone has known since Meyer launched this line of argumentation, and several (including myself [3]) have addressed in print, is that Meyer’s controversy is a false construction. Assured that one can always find a PhD who will express support for any particular notion, and trusting that all he needs to do is sow the seeds of doubt, Meyer builds his argument upon the idea that “two groups of experts disagree” as if there is an equivalence of opinion on the issue.

To Read More of This article Visit: http://www.csicop.org/intelligentdesignwatch/teach-controversy.html

Robert Camp is a freelance writer living in San Juan Capistrano, California. A selection of his work can be found at the Nightlight Blog. He can be reached by email at robertlcamp@cox.net.

CSICOP 30th Anniversary

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CSICOP'S 30TH ANNIVERSARY
& INAUGURATION OF THE CENTER FOR INQUIRY

EVENT SCHEDULE - SPEAKERS - REGISTRATION - INFORMATION

Speakers

Paul Kurtz is the founder and chair of the Council for Secular Humanism, CSICOP, and the Center for Inquiry. He is the author or editor of forty-five books. He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Ray Hyman is a Professor of Psychology at University of Oregon and a Member of CSICOP’s Executive Council.

James Alcock is Professor of Psychology at York University and a Member of CSICOP’s Executive Council.

Amardeo Sarma is manager NEC Europe Ltd. and executive director, GWUP, Germany.

Ken Frazier is Editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine. and a fellow of the AAAS.

Barry Beyerstein is a Professor of Psychology at Simon Fraser University and a Member of CSICOP’s Executive Council.

Thomas Casten is Chairman and CEO of Primary Energy Thomas Casten is a nationally recognized expert on energy and environment issues and is a Board Member of the Center for Inquiry.

Eddie Tabash Chair, CFI–West, a Los Angeles attorney and an active proponent of civil rights and religious liberty. First Amendment Expert.

Jan Loeb Eisler has played various roles in the CFI family, serving on the board of the Council for Secular Humanism and, currently, on the board of CFI. She has been a program speaker for the Council in the U.S., India, Australia, and Russia and is the founder of the Center for Inquiry–Florida.

David Koepsell Executive Director, Council for Secular Humanism and Associate Editor for Free Inquiry magazine. Prof. Koepsell is an adjunct Asst. Prof in the SUNYAB Dept. of Philosophy, has lectured all over the world.

Barry Karr Executive Director of CSICOP (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) and CFI (Center for Inquiry). He has spoken at numerous conferences and events around the world.

Tom Flynn a longtime secular humanist activist, is editor of Free Inquiry magazine and editor of the “forthcoming” New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, a major reference work.

John R. Shook received his PhD in philosophy from University at Buffalo in 1994. From 2000 to 2006 he has been assistant and associate professor of philosophy at Oklahoma State University. He writes about pragmatism, naturalism, philosophy of science, and the history of American philosophy. He authored Dewey’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge and Reality.