Wait, there's more: "Leading ID think tank calls Dover evolut ion policy "misguided, " calls for it to be withdrawn" .:.

[Menard, Richard H.]

Evolution is an established fact?  News to me. 

Richard Menard
Sidley Austin Brown & Wood
202-736-8016 (office)
202-246-7408 (mobile)


-----Original Message-----
From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
<religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu>
To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics <religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu>
Sent: Tue Dec 14 18:05:34 2004
Subject: Re: Wait, there's more: "Leading ID think tank calls Dover
evolution policy	"misguided, " calls for it to be withdrawn" .:.

Sandy, I agree that there is value in multiplicity in the three examples you
mention, including critiques of evolution.  But there is a difference
between evolution (an established fact) and disagreements about the
mechanism by which it works.  Requiring teaching that evolution is false is
not an acceptable alternative.  But allowing or even requiring critiques
makes a great deal of sense.  Even if it is creationism light. 

Knowledge is not all a matter of social power.  But what constitutes "truth"
at any given time certainly is affected by social power. 

Steve 

On Tuesday, December 14, 2004, at 05:16 PM, Sanford Levinson wrote: 


I just listened to an NPR segment quoting one of the supporters of ID saying
that it is important that students be presented with alternatives to
Darwinism.  That is, this is an appeal to the importance of a multiplicity
of points of view.  Is there a principled way of deciding when that is a
desiderata?  Consider, e.g., the failure of American public schools to
present in any serious way the propositions that a) we have quite a
dysfunctional Constitution (a proposition that I personally believe) and b)
there are legitimate reasons for various and sundry persons around the globe
to hate us (a proposition that I also believe, but not for all of the
various and sundry persons who in fact hate us, obviously).  I take it that
the persons who believe in multiplicity of views with regard to ID are
unlikely to accept its importance with regard to my examples.  But,
conversely, I presume that persons who agree with my examples are likely to
be hostile to presenting ID as even a possibility.  Is Foucault right, that
what counts as "knowledge" (or "disputable theory") is all a matter of
social power?  (This is not a rhetorical question.) 
  
sandy 

--  
Prof. Steven D. Jamar                               vox:  202-806-8017 
Howard University School of Law                     fax:  202-806-8567 
2900 Van Ness Street NW                   mailto:sjamar at law.howard.edu 
Washington, DC  20008   http://www.law.howard.edu/faculty/pages/jamar/ 

"It is by education I learn to do by choice, what other men do by the
constraint of fear." 

Aristotle 

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