I had that dream again; you know the one, when you are lost
in school. I only vaguely remembered what subjects I had signed up for, much
less the time and classroom location. It was on the eve of son Riley’s return for
his second year at PHS. Sharing his pain, I suppose.
The psychs say dreams like these
reflect anxiety in your life. I confess an anxiety about the future of
education: I fear the “intelligent design” (ID) movement. I take solace in the
fact that it hasn’t gained a visible foothold in Sonoma County. My children
have had excellent science teachers in the Petaluma schools. I’m confident these
teachers would agree that while ID is an appropriate topic for a philosophy or
religious studies class, it has no more validity in the study of human origins
than the Indian creation legends involving turtles and coyotes.
What is ID? Known cynically as “creationism lite”, it challenges the science of evolution, claiming the
elegant complexity of life cannot be explained by random mutations and natural
selection acting over millions of years. There must be some intelligence
guiding it: a creator.
I believe ID advocates are legitimately concerned about
people regarding creation as material, some happenstance machinery, devoid of
spirit. I’m with them here. I wish more people, especially our leaders, would
treat God’s creation with reverence and respect. That would include not just the
unborn and the brain-dead or pain-wracked terminally ill; it would include the
innocent endangered ecosystems and species, our life-sustaining climate, and
whole nations of indigenous peoples.
But couldn’t natural selection be the actual intelligence of
the design process? Can’t evolution be a manifestation of God’s careful thinking?
Why does intelligent design have to bear the implication of some human-like
intelligence? Two reasons: first, the mind best thinks in its own terms. Man’s
God tends to be male, white if you are white, brown if you are brown (and I’ll
wager the God of whales lives somewhere in the ocean.) The second reason for claiming
anthropomorphic intelligence is the one that worries me: having a creator-God in
your image gives you claim to exclusive access. And that gives you power: power
to rule the congregation, to have monuments and mega-churches raised in your
name. Power to command crusades and jihads. Religion’s dark side.
Do you see the frightening connection between our
President’s support for ID and his near-holy war in Iraq, his rejection of the scientific
explanations of global warming? What will the presentation of religious dogma
as science have on our education system, on America’s future competitiveness in
the global science and technology marketplace? How far back into the Dark Ages
will we fall?
The experience of mediation (silent prayer) can provide
insight to the intelligent design controversy. In meditation, your mind grows
still to the point where you are hearing what I’d call “God’s wordless message.”
That message can illuminate your life, as I believe it did for Jesus. But the
message is clouded when put into words, and with each successive interpretation.
What can only be fully understood by direct experience is neatly packaged in texts
which are easily misinterpreted by the naive and manipulated by the
power-hungry. Thus the mystery underlying the origins of life on earth becomes
a human-like God who created everything in literally six days (a God who, by
the way, is on our side.)
Am I suggesting we teach meditation at our schools? Yes. The
secular discipline of quieting the mind has documented physical and
psychological benefits. It is a thing worthy of study and practice. But while some
aspects of meditation, like its effect on brain waves and respiration, are
appropriate for the science class, the spiritual aspects belong in the religion
class with ID.
I welcome the intelligent design debate into our community.
How we choose to respond – by raising the spiritual and ecological awareness of
our culture, or by drifting into a stunted Christian theocracy preparing for
Armageddon – will determine how intelligent the design really is.