Science on side of evolution, not 'ID'

[question everything]

Monday, May 23, 2005
Science on side of evolution, not 'ID'

By RONALD BAILEY
Reason magazine

Who needs to make monkeys out of the Kansas Board of Education when its members are doing such a good job of it themselves?

(snip)

Today, opponents of evolutionary theory know that they can't teach religion in public schools. If they're going to smuggle religion in, they need to be sneakier. So they strip off any part of their "intelligent design" theory that might sound like it is religious and pose as simple scientists asking "hard" questions of narrow-minded evolutionists.

The anti-evolutionists affect not to know who or what the "intelligent designer" of their theory may be - he, she, it or they could be little green men or purple space squid or a race of intelligent supercomputers, or maybe, just maybe an omnipotent God. Who knows? We're all just innocently asking "scientific" questions here.

However, away from the glare of media attention, this pose of scientific objectivity cracks. "ID has theological implications. ID is not strictly Christian, but it is theistic," admitted board member Martin. The intelligent design proponents in Kansas, ask why not let children in public schools hear arguments for intelligent design in biology classes? Schools could "teach the controversy."

(snip)

Intelligent design theorists and their claims to scientific legitimacy aside, the only reason the vast majority of people who want intelligent design taught in public schools do so is because they believe it will undercut the corrosive effects of evolutionary biology on the religious beliefs of their children. They don't know and couldn't care less about the scientific details of the evolution of species or the origin of life - they just want Darwinism kept away from their kids.

What they don't understand, however, is that religious belief and evolution are compatible. In 1996 no less a religious authority than Pope John Paul II declared, "New knowledge has led to the recognition in the theory of evolution of more than a hypothesis."

(snip)

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/05/25/sections/commentary/commentary_columns/article_528012.php

[cdb]

1. of course

ID has NOTHING to do with science. It is blind faith.

[SCantiGOP]

2. but evolution is just a theory

kinda like the theory of gravity.

[Rainbowreflect]

4. Gravity is not a theory, IT'S THE LAW!

:evilgrin:

[SCantiGOP]

5. not to nitpick, but

gravity is still a theory until someone can explain how and why it works. But, it is not advisable to defy gravity in the meantime.

[Rainbowreflect]

6. Just a joke my brother I have.

Gravity, it's not just a good idea, it's the law.
But I know what you mean.

[Dudley_DUright]

7. I have a poster of Einstein on my office door with the caption

E=mc^2: Not Just a Good Idea, It's the Law.

[MaineYooper]

8. try general relativity.

It does a pretty good job of explaining how, if not why.

[wabranty]

3. ID is nothing more than the "Southern Strategy" of science

"Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design"
by Barbara Carroll Forrest, Paul R. Gross traces the history and political motivations behind ID. This is the same kind of strategy used by the Republicans to win the South and now the nation. Wikipedia has a great explanation of this strategy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge_strategy

Pin any IDer down and they will tell you that the Intelligent Designer is the God of the far right religous groups. It's the first sentence of their Wedge strategy document:
"The proposition that human beings are created in the image of God is one of the bedrock principles on which Western civilization was built. Its influence can be detected in most, if not all, of the West's greatest achievements, including representative democracy, human rights, free enterprise, and progress in the arts and sciences."
http://www.antievolution.org/features/wedge.html