Topic: Intelligent Design

You and your classmates are ordinary citizens interested in science education. You have been assembled into an advisory group. The Virginia State Education Commission is drafting a policy that will affect all school boards in the state. You are being protected in a secluded hotel from ACLU lawyers and right-wing demonstration groups. Here is your question: is intelligent design theory scientific? The Virginia State Education Commission is paying you thousands of dollars for a simple yes or no answer to this question. Such an answer may be unrealistic, but court battles will follow. You need to get as close to a yes or no answer as possible.

As a group, you have 3 reference sources:

• Your textbook’s 2 chapters on origins and the scientific method
• The course presentation entitled “Origins, ID, and the Public School Classroom”
• Two expensive expert witnesses: Michael Behe, a Lehigh University biochemist, and Eugenia Scott of the National Center for Science Education (your two expert witnesses come to you from presentations in the Reading & Study folder of this module/week)

For your thread:

As panelists, first do your homework, then make a decision: based on how the scientific method works, is intelligent design theory scientific? Can you use it to do science?

The title must begin with the word “yes” or “no.” Using 3 concise, numbered sentences, argue your answer.