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Seems that threats to evolutionary thinking are ramping up after the Republican debate where our future leaders affirmed that they don't believe in science. The latest campaign to stop the flow of rational thought is a "Who is your Creator" contest held by the eponymous organization who is offering $5,000 to the lucky entrant. The taks is to formulate a 4-part legal opinion which makes the case for teaching creationism in classrooms.

As Prof. Siegel told us, this campaign is really not trying to prove "Intelligent Design" is science but rather that evolution is not science and thus "Intelligent Design" must be taught as an alternative. It really is interesting how the contest encourages its entries to completely muddle something that is not an argument by attacking evolution with tactics it has used to prove that creationism is not real science.

For instance, the first part of the winning entry will address the banning of any criticism of evolution. The contest suggests that "A Humanist judge will obsess ever whether a belief or theory is Christian while ignoring the religious implications of teaching the theory of evolution." Religious implications of evolution?! Honestly.

The second part is to encourage the courts to define a standard of science. This too is very scary as it is asking the courts, non-scientists, to make concrete decisions on what science is and is not. This effectively is entreating the courts to make all scientists and researchers beholden to a political establishment. This second part subjugates scientific thought.

The third section of the contest is too rich to not post the entire blurb. "Thirdly, a successful contestant shall explore whether there is any reliable scientific evidence or facts supporting the theory of evolution, based on the standards developed above. He or she shall also explore the scientific evidence or scientific facts disproving the theories of evolution. The courts cannot define science much less authoritatively determine whether evolution is science, so this section is critical." Enough said!

The fourth section is asking the entrant to propose a way that evolution and "Intelligent Design" should be taught in schools. I thought this was decided in Mclean v. Arkansas Board of Education and, most recently, Kitzmiller v. Dover. Intelligent Design is not science and evolution will be taught in public schools!

This really is not a debate that we should be having at this point. I can't believe that some religious radicals are continuing to push this issue. On the bright side, we'll have an endless supply of youtube videos telling us why a banana proves creationism.