Via Atrios, we see that Rick Santorum “differed Thursday with President Bush’s support for teaching an alternative to the theory of evolution known as ‘intelligent design’”:
I think I would probably tailor that a little more than what the president has suggested. … I’m not comfortable with intelligent design being taught in the science classroom.
Santorum Exposed points out that the senator authored an op-ed in 2002 arguing that “intelligent design is a legitimate scientific theory that should be taught in science classes.” But Santorum didn’t stop there. Not by a long shot.
Also in 2002, he “tried to attach an amendment to the No Child Left Behind Act that would encourage the teaching of intelligent design.” (The amendment failed, but the statement was adopted as part of the law’s Conference Report.)
In an even more extreme case, Santorum last year came out in favor of the Dover, Penn., school board’s controversial ID resolution, which read, “Students will be made aware of gaps/problems in Darwin’s theory and of other theories of evolution including, but not limited to, intelligent design. Note: Origins of Life is not taught.” During the debate over the resolution, one of the school board members appealed, “Two thousand years ago, someone died on a cross. Can’t someone take a stand for him?”
Not even the Discovery Institute, the most prominent ID advocacy group, supported the Dover resolution. This is an organization whose ’99 fundraising appeal stated that the group “seeks nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies,” and that the “proposition that human beings are created in the image of God is one of the bedrock principles on which Western civilization was built.”
Discovery Institute called the resolution “misguided” and said it should be “withdrawn and rewritten.” Santorum commended the Dover school board for “taking a stand and refusing to ignore the controversy.” That about says it all.