Based on the substantial interest among blog readers in Mike Beebe‘s position on teaching intelligent design (as articulated in an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article yesterday), we asked Beebe’s campaign to elaborate.
They contend that the Democrat-Gazette did not print Beebe’s entire statement, leaving off a crucial final sentence. Here is what Beebe’s campaign says it sent the newspaper:
I believe in intelligent design and I don’t think intelligent design and evolution are mutually exclusive. I think both information about intelligent design and evolution should be available to Arkansas school students. I believe both should be available because one is the consensus theory of the scientific community, and the other is the predominant belief of most Arkansans and Americans. This would provide Arkansas students background they need to wrestle with these and other fundamental questions as they become adults. As a matter of law, the United States Supreme Court prohibits teaching intelligent design in the public schools at this time.