Jindal: Intelligent Design "The Very Best Science" (VIDEO)

Bobby Jindal, Louisiana Governor, exorcist, and potential McCain running mate, was interviewed on CBS's Face The Nation on Father's Day. Among the topics covered, Jindal was asked about his opinions on the debate over intelligent design's place in the public school curriculum. Jindal supports teaching intelligent design alongside evolution in the classroom, saying:

I personally think that the life, human life and the world we live in wasn't created accidentally. I do think that there's a creator. I'm a Christian. I do think that God played a role in creating not only earth, but mankind. Now, the way that he did it, I'd certainly want my kids to be exposed to the very best science. I don't want them to be-I don't want any facts or theories or explanations to be withheld from them because of political correctness. The way we're going to have smart, intelligent kids is exposing them to the very best science and let them not only decide, but also let them contribute to that body of knowledge.

Most scientists argue that intelligent design doesn't qualify as science.

Watch:

Comments

[levibatgirl]

09:17 AM on 06/22/2008

Fire. Bad.

: P

[Phil123]

07:49 AM on 06/22/2008

The hypocrisy here is that what passes for "scientifically accepted fact," The Theory of Evolution, is also a theory (and one that Darwin did not intend to be taken quite as broadly as it is today).

While I will not argue for or against either Evolution or Creationism, I will make the following interesting observations:
1) Both are theories.
2) There is "evidence" to both prove and disprove each.
3) Much of that "evidence" requires a particular point of view (why it's in quotes).
4) While Creationism is understood to be integral to a religious point of view; Evolution is ostensibly secular, hence arguably "scientific."
5) Among the seculars, "Evolution" has become a religious point of view. To challenge it is to belie proof of your ignorance. Because of the left, It is no longer an agnostic theory.
6) Creationism and Evolution need not be mutually exclusive theories, i.e., either could be the mechanism behind the other.

[aristippe]

09:33 AM on 06/22/2008

No.

[aristippe]

10:27 AM on 06/22/2008

Science is not a just "point of view, " unless you think Reason is a "point of view" as well.

[aristippe]

10:32 AM on 06/22/2008

"just a"

[Phil123]

11:43 AM on 06/22/2008

Scientific thought is a branch of philosophy.

When scientific theories explain reproducible results, it does not mean that the theory caused the result. It merely means that the result can be predicted by the theory. In many cases, the theory is incomplete, although useful within a given context. E.g., the law of gravity predicts what happens when we drop an object. It does not go on to model the nature of the interaction at the quantum level; nor does it need to.

Evolution is not nearly as complete a theory as the theory of gravity. It is not at the point where it can predict with any certainty what will happen in given situations. In that sense, Evolution does not (yet) inherit the connotation of infallibility that we nornally ascribe to "science."

[Hempy]

03:16 AM on 06/22/2008

Maybe the Creationists/Intelligent Designer advocates should read their Bibles before presenting it as a scientifically correct alternative.

The prophet Jeremiah wasn't too impressed with the accuracy of the Torah. He wrote:

How can you say, "We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us," when, in fact, the false pen of the scribes has made it into a lie? (8:8)

Hmm. A lie some 2700 years or so ago? Nothing's changed, so wouldn't it still be the same lie today?

Then there's that 6,000-year-old-earth dating system.

"James Ussher (1581-1656), Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College in Dublin was highly regarded in his day as a churchman and as a scholar…

"Having established the first day of creation as Sunday 23 October 4004 BC…Ussher calculated the following: http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/ussher.htm

Adam and Eve driven from Paradise, Monday, November 10, 4004 BC

Noah's Ark touched down on Mt. Ararat on Wednesday, May 5, 2348 BC"

So that would mean that the flood began somewhere around April 23, 2348 BC

And the Bush administration wants the American people to believe that the Grand Canyon was created during that 40-day period.

Evidently so does the Louisiana State Legislature, and Louisiana's Gov. Bobby Jindal (R).

Maybe the Louisiana State Legislature might want to require a Bible as Allegory course. That wouldn't sit too well with the Literalist, wing nut religious right though.

[ThinkForYourself2]

10:32 PM on 06/21/2008

A couple things about this issue.

Intelligent design is not Christian creationism as many believe.
A lot of people are very confused about the subject because they are assuming that teaching intelligent design means that bibles will be studied in science class, yet nothing could be farther from the truth.

Intelligent design really doesn't mean anything besides that life is not a accident or some haphazard event. It does mean that potentially a god, gods, a higher power or higher intelligence was involved somehow, somewhere in the process of creating the laws of life and this universe.

Just ask yourself these simple questions:

"what happened before the Big Bang"?
or,
"is sciences explanation of how life started enough to throw out "intelligent design" from the discussion?

Scientists can't say how life started although they try. Today's best explanation is that it started when lightening hit a puddle of mud on Earth. From what we recognize as the whole of life, this is quite a stretch. Most modern scientists also don't include the recent discoveries of past life regression and psychic abilities into the equation. Or even life on other planets. Evolution is a fact but how do these recent discoveries or concepts fit into evolution and the Big Bang?

Personally, I believe an powerful, intelligent being had something to do with what is around us. Not exactly sure what and how but to say life is just an accident will never make sense to 95% of Earths population.

[HatingTheGame]

10:45 PM on 06/21/2008

""what happened before the Big Bang"? "

Hmmm.... the Big Foreplay?

What?

[ThinkForYourself2]

11:14 PM on 06/21/2008

HatingTheGame

""what happened before the Big Bang"? "

Hmmm.... the Big Foreplay?

What?"

I have no idea what happened before the "BIg Bang", and that's entirely my point. Today's scientists teach that they know how life and this universe started just as many religions do so I am just posing that question since they are the authorities which we just need to believe and not question you see. I'd like to hear what they believe happened before the Big Bang. How did the laws of the universe and life come to be are a couple more questions that I want answered. Why do we have morals and is life really just a freak accident?

To put this in better perspective, consider that the complexity and intelligence of just 1 cell, with its millions of moving parts, and millions of processes and the perfection of executing the processes will forever be beyond human comprehension. You have to remember that Darwin did not have the ability to understand the cell as we do today because of the lack of technology. Today, the more we understand about the cell the more we stand in awe of how genius and complex it all is. A cell is not a blob of Play-Do. It's complex beyond all imagination.

The worlds population has questions that no scientist seems to want to answer and willl never will be able to.

[JadedAggie]

11:04 PM on 06/21/2008

You apparently have no idea what you are talking about. Intelligent design is a rejection of the concept of Darwinism. The entire idea was that God specifically designed each individual organism specifically for the functions that they serve in our world.

"What happened before the Big Bang?"

What created God?

[lthuedk 1]

08:12 PM on 06/21/2008

Where Jindal's religionism and political party are headed.

http://www.light-to-dark.com/darwins_twofer.html

Sometimes, symbionts provide all the force necessary to demonstrate Natural Selection.

[amcg50]

08:08 PM on 06/21/2008

I personally think that this disqualifies him from being Vice President or even Govener!

[HatingTheGame]

10:46 PM on 06/21/2008

Maybe in some other civilized, industrial nation. But not America. This makes him a genius!

[JackNasty]

06:28 PM on 06/21/2008

I have no problem with teaching children each and every creation myth of each and every religion, as long as it's done in comparative religion classes.

Only let's make sure fundamentalist religious freaks are not allowed to misrepresent their mythology as something else in any science classes in any American public school.

[aristippe]

11:26 AM on 06/22/2008

even FSM

[DXM]

06:01 PM on 06/21/2008

And with people like this running the country and making decisions on what our children should be taught in school, is it any wonder we rank so low compared to the rest of the industrialized world in rates of literacy, math and science education? It is time this sort of nonsense is ended once and for all!

[dugan45]

04:45 PM on 06/21/2008

We should allow the South to secede. They could then wage war to spread their intolerance cloaked in democracy. Soon, isolated in their ignorance, they could return to the cave men they already are. They could even return to the garb of cave men and women. No one would miss them.

[zigzag1]

12:57 AM on 06/22/2008

They could have Dallas as their Capitol city...works for me

[Rescisco]

03:13 PM on 06/21/2008

Ever notice that those who promote "intelligent design" over science seem to have been passed over when intelligence was handed out?

[wheresthebeef]

06:15 PM on 06/21/2008

Mostly. Jindal comes across as being pretty bright, though. A Rhodes scholar and all. Inexplicable.

[popecorvo]

07:57 PM on 06/21/2008

"Intelligence" is the attribute of the designer, not, obviously, the designed.

I say, next time, take a little longer than 6 days.

[peterg76]

02:54 PM on 06/21/2008

Evolution is self-organizing complexity - it does not happen "accidentally". There goes his entire argument.

[truthyguy]

02:37 PM on 06/21/2008

Whacko! He should get together with Tom Cruise for a discussion on the origins of our 6000 year old universe and the aliens from outer space who started it. Then when they are through someone can perform an exorcism to rid the rest of us of both of these nut jobs.

[dugan45]

02:37 PM on 06/21/2008

Let him bring it on. In no way, not one, can Creationists prove the existence of God, but science can provide data through results from experiments. Now that NASA and other nations' findings provide evidence even from outer space that things evolve, let them compete against that. As to a Beginning, let them prove it. I'd love to read how they prove that. Allowing them to compete with science would bring about their annihilation.

[riverhouse]

01:55 PM on 06/21/2008

I doubt GOP voters would find this guy American looking enough. He might look like a terrorist to them. He's got the gop view points and beliefs down straight, though.

[mikie63]

12:51 PM on 06/21/2008

One commentor said I shouldn't believe in creationism. Do you mean that the world is not really flat? Isn't the earth the center of the universe? Are all the scientists really that nuts? Why don't they read the only book that makes any sense? That would be that book that some god wrote. Why is this so hard to understand? Why am I asking so many questions? Is it because I know the truth? Or is it that, as a child, I was not supposed to doubt anything that a christian said? There I go again, another question.

No one can love children more than I do, and so I am very concerned when some idiots want to teach ID in schools. The poor kids get enough brain-washing in their chuches; so they don't need more in their educational system. Teach them to read, to think, to decide for themselves what is maybe true.