Creationism needs evidence before it is taught as science

Editor,

I'm writing in response to Alex Goldsand's letter published in the Daily Lobo on Friday concerning creationism - or as the religious right have cleverly called it, intelligent design. Before getting to the science part, I'd like to examine Goldsand's claims about sociology and women's studies courses.

Western civilization, which is culturally and politically dominated by Anglo-Europeans, is predominantly Christian. Christianity, if Goldsand would actually take the time to read the Bible, is patriarchal by nature - it favors men over women. Using the Bible as justification, European and American conservatives have maintained slavery and have used it as an excuse to keep women from voting. That is not to say that it should be talked about exclusively, but it is not unfair to say that in the last 500 years, the major powers in the world have been European and American.

This means that many of the world's events, good and bad, have been caused by the cultural and political ideas of European and American society. Even if Goldsand is right about biases in women's studies and sociology, which he isn't, it has absolutely nothing to do with teaching creationism in a natural-science class. I have no problem, whatsoever, with creationism being taught in the classroom. In my philosophy intro class, we discussed creationism at length.

Goldsand does what many other proponents of intelligent design do - he ignores that creationism is taught in classrooms as it is talked about in length in philosophy, English and humanities classes. The reason it is not taught in natural-science classes is simple - there is no scientific evidence to support it.

In order to effectively teach intelligent design in a classroom, one has to first prove that such an intelligent designer exists, that this intelligent designer would have the ability to create the entirety of the universe, and that this being would design the universe. Finally, the whole controversy between evolution and intelligent design does not exist in the scientific community. According to a Gallup Poll taken in 1991, only 5 percent of all scientists believe in creationism, which, by the way, drops down to 0.15 percent if you look at relevant scientists.

The controversy exists in the religious and political realms, and that is indeed a tragedy. Right-wing politicians and religious leaders want to turn the science class into a forum to preach Christianity, and that is doing irreparable harm to science.

Elliot Kaufman

UNM student