The Collegian

Issue date: 10/10/06 Section: Opinion

Intelligent design (ID) must not be taken as a scientific theory. It is a theology, promoting the idea of an intelligent creator that is harmful not only to Darwinian evolution in the United States, but also to the Christian faith. The theory of evolution is a framework that explains the origins of human beings, basing all observations on the natural world, which is why its the only legitimate science explaining our origins to date.

Darwinians have rejected ID because the new theory invokes supernatural causation and does not explain how early forms of life come into being in a logical or natural manner. "Intelligent design means that various forms of life began abruptly, through an intelligent agency, with their distinctive features already intact," according to a court summary of ID in 2005.

Phillip Johnson, a senior law professor at Berkeley and inventor of the new concept of ID, has stated himself that the goal of ID is to discredit Darwinism completely and bring God back into the creation of man. According to the Christian Post in his speech at the University of Campell, Johnson said, "We want to discredit Darwinism…This theory has had an enormous impact on secularization because it eliminates the Creator" Because Johnson has publicly admitted that ID has a religious aspect to it by affirming an attempt to bring the Creator back into science, and there can be no religion or religious aims in the realm of science, Johnson has condemned ID to a philosophy class where it belongs.

It has become common knowledge that the US educational system has been lagging in both science and math in recent years. Federal studies conducted of science literacy across the international spectrum have shown a steady decline in scientific literacy among young high school students in America. By adding ID as a contender or possible replacement to Darwin's Theory of Evolution, we are limiting scientific discussion because we now have to talk about the possibility of a creator.

One of ID's strongest points is that of irreducible complexity, a concept that suggests that natural compounds are sometimes so complex that there is no way that these compounds could have come from previous and simpler forms of life. This stunts the growth of conventional scientific thought and puts the US even further behind in science literacy. Irreducible complexity assumes that we already know everything and there is no chance in the future that we will solve the complex natural mysteries of our past.

Concerns over the separation between church and state are not the only problems we have in discussing ID as a science. ID must not be from a recognized science in order to protect faith from science.

If ID were to somehow prove how natural compounds are made by an intelligent designer, then we would be proving that God is a fact, undermining the idea of faith and one of the most important strengths of the church, to have faith without proof.

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