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 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 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 three reference sources: Your textbook's two 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. 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 should begin with the word "yes" or "no." Using three, concise, numbered sentences, argue your answer in the thread. For your Replies: Seek to reply to two other classmates whose position is different from your own.
The objective is to sway the whole group to your side. If most classmates' threads are sympathetic to your own, critique their arguments rather than their conclusion. This makes the group's overall conclusion support stronger. In each case use two concise numbered sentences for each reply. Note: In your replies you may digress into the related question: based on how the scientific method works, is Macro-evolutionary theory scientific? Can you use it to do science?