Priveldged Planet again
The Museum of Natural History gets 70 percent of its funding from the federal government, which may explain why it allowed ''The Privileged Planet" to be shown amid the furor over the Sternberg case. Having gotten wind of the Sternberg case, US Representative Mark Souder, Republican of Indiana, is considering holding hearings on the back-and-forth over the film. He has demanded all relevant documents from the museum. As chairman of a subcommittee of the House panel that oversees the Smithsonian, he's within his rights to examine activities of the museum, but he should not use the controversies over von Sternberg and the movie as pretexts to lend the authority of Congress to intelligent design. Congress needs to focus on expanding scientific knowledge in the United States, not on worrying about dead-end, unscientific theories.
Intelligent design has an audience among Americans because many are ignorant of biology. The National Museum of Natural History, as the public face of the biological sciences for the Smithsonian, could help remedy that by mounting exhibits that emphasize the importance and validity of evolution for the study of life on earth. Education ought to separate fake from true science.
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