A friend shares with me a courteous letter to the editor (“Atheists deny intelligent design of our universe”, March 17, 2011),
It is the responsibility of parents to not only monitor what is taught in schools, but to provide information that is purposely excluded.
It is painful to witness the lengths to which many atheists go in their attempts to deny intelligent design in both creation and perpetuation. Every time Hawking’s or others add a new layer of speculation concerning the origin of the universe, their information leaves another void that only God can fill.
I think the author, Michael Wolfe, is right. No responsible parent should take for granted what goes on in the classroom today. The days are long gone when the school board was, basically, your neighbour, the postmistress, and the Anglican rector. But more generally, allowing wild Hawking-style speculations like The Grand Design to be seen as science must surely have a dumbing down effect. Stuff that isn’t even plausible is treated as probable. How much worse would it be if they were teaching mere superstitions? Oh wait, there’s already the “Origin of Life” section in some curricula, right?