Intelligent Design?

marjorie wants to know...

Were folks following the “intelligent design” debate in Kansas and Pennsylvania last month? Supplanting the term creationism with “intelligent design” is pretty smart, don’t you think? You all should read their stuff, believe me, it’s great propaganda.

So, again, thinking about the differences among us--what exactly is the disagreement?

According to the intelligent design people, it’s about Objectivity in the sciences. They contend that the concept of evolution is taught in a way that overtly rules out an intelligent creator. Is this true? Or is evolution presented in a way that leaves the possibility open?

Most scientific folks I know will say there is no evidence that an intelligent being created the universe. Suspending our biases for a moment, could there ever be evidence of a creator within the system?

According to the intelligent design folks, logic says that such a complex and beautiful natural system could *only* have been created at the hands of an intelligent creator. And, they believe that the current way evolution is taught in the schools in effect indoctrinates young people to think there is NO “intelligent creator” -- you know, GOD.

I recently flew back to Albuquerque in the company of a visiting theoretical research biologist at Los Alamos, who very generously shared all sorts of sweets he had snagged at a conference while we discussed god, jesus, intelligent design, and gender. He’s a devout Christian, of the born-again variety, and the conversation we had was a rare one for me. I felt perfectly at ease, as if he considered everything I said and was open to really hearing my perspective. He professed to me that all the evidence, in his mind, showed that nature was intelligent--that it could only have been produced by a creator. He said that this didn’t make evolution wrong; rather that evolution was a design mechanism, essentially.

My questions to him: Given the statistics that show people in the United States overwhelmingly believe in God, why is this such an issue for the folks who push to teach intelligent design in the classroom? Doesn’t the suggestion of intelligent design in the classroom inject an element of religion, of the supernatural, into science classrooms that are intended to solely rely on direct evidence?

To my first question, he replied that many people are simply afraid of losing control. I thought this was a very revealing statement. Seemingly, he didn’t include himself in that group, although I couldn’t help but note that he uses the intelligent design language himself. To my second question, he simply didn’t reply. I don’t think he can reply to that second question because that would show a conflict between his religious beliefs and his scientific standards.

In truth, we are embroiled in an enduring historical conflict between concrete natural science and supernatural belief systems. For me, much of this is about the separation of church and state, and protecting the rights of minorities (in this case, those who aren’t Christian) to not be subjected to religious dogma. But where do we draw the line, and is our insistence that the concept of intelligent design stay out of the classroom its own form of indoctrination? For me, this is the most important question.