Senate majority leader, dr. Bill Frist has come out in favor of teaching ‘Intelligent Design’ along side the theory of evolution. dr. Frist, a well known and popular faith healer in his home state of Tennessee, was most recently in the news when he made a remote viewing diagnosis of the brain dead Terri Shiavo.
dr. Frist seems to believe that in a “pluralistic society” that a “broad range of fact, of science, including faith” should be taught in our public schools. I agree, dr. Frist. But allow me a moment please; by your logic I should be able to demand that atheism be taught in theology classes and Sunday schools, and psychoanalysis should be taught in geometry classrooms “What”, you say, “atheism is not a religion, those have nothing to do with the subject of the class?”. Well dr. Frist, ‘intelligent design’ is not science.
dr. Frist, I understand that you have been out of school for some time, and maybe have a general grudge against the enlightenment — perhaps you were forced to read Voltaire as an impressionable child — but within the past few hundred years we have classified certain field’s of study in order to help expand our knowledge them. Maybe some definitions would help:
science:
Function: noun
A knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through the scientific method and concerned with the physical world and its phenomena
theology:
Function: noun
1: the rational and systematic study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truth 2: a particular system or school of religious beliefs and teachings
Have you’ve noticed the difference? Science requires testing through a particular method as well as observations in the natural world. Theology, on the other hand, is a study of religious truths or beliefs. I understand this may be complicated, dr. Frist, but please try to understand. Science attempts to make sense of the universe by testing and proving theories — sometimes this can take a very very long time. Theology tries to understand the relationship of man to the divine by examining a series of dogmatic or philosophical beliefs. Science can be proven or disproven by observation, extrapolation, and mathematics; theology can never be proven correct or incorrect — it can only be shown to be within a rational faith or outside of it.
Now dr. Frist, I ask that you please go back to your ‘practice’ and leave science to scientists and theology to the faithful.
