President Bush Votes Yes on ID

Asked whether ID was a valid alternative to evolution, President Bush told reporters August 1, “Both sides ought to be properly taught … so people can understand what the debate is about…. Part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought.  You’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes.”  According to Answers in Genesis, Bush’s science advisor John Marburger tried to soften this statement by claiming that evolution is the cornerstone of biology.  Regardless, the Discovery Institute commended the president for his stance.  See Fox News for the context of the remarks.  Science magazine took note, quoting the director of the Biodiversity Research Center at the University of Kansas, who said that if Bush wanted to promote ID as an alternative to evolution, “that would be a terrible mistake.”  On the other side, David Limbaugh, in an editorial on TownHall.com, thought the anti-ID folks were making the mistake.  The remarks caused enough notice to make the cover of Time Magazine.
Update 08/04/2005: On Breakpoint August 4, Chuck Colson also praised President Bush for his position, then added some interesting new information about the former atheist Antony Flew (see 12/09/2004 story).  Colson met Flew in Oxford last week and verified that ID had shaken Flew’s evolutionary beliefs.  Then, Colson posed a follow-up question that made Flew admit it was a provocative point worthy of thought: “He [Flew] could prove theism was the only philosophically sustainable position, but he could not prove who God was.  I said, ‘If you could prove who God was, you could not love God—which is the principle object of life.”  Whether further reflection on that question will move Flew from atheist to deist to Biblical theist is a story in progress.

Predictably, the usual heathen (NCSE, ACLU, AUSCS, etc.) beat their voodoo drums over the president’s remarks.  Who will heed the call, and send missionaries to these tribes, lost in darkness and ignorance?  We want to hear Antony Flew respond, “Here am I: send me.”