Oooooh this is another good article

[amberica]

This is a really good one.

Phony Theory, False Conflict


I got an email recently from my best friend's husband's sister's husband. (No joke.) Somehow he found my LJ via my friend's LJ. He is a Catholic and said that he believes in evolution AND God or creation or something. He also admitted that he didn't know much about this actual ID debate, and then he asked me to try to be understanding or something.

I had to explain to him, as I will now do for any other confused readers, that my PROBLEM with Intelligent Design (which yes, I sometimes refer to as IDiocy) is that people are trying to shove it into science curricula under the guise of "teaching the controversy" or because there are parts of science that we don't fully understand yet.

Fine. They can teach whatever ideas about theology or philosophy or whatever they want, but NOT IN A SCIENCE CLASSROOM. Science is a very specific process by which empirical knowledge is evaulated. It refers to the NATURAL world, not the SUPERNATURAL world. Scientific theories and ideas are created along with descriptions of how they could be empirically DISPROVED. Science requires skepticism, questions, and TESTING.

ID is religion, flat out. It relies on belief of a supernatural "intelligent designer" doing things that can't be tested, proved, or disproved with any kind of empirical tests. Or any tests, for that matter. You just gotta take it on faith. No tests exist.

I, like most of the other detractors of this ID crap, am not pompous enough to claim that I know whether or not an "intelligent designer" exists, or whether it interferes in the world's natural phenomena. However, the existence of such is NOT something that can or should be examined or discussed in a scientific forum. By teaching the children of Kansas otherwise, the Kansas Board of Education is automatically compromising those children's understanding of WHAT SCIENCE EVEN IS.

Intelligent Designer forbid this happens to any more kids in our great nation. I'm not looking forward to the US being made even more of a joke to the rest of the world.

Comments

[mouse-gerald.livejournal.com]

Charles Krauthammer is my newest hero. Thanks for the link!

I wanna' move to Kansas and see if I can get the school board there to include a study of Witchcraft in their science classes. (shrug) Bet I can make as strong a case for that as they can for "intelligent design."

And since this isn't a public forum and you're a pretty understanding gal, allow me to litter up your journal with this thought: It seems amusingly ironic to me that advocates of teaching intelligent design are all idiots by virtue of the argument itself.

[amberica.livejournal.com]

Indeed!!! How delicious the irony is! Heehee ^_^

[imogen-blue.livejournal.com]

your country is totally whacked. buy a new one.

[amberica.livejournal.com]

I'll have to ask for a raise, first...

[mouse-gerald.livejournal.com]

I'm re-reading Stranger In a Strange Land and on page 319 it says, "In the Tennessee legislature a bill was introduced to make pi equal to three; it was reported out by the committee on public education and morals, passed without objection by the lower house and died in the upper house."

It just reminded me of Kansas and of this post, so I had to share.

[amberica.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. Intelligent designer. (o_O)