Joe the Archeologist

In this post at Uncommon Descent, Crandaddy posted two photographs, and asked the hypothetical question: If Joe the Archeologist only has enough funds and resources to dig at one of these sites, at which should he dig and why?

I thought that this was a great question and could inspire some great law school exam questions:

1. If public high school biology teacher Jane shows these photographs to her biology class, and asks her class the same questions, has she violated the US Constitution?

2. What if Jane is not a biology teacher, but a history teacher, and does this in her world history class?

3. What if Jane the biology teacher asks the question in #1 and then shows her class a picture of a bacterial flagellum, and then asks which of the three photos shows the strongest evidence of design and why? What if she asks which photo shows the least evidence of design?

4. Is it possible to answer Jane's questions on the basis of scientific evidence and reasoning alone, or does one need the Bible or other religious revelation?


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A previous post of mine that looks at the nature of historical sciences, and the relationship of science and history is here.