In today's Boston Globe, Op-Ed columnist Jeff Jacoby wrote a piece entitled "The timeless truth of creation". The column asserts that Intelligent Design is science and attempts to further the cause of promoting ignorance in American schools. What appears below is my response to Mr. Jacoby's column.
Dear Jeff,
After reading your column (“The timeless truth of creation”) on one of today’s hot topics, I felt compelled to write to you. It seems to me that the portion of “Intelligent Design” that is deemed offensive by its opponents is the leap from lack of understanding to coherent design by a higher power, and then calling that “science”.
Science constitutes the process of theorizing and proving based on empirical evidence. Is the evolution of man a thoroughly proved theory or concept? No it isn’t, but it does have a strong cache of evidence that leads many to believe that it’s the right path to explore.
What is not science is stating that since we don’t fully understand a concept, it must be due to a higher power. In other words, the lack of understanding equals evidence for Intelligent Design. I find that notion to be farcical and just plain un-scientific. Throughout our history, there have been many things that weren’t understood and were thus explained away as the responsibility of a higher power. Some examples are fire, the weather, the stars, the movement of the earth and sun, etc. With further understanding, we have learned that a higher power has nothing to do with these things. The sun doesn’t revolve around the earth; God doesn’t send lightning down because he is angry. Just because we don’t fully understand the evolution of man today, that doesn’t mean we won’t understand it completely at some time in the future. Intelligent Design isn’t science because there isn’t any evidence for it. Evolution's perceived shortcomings don’t prove Intelligent Design.
A couple of other points that I wanted to raise: your statement that Intelligent Design isn’t a religiously based notion rings hollow to an atheist. The suggestion of a higher power is religious in nature and you can’t get around that. To say that it isn’t presupposes that everyone believes in some form of higher power, and that is not the case. Also, Intelligent Design is primarily backed by conservative Christian groups that have been trying to get Evolution out of schools for decades. They have masterfully crafted “Intelligent Design” as their new weapon to get their anti-evolution message into our schools. If it isn’t religious, then why are several religious leaders who are members of groups for the separation of church and state against Intelligent Design? I think it is because they see through the façade and recognize Intelligent Design for what it is – Creationism.
1 comment:
i took a look at the jacoby column.
he clearly doesn't know what science is.
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