The National Academy of Sciences has released a book this month titled “Science, Evolution and Creationism.” The report details how teaching Intelligent Design (creationsim in disguise) is harmful to our children and society in general. The report explains how all sciences are dependent on the theory of Natural Selection including fighting disease. Specifically, the report uses antibiotic-resistant bacteria as just one example of how evolution happens right before our eyes.
The theory of Intelligent Design (creationism in disguise) claims that life is far too complicated to have developed on its own. It claims that since life is too complicated, “god must have designed” it. What ID folks fail to say is that when they claim their must have been a designer, they also claim that designer is god. Therefore, ID needs you to believe in the existence of god for anything it claims to be plausable. (I call that religion, not science)
The Family Resource Council has apparently published a response which the blog Chester Street has republished:
The National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine have mounted yet another attack on the scientific theory of intelligent design, publishing an 89-page book titled Science, Evolution, and Creationism. The new publication falsely equates “intelligent design” (a scientific theory which infers the necessity for intelligent design from scientific evidence) with “creationism” (a term usually used for a theory of origins that begins with the Bible or some other religious text). It also lumps together concepts of microevolution within species (such as the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria), which are not controversial, with the more contested theory of macroevolution, which seeks to trace all existing forms of life to a common ancestor. It appears to dodge altogether the crucial question of how living things could have arisen from non-living things in the first place. It also slanders intelligent design as “unscientific” despite peer-reviewed articles on the concept and the credentials of 700 doctoral-level scientists who have publicly questioned Darwinism. Perhaps the biggest problem with the defenders of Darwinian evolution is that, ironically, they have reversed the roles in the supposed historical “war between science and religion,” by declaring Darwinism to be inerrant dogma, and punishing its doubters by burning them at the academic stake. blockquote>
The first issue I have with this FRC response is that they call ID a scientific theory, it is not. Intelligent Design offers us no detail theories of how life came into existence. It does not offer explainations of DNA or genetics. It doesn’t offer us any explainations other than “god did it”. This of course begs the age old question, then who created the creator. Trashing Darwin is not a scientific theory, it is a trashing of someone else’s theory.
The FRC response also blatently lies when it claims that Intelliget design (ID) and creationism are not the same thing. ID is a reigious theory not a scientific theory. ID does not belong in our classrooms if for no other reason it makes the unprovable claim that there is a god. I would not want my children learning this when they should be learning biology and physics. Religion should be taught at home not in the public schools with public dollars.
The FRC is also claiming that 700 scientists have publically questioned Darwin. I respond to that with, ONLY 700? Science is about asking questions. Science is about testing theories. So far, science has overwhelming accepted Darwins theory of Evolution through Natural Selection as the most plausable theory of how life came to be. Questioning Darwin is not the same thing as discounting it.
Earlier this year a coalition of scientists released a public outcry for the scientific community to stand up to these attacks on science and reason in our classrooms. While the FRC is trying to make the claim that 700 scientist have questioned Darwin, The coalition of scientific societies that authored the article represent teachers, biologists, physicists, astronomers, chemists, and social scientists. These organizations include: American Association of Physics Teachers, American Astronomical Society, American Chemical Society, American Institute of Biological Sciences, American Institute of Physics, American Physical Society, American Physiological Society, American Society for Investigative Pathology, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, American Society of Human Genetics, Biophysical Society, Consortium of Social Science Associations, Geological Society of America, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, National Academy of Sciences, National Science Teachers Association, and Society for Developmental Biology. In other words it represents 1000s of scientists all of whom have questioned Darwin as science would have us do, but also who refuse to allow religion to be taught in the science classroom.
My favorite line from this article states:
“The bottom line is that the world is round, humans evolved from an extinct species, and Elvis is dead”
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