While President Bush earlier this week said he favored teaching the theory of Intelligent Design along with evolution (see prior posting), some of his political allies are distancing themselves from that position.
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported: "At the White House, where intelligent design has been discussed in a weekly Bible study group, Mr. Bush's science adviser, John H. Marburger 3rd, sought to play down the president's remarks.... [He] said in a telephone interview that "evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology" and "intelligent design is not a scientific concept." Mr. Marburger also said that Mr. Bush's remarks should be interpreted to mean that the president believes that intelligent design should be discussed as part of the "social context" in science classes." (See Jeremy Leaming's discussion of this on The Wall of Separation blog.)
Then on Thursday, Reuters reported that Pennsylvania Republican Senator Rick Santorum also largely rejected President Bush's position. Santorum is quoted as saying: "As far as intelligent design is concerned, I really don't believe it has risen to the level of a scientific theory at this point that we would want to teach it alongside of evolution." But he added: "What we should be teaching are the problems and holes -- and I think there are legitimate problems and holes -- in the theory of evolution. What we need to do is to present those fairly, from a scientific point of view."
