"Qualified" support for ID

Dr Brendan Nelson, then Australia's Minister for Education, Science and Training, spoke at the National Press Club in Canberra on 10 August 2005.

Dr Nelson, also a medical doctor, was asked whether Intelligent Design should be taught in Australian classrooms. He replied that Intelligent Design should not replace evolution in schools, and he went on:

"I mean as far as I'm concerned students can be taught and should be taught the basic science in terms of the evolution of man, but if schools also want to present students with intelligent design, I don't have any difficulty with that... it's about choice, reasonable choice. And there are something like a million children and their parents who've already exercised that choice and they've gone to a whole variety of schools for a lot of reasons and this is one of them."

Earlier, in his prepared speech as part of Australian Science Week, Dr Nelson said:

"Science is many things I suppose. It's about knowledge; it’s about curiosity, intellectual rigour and the testing of evidence. But it's also, for those of us perhaps who are not scientists, also about hope and about trust.

"Hope is arguably the most fragile, yet powerful of human emotions and in many ways it drives our faith and our confidence in enhancing the human condition and improving the lives of all of us, but more importantly those of the next generation.

"But it's also about trust. Trust from those of us who are not perhaps as scientifically literate as many of you," he said.

We give thanks to the Noodly One for intervening to move Dr Nelson to his current position in the Government as Minister for Defence. He is presumably better suited for a role that requires less 'curiousity', 'intellectual rigour' and 'scientific literacy'.

RAmen.