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by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.
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A Wellness Perspective on the Banality of Promoting "Intelligent Design" in Science Classes

Tuesday May 24, 2005

The theory of evolution, formalized by Charles Darwin, is as much theory as is the theory of gravity, or the theory of relativity. Unlike theories of physics, biological theories, and especially evolution, have been argued long and hard in socio-political arenas. Even today, evolution is not often taught in primary schools. However, evolution is the binding force of all biological research. It is the unifying theme. In paleontology, evolution gives workers a powerful way to organize the remains of past life and better understand the one history of life. The history of thought about evolution in general and paleontological contributions specifically are often useful to the workers of today. Science, like any iterative process, draws heavily from its history.

Thomas Friedman quoted a story recently by Michael Mandelbaum from the latter's book entitled, The Ideas That Conquered the World ("Brussels Sprouts," May 11, 2005, NY Times). Here's the tale: A young girl is eating dinner at a friend's house. The friend's mother asks, "Do you like brussels sprouts?" "Yes, of course. I like brussels sprouts," she replies. After dinner, though, the mother notices the girl hasn't eaten a single sprout. "I thought you liked brussels sprouts," the mother said. "I do," answered the girl, "but not enough to actually eat them."

I think fundamentalist Christian parents like science and want their children to obtain a sound education but, unfortunately, they don't like it enough to actually ignore religious babble that underpins a simple worldview. If their leaders tell them some aspect of science (the theory of evolution) is a threat to the credulity of their revelation-based dogma, an alternate view will be embraced. In biology classes, most-infamously in Kansas, but elsewhere as well around the nation, the faith-based alternative to science is called "intelligent design" or ID. The phrase "intelligent design" is an oxymoron, not a theory.

Some arguments put forward by well educated promoters of creationist biology are complex and difficult if not impossible for lay readers, myself included, to follow and rebut. However, there are readily understandable explanations that I believe cut through the disingenuous blather and thereby render evolutionary arguments more persuasive. I'll summarize a few.

ID is a religious argument based on faith. Unlike genuine theories, it can't be disproved--hypotheses generated by a theory must be testable and falsifiable. For this reason alone, ID does not belong in a science class. It would be fine in a religion class.
ID investigators are not seeking to understand so much as to advocate a point of view. They claim biological mechanisms are too complicated to have developed unguided, as is the explanation with Darwinian evolution (in other words, natural selection). Ergo, a designer must have been involved. Guess what force or power alone could manage the heavy lifting required to put stars in place and create whole galaxies?The ID advocates have a simple explanation. Only a Grand Poobah, a wizard or a god—their god, could do such a thing. The latter is the supernatural agent they promote in biology classes as THE intelligent designer.
Rather than seeking to describe how things work, the ID explanation, in fact, discourages research in favor of the believer mantra "The Designer did it."
ID is hostile to critical thinking, analysis and objective reasoning. Children whose education is steeped in such simplistic methodology will not understand genetic engineering, stem-cell research or other complex science-based disciplines. The modern world requires an understanding of genuine science for success.
The objective of many leaders in the movement to advance ID have a missionary agenda—they seek a proverbial "foot in the door" of public schools to push their faith.

The Center for Inquiry - International has assembled a list of Internet resources for those who seek to better understand the ID movement. The following sources also demonstrate why there is overwhelming support among scientists for the theory of evolution as the only credible explanation for the history of life. Additional links can be found at the Center website.

Evolution vs. Creationism Articles that describe the fallacies, errors and distortions of evolution theory.
The Art of ID Stuntmen Articles that discuss the tactics of ID advocates, the quality of their research methodology, the nature of their misrepresentation of facts and critiques of their argumentation, quotations and references.
Faith vs. Reason Articles that analyze books by religious writers which purport to prove the compatibility of the biblical story with science.
Anthropic Principle Articles that assess "anthropic coincidences," also referred to as the anthropic principle, and sometimes as the "fine-tuning" of the physical constants for the existence of life in our universe.
Autopsy of the Bible code Articles about a "code" in the Hebrew Bible, which explain why such a code exists only in the imagination of its proponents.
Science and Religion Articles that analyze the differences between approaches inherent in the foundations of science and religious ways of interpreting reality.
Historical Notes Articles related to the history of science vs. religion and faith vs. reason.
Serious Notions With a Smile Articles that address serious questions in a humorous fashion. Expect parodies of absurd notions and satirical reflections on weird concepts.

I'll conclude by offering a little tribute to Charles Darwin, depicted below, in the form of a classic explanation of fact and theory described by the late, great Steven J. Gould in "Evolution as Fact and Theory";Discover, May 1981:

Well evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape-like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered. Evolutionists have been very clear about this distinction of fact and theory from the very beginning, if only because we have always acknowledged how far we are from completely understanding the mechanisms (theory) by which evolution (fact) occurred. Darwin continually emphasized the difference between his two great and separate accomplishments: establishing the fact of evolution, and proposing a theory--natural selection--to explain the mechanism of evolution.

Evolve well by choosing a wellness lifestyle and try to always look on the bright side of life.

Domain: mental
Subdomain: effective decisions

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