I am reading a wonderful and insightful book called The Song of the Dodo, written by David Quammen. This book was written not so long ago (1996) but it references those long ago pioneers in early biology. He talks about the works of Darwin, Linnaeus, and Lyell but mostly, early in the book he references the work of Wallace. For those of you who do not know Wallace published at the same tome as Darwin about the same theory. Wallace however was a poor working man and basically got the short end of the stick. As I read this book I am amazed to find so many similarities between what those early biologists were up against in the Victorian era and what we are going through today. They published all this information, with out the technology to back it up that we have today , in the face of a very strong religious belief in Creationism. They called it the theory of "special creation" today they are calling it intelligent design.
Wallace used the amazing biology of secluded islands to try to make his point and Quammen sums up the results very nicely:
"Wallace had sited Saint Helena as one case of "a very ancient island having obtained an entirely peculiar, though limited, flora." He had added: "On the other hand, no example is known of an island which can be proved geologically to be of very recent origin(late in the Tertiary, for instance), and yet possesses generic of family groups, of even many species peculiar to itself." This pattern could be explained two ways. The first possible explanation was that in the very distant past, God so loved islands that He graced hem inordinately with wondrous forms of plant and animal, whereas in more recent epochs, either God's fondness for islands has flogged or else His creativity has. If He's not a diminished God of inconstant powers, then, He's a capricious God of inconsistent tastes. The second possible explanation was less blasphemous: Species evolve."

Now if they could figure that out with out the kinds of scientific proofs we have today then why are we regressing back to those old ideas. Scientifically evolution exists. As a future educator I am very comfortable teaching this, which I can show proofs of. I am not (and this may be a problem if things don't change) comfortable getting up in front of a diversified group of students and teaching intelligent design. The scientist in me says "NO Proof".

Now just so you all know I am perfectly ok with intelligent design being taught in school, where it belongs in a philosophy class. It is a philosophy! Religion is a personal belief and should not be mandated by any government. Isn't that where this country started freedom of religion. So if you chose not to believe in any form of intelligent design or God for that matter that is your choice and should NOT be forced upon you by your government or school system!