And pigs will fly...

I almost passed out when I read this.

I've always considered Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum to be a serious tool of the religious right that drove me away from the Republican Party. However, going to show something along the lines of the same principle that says a stopped watch is right twice a day (although with ol' Rick it isn't nearly that often that he's right), he went and actually said in an an interview with NPR that he disagreed with President Bush's statement that "intelligent design" creationism should be taught alongside evolution in science classes. Santorum even said:

I think I would probably tailor that a little more than what the president has suggested," Santorum, the third-ranking Republican member of the U.S. Senate, told National Public Radio. "I'm not comfortable with intelligent design being taught in the science classroom."

And later:

As far as intelligent design is concerned, I really don't believe it has risen to the level of a scientific theory at this point that we would want to teach it alongside of evolution.

Amazing. It's almost as though he understands. (Of course, what he probably doesn't understand is that ID is incredibly unlikely ever to rise to the level of a scientific theory.) Indeed, Santorum does undermine his point somewhat in an other statement:

"What we should be teaching are the problems and holes -- and I think there are legitimate problems and holes -- in the theory of evolution. What we need to do is to present those fairly, from a scientific point of view," he said in the interview.

It all sounds fair enough, but I wonder if Santorum is aware that advocating the teaching of the "problems" or "holes" in evolutionary theory tends to be code among "intelligent design" creationists for teaching creationist "alternative explanations" to evolution. Besides, any good science teacher will point out the gaps in the theory and, most importantly, that no scientific theory is ever the "final word." Gaps in scientific theories need to be filled in with evidence and experimentation, something ID advocates never seem to grasp. Unfortunately, I'm beginning to think Kung Fu Monkey may be right about it when he describes how this sort of movement will lead to the disintegration of our economic competitiveness in the biotech sector.