First Night promises a fun night

Music, art and plenty of fun await people who attend First Night Flathead on Saturday night.

The annual alcohol-free community celebration starts at 6 p.m. and runs until 1 a.m., with a host of venues throughout downtown Kalispell.

Activities range from face painting to carriage rides to storytelling. And then there is the music - everything from hoedown tunes to bagpipes will be offered at more than a dozen different sites.

If you haven't experienced Kalispell's unique celebration of New Year's Eve, this is your chance to take in the family fun at First Night Flathead.

And remember, whether you celebrate in downtown Kalispell or anywhere else tomorrow night, please drive responsibly and cautiously. The roads have been slick lately, and with alcohol added into the mix, there is always the chance of tragedy on the highway.

Let's start the new year right.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania recently ruled that intelligent design, an alternative theory to evolution, is not science but rather religion.

On that he is probably right, since science is limited to the study of natural phenomena and explicitly rejects supernatural explanations. Intelligent design, on the other hand, posits a designer of life and thus implicitly is based on the concept of a creator God.

Thus intelligent design should not be taught in a science class.

However, it should be noted that the Dover School Board never proposed teaching intelligent design, merely required students to hear a four-paragraph statement saying that "Darwin's Theory [of Evolution] is a theory" and that "intelligent design is an explanation for the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view."

The statement also said, "As is true with any theory, students are encouraged to keep an open mind."

Yes, we are glad to know that religion won't be taught in science class, but we are also a little frustrated that the "open mind" may be the ultimate victim. Science and religion have gone hand in hand for years as compatible partners in the search for truth, and indeed the father of genetics - so important to an understanding of evolution - was Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk.

Many of the great scientific theories - those by Newton and Copernicus, for instance - were at least partially formulated because their inventors were trying to develop a better understanding of the world as God made it.

In the interests of better understanding, we would like to see room in education for everything - including discussion of the role of religious beliefs in human history and knowledge. Perhaps not in science class, but certainly in social studies.