To the editor:

What are we thinking?

The very fact the Kansas conservative school board is attempting to force Christian-based intelligent design teachings into Kansas schools should cause everyone with half a brain to stop for a moment and think about what they are really trying to do.

The purpose of education is to teach one to think, to consider facts and evidence to form conclusions. It encourages students to explore new boundaries, question old ideas, test innovative hypotheses, and experiment with fresh ideas and possibilities to advance humanity.

Intelligent design does exactly the opposite. It quashes the educational process, eliminates original thinking, replacing scientific fact with religious dogma that demands one accept religious belief as truth, such as the ancient myth all mankind is descended from a garden inhabited by two naked teenagers and a talking snake about 6,000 years ago.

Education, not religion, eliminated slavery, provided women equal rights, led to scientific advances in vaccines, medicines, technology enabling us to fly through the air and walk on the moon.

Education, not religion, is the reason we no longer herd sheep, wear robes, roam the deserts in tribes, live in tents and sacrifice small animals as a bribe to an imaginary wrathful God ruling Earth from the sky.

Kansas University is a classic example of the educational process. Fred Phelps and his church is a classic example of the extreme religious right that advocates intelligent design. Who do you want teaching your children? Think about it.

Curtis D. Bennett,

Lawrence