Unfortuately, my knowledge of her ID stance comes from Dragoncon. At D'con this weekend, I spent a great deal of time in the science and skeptics tracks and during one of my panels, someone burst through the door and announced that, just that morning, a few minutes prior, Palin said on air that she believes ID should be given equal consideration to evolution in science classes. Several other people throughout the day made the same claim that they, personally, heard the broadcast and were not merely repeating that first guy's statement.
I was unable to get internet access and wasn't in my room long enough to watch TV, so I couldn't independently verify it.
I'm of the opinion that creationism should only be taught in school alongside all other religions' creationist stories in a theology/religion/mythology course as it has been proven, scientifically and legally, that ID and creationism are not science. A teacher being asked that question should refer the students to the appropriate religious/theologous authority. Therefore, I consider even the more ambiguous statements of "if a teacher is asked, it should be discussed" to be equally insidious and damaging to "both should be taught" - perhaps even more insidious as it is more subtle.
In the very rare circumstance when religious issues being discussed in public schools does not violate the separation of church and state (for example, elective world religion classes, or history lessons that include the impact religion had within the context of a historical event), it is my opinion that the only way those circumstances don't violate the separation is when they discuss all religions. Creationism in schools and "teach all the alternatives" is clearly a Christian subterfuge to get Christianity into the school system, since they do not propose that any OTHER mythology get "equal time". When they say "discuss all the options", they mean "discuss BOTH the options", as though no other religion's beliefs are valid.
In the panel I attended on Issues with Education, many teachers of disciplines other than science stood up to tell tales of problems teaching their subjects too. For example, a history book said "Muslims believe that Mohammed did X" while simultaneously saying "Jesus did Y" ... not "Christians believe that Jesus did Y".
But this is more ranting on religion in schools, so I'll stop now.
no subject
I was unable to get internet access and wasn't in my room long enough to watch TV, so I couldn't independently verify it.
I'm of the opinion that creationism should only be taught in school alongside all other religions' creationist stories in a theology/religion/mythology course as it has been proven, scientifically and legally, that ID and creationism are not science. A teacher being asked that question should refer the students to the appropriate religious/theologous authority. Therefore, I consider even the more ambiguous statements of "if a teacher is asked, it should be discussed" to be equally insidious and damaging to "both should be taught" - perhaps even more insidious as it is more subtle.
In the very rare circumstance when religious issues being discussed in public schools does not violate the separation of church and state (for example, elective world religion classes, or history lessons that include the impact religion had within the context of a historical event), it is my opinion that the only way those circumstances don't violate the separation is when they discuss all religions. Creationism in schools and "teach all the alternatives" is clearly a Christian subterfuge to get Christianity into the school system, since they do not propose that any OTHER mythology get "equal time". When they say "discuss all the options", they mean "discuss BOTH the options", as though no other religion's beliefs are valid.
In the panel I attended on Issues with Education, many teachers of disciplines other than science stood up to tell tales of problems teaching their subjects too. For example, a history book said "Muslims believe that Mohammed did X" while simultaneously saying "Jesus did Y" ... not "Christians believe that Jesus did Y".
But this is more ranting on religion in schools, so I'll stop now.