Texas Higher Education and Creation Research, Part 14

The Beaumont Enterprise has an article looking at the Institute for Creation Research application to grant Master's in science education. Henry Morris III is quoted:

"We are forensically interpreting the data based on our presupposition," Morris said. "The evolutionists do the same thing. They have a presupposition that there is no supernatural intervention of any kind. We have a presupposition that there is supernatural intervention in the past, not in the present."

Arguable. It's probably more accurate to say that science does not deny supernatural events could occur, but that they are not within the realm of science. Regardless of how one breaks down the philosophy of methodological naturalism, the bottom line is:

Miracles are not allowed in science. The instant you invoke miracles, you're not doing science, whether you're doing biology, chemistry, physics, or anything else.

The article gives some details about the way the degree is structured:

Students in the current master's degree program must complete 33 semester hours of work, according to the Institute's Web site. This coursework is a combination of 15 credit hours of education and research courses, three hours of advanced creationism studies, and 16 credit hours of sciences.

I hadn't noticed this before, because surfing the Institute's web site is a very depressing experience: it's never fun to experience open hostility.

In any case, 33 credit hours is about standard for a non-thesis degree; our non-thesis Master's is a 36 credit hour program. Although it sounds like the creation studies aspect is very small, one also has to be concerned about the accuracy of the 16 credit hours in science making up almost half the degree.

Finally, the article notes:

If approved by the coordinating board, this would be the first online master's degree in science education offered in Texas.

This little factor would be another reason to look at this program carefully.