Chemical Design

This is a funny littel spoof on the 'science vs. religion' arguement going on about the teaching of creationism in science classes. It gave me a chuckle.

Teaching Mendeleev splits Oregon Town

Reichard Ranh
Trofim Lysenko Fellow of the reDiscovery Institute

Reprinted from The reDiscovery Institute Proceedings, 2005

PHILOMATH, OREGON. The grassy fields and gray frame houses appear peaceful, but this Oregon town is at war. The war is over the teaching of Mendeleevist Chemistry and Chemical Design in the public schools.

This spring the school board voted that high school chemistry teachers should allow students to question Mendeleev's Periodic Table, and offer alternative explanations for chemical bonding and reactivity. Since then the city been deeply divided.

In May the school board ordered teachers to tell students that Mendeleevism is not proven. They encouraged teachers to expose students to an alternate theory, "Chemical Design." This more modern theory posits that a designer or creator is responsible for the properties of chemicals and molecules. The school district has placed "Truth Labels' on classroom periodic tables.

"Mendeleev's theory is just a theory ... not a fact," the school board declared in their statement to teachers. "The theory has been mutated to the extent that Mendeleev would not even recognize the current periodic table. Changes include renumbering the elements by atomic number instead of atomic mass, and the addition of entire rows and columns. Chemical Design is an alternative explanation for chemical properties, that differs from Mendeleev's view," states the report.

Chemical Design proponents have a new rallying point: the reDiscovery Institute, a public policy forum based in Tacoma, Washington. The intelligent design movement is scientific research investigating the effects of intelligent causes on naturalistic bonding theories. Dr. Azo Mazur, a Senior Fellow of the reDiscovery Institute, and a well-known advocate of the Chemical Design Theories, notes that the goal is to allow teachers to teach the best science. He believes teachers need to teach that Chemical Periodicity is simply a theory and that other theories can also explain the data...

But pastor and parent Ray Bummer, 54, explained their point.

"If we continue to indoctrinate our young people with non-religious principles, we're headed for an internal destruction of this society," he said. "Chemical Periodicity is just a theory and there are other theories," Bummer explained.

"There is such a complexity in chemistry, and secular science wants to hang its hat on a belief that molecules somehow just form -- they say there is no creator, no order ... I believe there is a creator," he said.

(Full Story)

H/T ReDiscovery via Red State Rabble