Triumph of Common Sense

"HARRISBURG, Pa. - In one of the biggest courtroom clashes between faith and evolution since the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, a federal judge barred a Pennsylvania public school district Tuesday from teaching “intelligent design” in biology class, saying the concept is creationism in disguise."

Not only is the judge a Republican (which, of itself, does not necessarily mean you're automatically a drooling Jesus-Monkey), he goes to church.

Yet he ruled against the ID pushers, stating that while ID “may be true, a proposition on which the court takes no position, ID is not science.” He also is quoted saying that ID “violates the centuries-old ground rules of science by invoking and permitting supernatural causation”.

But exactly. Intelligent Design is a theory NOT based in science. It cannot be tested against natural empirical evidence through any of our immediate senses or through conducted experiments. It is, in fact, premised on faith, or what the good judge terms 'supernatural causation'.

Evolution, while also a theory, is based in scientific research and CAN be tested against natural evidence. Theories that can be proved or disproved belong in science classes. Theories that cannot be either belong in philosophy to be debated at length.

Intelligent Design...a fundamentalist wolf in secular clothing...has some merit as a topic for lively debate in ANY other social study class but science. It needs to be discussed openly and rationally, but not trussed up as anything equivalent to science or fact in any matter whatsoever. Doing so is taking American students and their parents as fools. It murders all common sense and rational thought, and gives us invisible men living in clouds as demand enough to give it solid footing along with the accomplishments of Einstein, Galileo, Darwin or Hawking.

To put it a little less fiery, it's a very good question, but fails as an answer.

He also states that “It is ironic that several of these individuals (who promoted ID taught in science classes), who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy.”

Ironic, indeed. It is, by far, their modus operandi, and their insincere motives are as tainted as their spirits are void of the love for the god they claim to worship.