Intelligent Design has no traction
There’s an interesting article on Intelligent Design in the New York Times Sunday magazine:
The Templeton Foundation, a major supporter of projects seeking to reconcile science and religion, says that after providing a few grants for conferences and courses to debate intelligent design, they asked proponents to submit proposals for actual research.
“They never came in,” said Charles L. Harper Jr., senior vice president at the Templeton Foundation, who said that while he was skeptical from the beginning, other foundation officials were initially intrigued and later grew disillusioned.
“From the point of view of rigor and intellectual seriousness, the intelligent design people don’t come out very well in our world of scientific review,” he said.
It’s also not doing well in insinuating itself into the curricula in Christian colleges.
H/T Cathy Young, who does a much longer piece.
Balloon Juice finds one religious response to the ID debate in Kansas:
LAWRENCE – A professor whose planned course on creationism and intelligent design was canceled after he sent e-mails deriding Christian conservatives was hospitalized Monday after what appeared to be a roadside beating.University of Kansas religious studies professor Paul Mirecki said that the two men who beat him made references to the class that was to be offered for the first time this spring.
Originally called “Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies,” the course was canceled last week at Mirecki’s request.
It’s not too surprising that Prof. Mirecki got some people upset, but I don’t think he should have cancelled his course (or that they should have whupped his butt.)
- December 6th
Kristof had a good one-liner about “Intelligent” “Design” today- the existence of the “theory” – indicating the high degree of scientific ignorance in the population- is evidence of “mediocre” “design.”
FWIW, I’d add their football article in the magazine on Texas Tech (the article you cited was in the Week in Review section) was actually far more interesting, and underscores why I generally loathe college & professional football. If more football games were played like Texas Tech allegedly plays them I might watch ‘em. I might even teach my son to play the game.
And it might happen.
I had to tell an ID’er today that making God responsible for all the species means he’s got the bill for AIDS, Ebola, and cancer. He wasn’t amused.
Contrary to your belief, there is a Theory of Intelligent Design which is supported by evidence which can be found at Intelligent Design Theory . It is interesting that such a theory has been ignored in the recent debate and court case. Then again the proponents of intelligent design may be unaware of it and think that it is just creationism!
Don Wise seems to have summed it up quite well.
I think Intelligent Design is indeed a bit wishy-washy. You either accept the biblical account or you don’t. The earth is either 6000 years old or it isn’t. God created man in his present form or he didn’t. Faith know nos halfways. The IDers are really on better than the Darwinists.