President Bush has decided to boldly go where his fellow Republican, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Jerry W. Kilgore, decided not to tread.

Bush was asked by a reporter last week for his views about teaching “intelligent design,” a theory about the origins of life.

The president put the teaching of intelligent design on a par with teaching evolutionary theory, saying, “That decision should be made to local school districts, but I felt like both sides ought to be properly taught.”

Kilgore, perhaps aware of what polls say about the teaching of intelligent design in Virginia’s science classes, went the other way.

Asked at a July 16 debate whether he would favor teaching the theory in Virginia’s public schools, Kilgore replied, “I support Virginia’s Standards of Learning. And, in Virginia’s Standards of Learning, we focus on the science, and I continue to support the Standards of Learning … [which] have brought great quality to Virginia’s public education system.”


Democratic Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine joined Kilgore in opposition to teaching creationism or intelligent design alongside evolution in public schools.

The comments by Bush have accelerated a national debate about the teaching of a theory suggesting that the complex array of animal and plant species could never have evolved on the basis of natural selection. Intelligent design suggests instead that the complexity of life reflects the hand of a hidden designer: God.

Brian Wheeler, the first Albemarle County elected public official to start his own blog, sided squarely with Kaine and Kilgore and against the president’s position.

The at-large member of the Albemarle County School Board wrote in his blog, “A CNN piece on the news today said this was nothing new from President Bush and that he has always advocated exposing students to different theories about the origins of life, including Creationism, since he was governor of Texas.”

Wheeler noted, “When I ran for the School Board in 2003, I first shared my views on this issue. I believe in the separation of church and state. I am opposed to the teaching of creationism.”

Bush’s comments marked the first time he has addressed intelligent design as president and immediately drew praise from conservative activists.

Gary L. Bauer, a Christian conservative leader, told the Washington Post, “With the president endorsing it, at the very least it makes Americans who have that position more respectable, for lack of a better phrase.”

Bauer, who may read different polls than Kilgore, added, “It’s not some backwater view. It’s a view held by the majority of Americans.”

A raging debate on intelligent design broke out on Aug. 3 on liberal Charlottesville political activist Waldo Jaquith’s blog, where the blogger personally endorses “logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence.”

One Northern Virginian engaging in the public conversation on the Internet made some good observations that Kaine and Kilgore both might agree with while Bush might not.

The blogger called NoVA Scout said, “I’ve never had any trouble reconciling my Christian faith with Darwinian theory. To place the two in stark opposition misunderstands the precepts of both. The President either was playing to the cheap seats with his remarks or he hadn’t thought them through. The difficulty with Intelligent Design is that it is (to date at least) a theological construct. Open the door to it in secular schools and there is no defensible way to hold back a lot of other religious-based theories of the formation of the universe.

“As a conservative Christian,” the blogger continued, “I do not understand why so many of my brothers and sisters want the government meddling with religious doctrine. An article of secular faith is that Government rarely does anything very well.

"Why charge it with religious doctrine? They’ll just muck it up. … Good science is a window on God’s omniscience.”

Amen.