It’s hard to believe, as an undergraduate in Biology, that there is even a debate today on whether or not ‘Intelligent Design’ should be mentioned – let alone taught - in schools in the U.S.A. There should be no debate what-so-ever and the whole “teach the controversy” saying is nothing more than propaganda for a religious agenda. It can be summed up briefly in two reasons that leave no room for debate.
1) The First Amendment to the Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” This amendment has been interpreted to mean a separation between church and state (meaning government and all public/ state run establishments including schools). ‘Intelligent Design’ is a faith based idea. In other words, it is a religious believe and therefore, has no business in public schools in any way, shape, or form.
2) To address and subsequently ‘prove’ the underlined statement above, I will give the definition of Science. According to Merriam-Webster science is: knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method. In order to fully understand this definition one must know what scientific method is (also according to Merriam-Webster): principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a problem, the collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses. According to these definitions ‘Intelligent Design’ is NOT SCIENCE. In order for it to be science it must be observable, testable, and found true with evidence or falsified with evidence. Since a faith based idea, which is what ‘Intelligent Design’ is, can in NO WAY be tested or falsified then it is NOT SCIENCE.
I’m not concerned with what you or I believe, I’m just proving that a faith based idea such as ‘Intelligent Design’ does not belong in schools or any other public/ government/ or state run institution in the United States. You can not prove that an intelligent creator exists and that it created life as we know it, which makes ‘Intelligent Design’ a faith based religious belief that belongs in churches and out of the public school system. In contrast, scientist are proving every day the evolutionary link between all the organisms on this planet and common ancestors that link us back to the very first life forms. This idea, nay, this truth has hard evidence to back it up and more flows in every time the genetic code is sequenced for another of Earth’s creatures. Let us teach Science in school and let us keep Science pure!
