Teaching Design

I have been teaching an upper-division course on Origins, Evolution and Creation since 1998; the course has been very popular and has been cross-listed as both Biology (BIO) and History and Philosophy of Science (HPS). Every year I get 40 or so students from varying religious and educational backgrounds and we examine the evidence for creationist claims (after spending some time thinking about the nature of science and religion). Over the years it has morphed from a course largely examining "scientific creationism" to one examining intelligent design. I'm not afraid to let the students read creationist materials or view creationist videos, largely because they are college students and have a certain amount of knowledge under their belt. In addition, I can spend time teaching them how to think critically and analyze scientific arguments. Thus, while I am very happy to teach this course at a university, I don't really see a way to effectively teach such a course at high school, especially given the poor standard of science education among students.

I bring this up noting that Americans United has filed suit against the El Tajon Unified School District in California over a course there that blatantly includes creationism. While the course is being offered as a philosophy elective rather than one within science, it is clearly aimed at promoting the Judeo-Christian view of creation. Here's the description of the course "Philosophy of Intelligent Design":

This class will take a close look at evolution as a theory and will discuss the scientific, biological, and Biblical aspects that suggest why Darwin’s philosophy is not rock solid. This class will discuss Intelligent Design as an alternative response to evolution. Topics that wlll be covered are the age of the earth, a world wide flood, dinosaurs, pre-human fossils, dating methods, DNA, radioisotopes, and geological evidence. Physical and chemical evidence will be presented suggesting the earth is thousands of years old, not billions. The class will include lecture discussions, guest speakers, and videos. The class grade will be based on a position paper in which students will support or refute the theory of evolution.

Eh? "[E]vidence will be presented suggesting the earth is thousands of years old" Who could actually believe that in this day and age? Why, none other than the instructor, Sharon Lemburg, "widely appreciated in the community ... as the Lady Falcons’ successful soccer coach. She is certified to teach Geography and Health, with a social science degree. She quickly admits she is not certified to teach science." Nor philosophy, for that matter. Lemburg is clearly clueless; the first version of her syllabus lists "Francis Krich" as a potential speaker. "Krich" is better known as Crick, the co-discoverer of the double helix ... and deceased since 2004. Her first version of a syllabus got shredded by Ken Hurst, a Ph.D. geologist at JPL in Pasadena, but as Ed Brayton notes, the second version of her syllabus is not much better.

Let's cut straight to the chase. Lemburg is not qualified to teach this topic and is merely trying to inject her own young earth beliefs into the curriculum. This, by the way, is a course that William Dembski is "happy" for high schools to teach as it is "a step in the right direction" (source).