Letters to the Editor
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The Fallacy of "Teaching the Controversy"
The I.D. movement claims to want to "teach the controversy" but simply glosses over the implicit assumption therein that if something is controversial that both sides of the controversy deserve merit simply by the fact of being a "side" of a controversy.
Therein lies the problem and this is the point that the pastafarians are trying to make. Just because a group of people, even a LARGE group of people, believe something does not make their belief worthy of consideration in the context of scientific debate.
A topic should be accepted as legitimate by some significant consensus of the scientific community to be taught in the science classroom, no matter how many lay people believe in one side of the topic or another.
I think I.D. is a perfectly acceptable topic of discussion in history or current events classrooms.