Michele Bachmann: Evolution-Only Approach In Schools Amounts To 'Censorship By Government'

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It seems we have returned to the place where religious belief determines scientific fact. It's one thing to have a theory that guides your research. It's quite another to have a belief system that overrides the facts, or at lease changes The interpretation of them to fit the belief system.

"Bachmann also stated, "If you look at scientists there is not a unanimity of agreement on the origins of life." She made similar remarks in 2006. "There are hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel Prizes, who believe in intelligent design," she said."

Religious belief systems don't depend on empirical evidence, But rather on faith. If they find empirical evidence that supports their beliefs, that's fine. If the evidence doesn't support their beliefs, then they don't believe in the evidence. Or, they cobbled together bits and pieces of "evidence" and assemble a shaky theory to support their belief system.

 Christian Conservatives have a right to believe in anything they want to. But when they exert pressure to determine the science that is taught in schools, they are infringing upon the lives of all the people that don't share their religious beliefs. No one ever said ever said that Darwinian evolution explains every fact and has no contradictions. Of course it does. That is the nature of theories. A scientific theory has to stand up against new findings that threaten its assumptions. Religious theory, particularly those based on the assumption that the Bible is the written word of God need to be kept in the churches and not in the school system.

Ms. Bachman is not alone in disbelieving Darwinian evolution. But when she makes statements that hundreds of scientists support our belief system, She's twisting the facts to support a belief system that's based on twisted facts. 

The so-called theory of "creative design" will never go away despite its paucity of facts, because it isn't based on facts but rather on religious beliefs.

On December 20, 2005, Judge Jones issued his 139-page findings of fact and decision ruling that the Dover mandate which required the statement to be read in class was unconstitutional. The ruling concluded that intelligent design is not science, and permanently barred the board from "maintaining the ID Policy in any school within the Dover Area School District, from requiring teachers to denigrate or disparage the scientific theory of evolution, and from requiring teachers to refer to a religious, alternative theory known as ID."

Our system of government was created to protect the rights of minorities. That system shouldn't be used to allow minorities to impose their beliefs on the majority of the population

Separation between Church and State: Still a Good Idea

Politics and religion have always been intermeshed in this country, but in recent years this enmeshment has accelerated greatly. Two factors contributing to this have been the conservative Republicans building a base that was dependent upon significant participation by the Christian evangelical movement in America, and the struggle regarding a woman's right, or lack thereof, to have an abortion.

The issue in the 2008 presidential election year couldn't be clearer. In a recent article in the New York Times, Timothy Egan pointed out that, "Romney who declared this year that ‘freedom requires religion,’ and Mike Huckabee, who called himself a "Christian leader" advocated the amending of the Constitution to follow Biblical principles. Both men are being touted as running mates for McCain." Huckabee's proposal to amend the Constitution to follow Biblical principles is the precise reason what the First Amendment was written to prevent. Surely Huckabee is aware that there are Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and many others of different faiths that do not adhere to "Biblical principles." Jefferson and Madison would have been appalled by the notion that freedom requires religion and a proposal to amend the Constitution to follow Biblical principles.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The precise meaning of this statement has been argued over for the last 200 years. At issue, is the attempt to discern what was in the minds of the founding fathers when this amendment was included. In his letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1802, Thomas Jefferson stated, "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" thus building a wall of eternal separation between Church and State.”

In 1980 Ronald Reagan stated that "Government was the problem not the solution," and became president because the people bought into his notion of less government rather than more. Present-day conservatives have strayed far from Reagan's conservative notions of government and are proposing government intervention into areas of our lives long held private.