Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Dover Down!

On December 20, U.S. District Judge John Jones ruled against the Dover Area School Board stating intelligent design inserted into the science curriculum violates the constitutional separation between church and state. Yes, I know that was two weeks ago but, somebody happened to bring that topic up this morning and what she expressed was quite baffling to me. More on that later.
I have spent a lot of time reading news articles following the topics of evolution versus ID and creationism. Along with that, I have also read other opinions. I have come to the conclusion that most people (Americans specifically) know almost nothing about evolution and what they do know is incorrect. Case in point: the affore mentioned female told me she couldn't see how we (humans) could have come from monkeys. She told me that that was what she was taught in school years ago. Come to find out she went to catholic school. What a surprise.
The first thing I would like to clear up about that is apes and monkeys are not the same. Monkeys have tails for starters. In addition to that, evolution does not teach us that we came from apes(that is non-human apes). Using evolution to connect humans to other apes, or other species for that matter, is like playing "Six Degrees of Separation". I'm not going to get into the whole explanation, that would take up too much space.
Now on to intelligent design.
Intelligent design suggests that because the universe is too complex and evolution cannot fully explain the complexity of living organisms, there must be an intelligent designer. The ID'ers claim that the supernatural intelligent designer is not neccesarily God. That's fine. So my question is, what is it? If it isn't God, and it isn't any lifeform on earth, then it must be an alien. Under that supposition, that must mean there is intelligent life somewhere other than earth. But, isn't that the opposite of what different religious sects teach, that we are the only life in the universe?
I actually did quite a bit of research on intelligent design when I first heard of it. Mainly because what I heard at the time sounded hoaky. The only information I really found was some Dr. Behe guy arguing that there are gaps in the fossil record, something about irreducible machines, and that certain biological systems cannot be explained by evolution. This guy is a Roman Catholic that belives the "designer" actually is God. I don't know how this guy can get away with calling himself a scientist when he uses the supernatural to explain that which he doesn't understand. Maybe he's a witch-doctor?
OK. What about the whole "Evolution is a theory, not a fact" thing? Well, What about the theory of relativity? Come on, now! E=Mc^2? Ummmm... Yes, it does! If it didn't, then the U.S. would have a very large, nonfunctioning, nuclear arsenal! Nagasaki and Hiroshima would have been a hoax. Nuclear power would be impossible therefore, stars would never ignite and begin nuclear fussion.
I could go on and on (not that I haven't already). I think what the debate is really about is the fear religious folk have that evolutionists are trying to prove the nonexistence of God. Evolution does't even attempt to explore who or what created the universe and everything in it, including us. Evolution only teaches us how everything came to be without inquiring as to who or what was behind it. To use the supernatural to explanation things in this day and age is much like using greek mythology to explain things. In fact, its identical to using Gods to explain everything from the wind to the motion of the sun.
Perhaps, ID'ers just aren't intelligent enough to satisfy their need for religion by believing that evolution is how God works his magic.

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