Why We Should Teach Intelligent Design in Schools

This is almost certainly going to be an unpopular title to the left, but hear me out.  I am not suggesting that our schools should teach children that intelligent design is true.  I fully understand the argument that intelligent design is not founded in evidence based science.  Intelligent design is a religious position on evolution, and if you look at it purely from that point of view, it makes sense to suggest that perhaps public schools are not an appropriate place to teach it.  Let me ask you, though, is the purpose of public schools exclusively to teach science with a solid foundation in evidence?  Because I was under the impression that we also teach things like art, reading, and history, which many people think are very important for good development and decision making skills, but which are too subjective to really call science.

Public schools were not created to teach science.  They were created to give U.S. citizens a well rounded education that would prepare them for jobs that pay decent wages.  Unfortunately, the most important part of this purpose was lost long ago, and now they are viewed primarily as preparation for college, but the well rounded education part never went away.  According to some more modern education experts, the purpose of public school is to make people into productive and functional members of society, and while this rings of socialized schooling, it makes the following point just as effectively.  (When I was young, I was told that some countries, possibly including North Korea, actually took children from their parents at a certain age, to "socialize" them, which consisted of training them to adhere to the culture and be loyal to the government over family.  We call this "brain washing".)

We should teach intelligent design in schools so that our children will have a better understanding of a variety of different points of view.  Being able to look at things from the point of view of another person is an extremely rare skill in our society, and it is also a critical skill in participation in a democratic government.  Being aware of and understanding other points of view is essential in compromise, and it is an essential skill in just getting along in the first place.  It is a travesty that our supposedly democratic country is full of people who don't believe that they can be friends with anyone that does not have the same beliefs and opinions as they do (if you don't believe this, people have actually unfriended people on Facebook for not agreeing with some political position).  And a large part of the problem is keeping unpopular opinions out of schools.  I want to be clear here: This is not a problem of religion and state.  The belief that homosexual acts are not sinful is just as religious as the belief that they are, but schools are allowed to teach it, because it is not as unpopular.  This is not a problem of teaching religion in schools, because we are already doing that wherever it is popular!

I am not suggesting that we teach any religious belief as if it was scientifically proven truth.  In fact, I want to do the exact opposite.  Any belief or theory that is not absolutely proven should not be taught as truth.  This includes intelligent design as well as evolution itself.  Yes, large scale evolution is not proven.  It is widely accepted, because it is internally consistent, and we don't have any evidence for any other explanation.  Sometimes this is good enough, but we should teach it that way, not as if it was absolutely proven.  Honestly, it is a weakly supported theory that is full of holes, but it is also the best and most logical theory we have.  So we can tell students this!  Evolution is not some religion that we want to brainwash kids into believing.  Give them the evidence, show them the flaws, and explain the logic.  If you fear that they won't believe it, then it is clear that you are more concerned about the religious aspects than the science.  If the evidence is not strong enough for a vast majority of students to believe, then perhaps there is not enough evidence that anyone should believe it.  That said, I don't think that is the case with evolution.  It is a sound theory.  The main problem is holes in the evidence, but without any alternative with better evidence, it is the best we have.

Here are the important points in teaching something religiously motivated, like intelligent design.  First, treating it respectfully is essential.  Disrespect for the views of others is a plague in our society, and it is the foundation of our radical partisanship.  It is a major part of the reason there was so much resistance to gay marriage (hint: it was not the conservatives who were the most disrespectful; it was the gay marriage proponents who waged a war on religion and who are still trying to get the government to force people to violate their religious beliefs).  If we cannot respect each other's views, even when we disagree, then we cannot reasonably call ourselves civilized!  Second, teaching beliefs as fact is wrong.  This includes intelligent design and the theory of evolution.  From an ethical point of view, we should not be using schools as a place to teach opinions as fact.  That is not what they are for.  From a scientific point of view, when we teach opinions and beliefs as fact, we limit how we think.  For example, how long has it been since anyone thought about the origin of man outside of religious creation or the theory of evolution?  What if evolution is wrong, but we are never going to figure it out, because teaching it as proven fact eliminates the motivation to search for alternative explanations?  Real science does not just come up with a logical, internally consistent theory with some weak evidence and this walk away from everything else (thus string theory is not real science either).  If it cannot find strong evidence, it keeps looking until it can, even if it has to look somewhere else.  Third, teachers should be allowed to tell students what their own personal beliefs are.  I can see some people ready to jump out of their chairs shouting at me.  Read my second point again.  I did not just say teachers should be allowed to teach their personal views as fact, and I also did not say they should be allowed to push or encourage students to adopt those views.  They should be allowed to share those views though!  Why?  Point of view!  If we don't expose children to a variety of points of view, then we cannot expect them to have even half decent reasoning skills!  Fourth, teachers should strongly encourage students to ask their parents and friends what they believe and why.  If anyone should encourage children to adopt certain beliefs, it should be their parents.  Many parents find it difficult to be engaged in this though, especially in a society that mocks any beliefs that are unusual in any way.  If kids come home from school and ask their parents questions like, "Where do you think man came from?", it will give parents a starting point in being engaged in their kids beliefs and learning.

This is also a more democratic system.  Imagine you go to the polls to vote for the next President, and the ballot has a single name with a single check box.  There is no write-in line.  Your options are to vote for the candidate or not vote at all.  When we don't teach different points of view, this is what we are doing to our children.  So next time you want to say that we should not teach something in schools, ask yourself whether you have some real, valid concern or if you are just trying to rig to vote in favor of your own opinion by eliminating all other options.  (Because at least the right is willing to let both evolution and intelligent design be taught.  The left does not even want there to be a choice!)

What it all comes down to is, we should teach unpopular views in schools right next to the popular ones, so that our schools can produce more civilized graduates with better critical thinking skills.  We should certainly be careful not to usurp the role of parents in shaping the beliefs of their children, but we should also not shy away from exposing them to a variety of view points.  Most critically, we should teach them to respect, and even try to understand, the views of others even when they don't agree.  Intelligent design is a great place to start with this, because it is not terribly controversial (teaching it in public schools is, mostly because the left has no respect for any views besides it own and would prefer public schools to teach its agenda over teaching people to think for themselves).