Letter: Intelligent design nonsense touted by right-wingers

Friday, Aug. 26, 2005 | 9:08 a.m.

The ongoing argument between intelligent design and evolution is irrational. Science has to do with conclusions about processes based on observations. It has nothing to say about creators or a lack thereof, because creators are not observable.

Intelligent design has to do with religion and philosophy based on observations. It appeals to fundamentalists who fear that if anything is not literally true in the Bible, then the whole thing is not the word of God. Intelligent design is not only a pseudo science; it is also an illogical, medieval view of religion.

The term itself begs the question by assuming what it is trying to prove. The existence of God is an article of faith. The argument of intelligent design is on the same order as the "proofs" in Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica. As competition for evolution, it would reduce science to teleology and replace observation with "a priori" intuition.

The right-wing extremist group, The Discovery Institute, is using the intelligent design theory as a wedge issue to get God in the classroom and promote agenda issues such as anti-abortion, anti-euthanasia, anti-gay and other such issues.

The designers of this nonsense would have us destroy our constitutional separation of church and state and eliminate the learning of the scientific method in our classrooms just to stop abortions and keep the Terri Schiavos of the world "alive." That's a design without intelligence.

JERRY BITTS