Reply #6: The biggest problem with intelligent design theory [View All]

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is that it's being hijacked by religious groups to introduce their particular beliefs.

I remember my first biology class in high school. The time frame was in the sixties. We were studying how a simple leaf works, and I wondered if some form of intelligence was involved in directing the process of evolution that resulted in this little chemical factory.

I didn't immediately jump to the conclusion that this proved the Old Testament story of creation. It was just an interesting idea, totally unprovable. Through the years, I used these thoughts as a "what if" topic for entertaining late night beer conversations with friends, providing a break from the usual sports talk and the constant bragging about the women my nerdy friends had managed to (supposedly) seduce.

Since the intelligent design theory has surfaced and become slightly more "mainstream", I've moved on to other topics for the beer fest. I enjoy introducing the idea that aliens visited the earth in the past and manipulated DNA to produce a semi-intelligent species of ape to work for them. (We, ourselves, are approaching this ability.)

I wonder how would an instructor go about teaching intelligent design in a school environment? What proof could be presented? What questions would be asked on a test?

A course on comparative religion might be more useful, or perhaps a class on how religion has had both a positive and a negative impact on history.

Intelligent design is just speculation.

Speculation, as defined by answers.com is: "reasoning based on inconclusive evidence; conjecture or supposition".