Red State Rabble

John West of the Discovery Institute has issued a challenge:

Science magazine is running a bogus news item asserting that the Kansas Board of Education is considering whether to mandate intelligent design. I challenge Science magazine to produce proof of its claim. If it can do so, I am willing to donate $100 to Science's parent organization, the American Association for the Advacement of Science (AAAS), so that it can promote Darwinian evolution.

RSR would like to get in on the game. If we win the challenge, we'll donate West's $100 to the Kansas Department of Education to help defray the cost of the Connie Morris Florida junket. Here's our proof:

• Intelligent design is unwilling to offer even a hypothesis of its own on how species came into existence, whether or not human beings are a product of common descent, or when the earth was created, It is utterly silent on the who, what, or where of the designer.
• The sum total of the substance of intelligent design theory is a criticism of evolution.
• The Kansas board has cribbed some of the intelligent design "theorists" criticisms of evolution and pasted them into the curriculum standards as benchmarks. Benchmark 3, grades 8-12, for example, states that "the student will understand major concepts of the theory of biological evolution," such as "the fossil record is not consistent with gradual, unbroken sequences postulated by biological evolution."
• Therefore, the Kansas State Board of Education in its infinite wisdom has mandated the teaching of intelligent design.

John please send my $100 to the Kansas State Department of Education with a note that RSR wishes to help defray the cost of Connie's Florida hotel room -- although, come to think of it, that $100 wouldn't come close to covering the $339 a night cost.