The right place for an Intelligent Discussion on Intelligent Design?

[da]

Cornell University is offering a summer-session course called "Evolution and Design: Is there Purpose in Nature?"

Last autumn before the Dover case was decided, Cornell's former President Hunter Rawlings weighed in quite publicly in saying that Intelligent Design (ID) wasn't science, and the attempts to treat it as such were damaging to public policy. He also warned about the tone of the debate: "When ideological division replaces informed exchange, dogma is the result and education suffers. And if we are honest, we have to admit that many of us in universities have contributed to the polarization that afflicts the country as a whole."

There seem to be very few classes about ID at the University level, at least that I could find via web searches. This puts Cornell out there a bit; it might be the first to legitimise ID in a biology classroom.

Do I think, then, that Cornell should be offering a summer biology class on ID? Yes, I do. ID should be given a chance to compete on the field of ideas, in a non-polaraized atmosphere, with the potential ability to affect future discussions on science and biology, if its ideas have scholarly merit.

I also think this is an excellent stage for this class because it's being taught by Allen MacNeill (evolution_list), from whom I took an Intro Biology course. He's the perfect person to teach it- he was an engaging teacher, very interested in explaining biological well, and with nuance. He was one of the teachers I really enjoyed.

The class will read Behe, Dembski, Dawkins, and a fairly long list of others; the topics will include how to identify what Design might mean, and how to weigh the arguments involved between ID and science. I predict it will be over-subscribed, and I wonder how his experiment with blogging (and possibly also podcasting) the class will work.

Yesterday and today, MacNeill has been contributing to a conversation on a Science and ID-related blog here about the class, and I was impressed with the tone and content of his comments. I am guardedly optimistic about how all of this will go...

Yay, science and higher education.

(Edit: added evolution_list)

Comments

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

I believe that after the Kansas case, people thought to teach such a course there. I also think that Berkeley has offered similar courses in a philosophy department.

And there are numerous courses on Creation vs. Evolution, which are no doubt addressing "ID" "theory" at this point.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Ah. OK.

And there are numerous courses on Creation vs. Evolution, which are no doubt addressing "ID" "theory" at this point.

I'm curious how many are at least cross-listed in biology, but I'm not at all ambitous enough to go find out myself.