:: Running from the Thought Police ::

:: Wednesday, January 28, 2004 ::

Theocrats Next Door

Via David Appell I've learned that the Missouri legislature is trying to madate Intelligent Design be included in the science curriculum. St. Louis Today has a very accurate editorial damning such a decision.

Scientific theories are based on evidence and observation. Science excludes from consideration that which cannot be measured, observed or known. Every scientific theory is subject to revision. Even the best theory is only good until a new set of facts proves it inadequate, and then it must be supplanted by another theory. Intelligent design is based on theological certainty and can't be revised. It argues that life is "irreducibly complex" and must therefore be the product of an intelligent designer, aka God. But that begs the question: How can that theory be tested against empirical observation? What can it tell us about future observations?

Critics of evolution shrilly argue that the theory is "atheistic." Not everyone with strong religious views agrees. "New knowledge has led us to realize that the theory of evolution is no longer a mere hypothesis," one such person said in 1996.

But what does Pope John Paul II know about science and religion?

:: The Squire 1:26 AM :: email this post :: ::
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