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Science needs a new word (ID in schools)

Submitted by Matt Fleming on Thu, 2005-12-22 11:37.

There is a lot of debate these days about Intelligent Design (ID) and its place in the educational world. The ID proponents believe their idea should be taught in schools alongside evolution, in science classes. Its detractors believe ID is pseudoscience and should not be taught in science classes. I think we have a problem with symantics...

The argument

The argument that I hear (read in most cases) from ID proponents, is that evolution is just a theory... why shouldn't other theories (like ID) be taught in schools? This is a completely valid argument provided that the assumptions of the question are true-- that both ideas are really theories.

What is a theory?

To a scientist, the terms fact, theory and hypothesis mean something entirely different than to a non-scientist.

TermNon-scientistScientist
Factsomething proven that is generally agreed upon by all peoplea theory that has been validated close to certainty
Theoryan educated guessa hypothesis or group of hypotheses which have been validated but not to the point of near certainty
Hypothesissynonym to theory, an ideaan untested, tentative assumption

In strict scientific terms evolution is a theory. It is supported by plenty of observable facts and repeated physical evidence found in the process of mutations, gene flow, genetic drift, adaptation and speciation through natural selection. Since evolution is a theory, it should be presented in science classes.

What about ID? The National Academy of Sciences has declared that ID is not a theory because its intelligent designer cannot be observed or verified by experiment. Is ID a scientific hypothesis then? ID is a tenative assumption about the origins of the universe, but it is not testable; ID does not meet the burden for hypothesis either.

If ID is not a scientific fact, theory or hypothesis why would anyone ever think it should be taught in science class?

The real problem

Americans don't understand what a scientific theory really is, and think that creationism, ID and evolution are all on equal footing in this regard.

A study conducted by Pew Research Center for the People and the Press wrote:
42 percent of respondents held strict creationist views, agreeing that 'living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.' In contrast, 48 percent said they believed that humans had evolved over time. But of those, 18 percent said that evolution was 'guided by a supreme being,' and 26 percent said that evolution occurred through natural selection. In all, 64 percent said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism.
I'm sure at some point in time, perhaps when speech was more precise, the terms theory and hypothesis were not synonymous. Today, the terms are indistinguishable to an ordinary person. It is this lack of precision that leads the original question posed-- If evolution is just a theory... why shouldn't other theories (like ID) be taught in schools? The answer is that no scientific theory ever deserves an is just moniker and ID is really an idea or philosophy, not a theory.

A solution

I think that the scientific community needs to develop a new set of terminology that is not in the common public vernacular (think Latin here). The new terminology should be used to determine what should be taught in science classes. I think that the only reason ID has any traction whatsoever is the play on the word theory. If the normal american were educated in what a scientific theory really is, then this would be a non-issue. However, given our propensity towards ignorance (especially in science), the fastest solution would be to change the terminology. In essence, remove the tie between ID and evolution by associating evolution with some other term than theory.

A place for ID

There are several places where ideas, movements, and philosophies (ID probably qualifies as all of these!) are taught in the classroom. Philosophy, religion, history, and literature classes all come to mind.

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