Letter: No way that intelligent design is science

Friday, Nov. 25, 2005 | 8:49 a.m.

Can your readers tolerate one more letter about the misinformation surrounding intelligent design? Mario Martinez' response to Mark J. Chambers' Nov. 21 letter is typical of the debased nature of this "debate."

Mr. Chambers did a valuable service in clarifying what for too many people is a point of deep confusion about evolution and natural selection: that they are not interchangeable concepts. One is an observed fact, well-noted in nature and the lab; the other is a scientific theory explaining that fact (which it does quite well, and therefore has become the foundation of modern biology).

On Nov. 23, Mr. Martinez offered his rebuttal. Stating that "theory and fact are not the same thing" (and who ever said they were?), he accuses Mr. Chambers of "irrationality." Come again?

The problem with the theory of natural selection isn't that it cannot yet explain every known fact about life on Earth. It's that, despite the theory's tremendous success, it still earns little respect from muddle-headed people such as Mr. Martinez. Why is it that the basic tenets of other sciences are utterly non-controversial, while everyone who can fog a mirror feels qualified to take on Darwin and Wallace?

One more time, folks: Intelligent design isn't science. It offers no explanations, makes no predictions and can't be tested. It's an interesting conjecture that may deserve discussion in a philosophy class, but it has no place in a science classroom.

Jeff Nation

Las Vegas