Intelligent Design Theory: Science or Religion?

Wandel

How could it be that the earth left the exact same records out for every species?

Would not the earth have also recorded the tender moments when a species is changing over to another.

Yet it indiscriminately leaves this record out in every single case across the board...

What is the explanation for that?

How can this part of history not be buried if there was not some catastrophe that wiped out discriminately a vast slice of the earth's history without a single record of it's passing...

What firm evidence do you have linking you to your great great great great grandfather? Do you have his bones, have you ever seen his bones? Probably not, but even though he's gone you do carry his DNA, and so do your distant cousins. And in the same way, we and our cousins the Apes, carry the DNA of an ancient common grandfather.

The bones are gone, returned to dust, but we don't need them. A mechanism for passing information on from generation to generation was predicted by Evolutionary theory even before that mechanism had been identified. And then we found it, right where Evolutionary theory said it should be, buried at the heart of the chemistry of reproduction and growth.

Evolution (biological in particular) is not a tenuous theory which is supported by only a few isolated predictions. It is a view of biological growth and development over time which is supported by countless interconnecting predictions and measurements, and not a single instance of inviable evidence. We will continue to find the fossils of creatures who came before us, and we may even find a common ancestor some day, but we really don't need to see those bones to know where we came from, any more than you need to see your G G G G Great Grandfather's bones to know where you came from.

George wrote-

George wrote:

Specifically - evolution does not explain the origin of life, and physics does not explain the origin of the cosmos. Why then should our children be taught that they do -- and in a science class of all places?

Here you have a splendid illustration of placing one's prejudices and projections over what is there. Evolution has nothing to do with the penultimate origin of life, any more than physics has anything to do with the penultimate origin of the cosmos, nor is it taught that they do, except by those who do not know what they are talking about. Both provide testable, logical, evidence-borne explanations of the processes and mechanics of what is, but neither makes any assertion or conjecture pertaining to what might have been the penultimate origin of what is. Science neither conflicts with nor intrudes upon religion; religion dishonestly fabricates a dispute where neither dispute nor basis for dispute exists. It is religionists who have the problem with truth.

There were plenty of people who knew the earth wasn't flat in ancient times.

Dover area accepts donations to aid debt
(MICHELLE STARR, York Daily Record, March 23, 2006)

It might not be a bake sale, like previously suggested, but one woman is trying to help Dover Area School District raise money to cover a $1 million legal bill from last fall's intelligent design trial.

Louise Coffman, an 81-year-old Windsor Township resident with no personal connection to Dover, considered an idea that was reminiscent of Mayor John Brenner's attempt to help York City's debt: If everyone gave a little bit, the total could be a lot.

The bill was assessed after 11 parents successfully sued the district over its policy on intelligent design in science class. During the trial, Alan Bonsell, who was a board member at that time, suggested to pay the legal bill with fundraisers if the district lost.

She sent an e-mail to about 20 people, made an announcement at her church and discussed her idea of each person giving $1 to the district. Because the district has to pay a large legal bill, Coffman is concerned that the kids will suffer, she said.

"Children at the school will be deprived of a lot of things that other children will have in York County. As a Christian, it occurred to me that some of the students might feel bitter toward Christians that this had to happen."

The effort, which she has called the "Believer's Fund" because of Coffman's belief in God, has generated some support.

She requested that the donations be made independently, which means she doesn't know how much has been sent in, but she knew of at least one $25 check.

Supt. Richard Nilsen said the district has received random donations and that the administration is accepting them. Though he didn't have a total for the donations, he considered the amount small.

Coffman is a local book author and taught elementary school for 30 years in Spring Grove and Central York school districts. She said she isn't political and doesn't have an ax to grind. She does believe in teaching students about intelligent design or creationism in the public schools.

Former board member David Napierskie and current board President Bernadette Reinking said they hadn't heard of anyone making donations.

spendi still talks with a drunken tongue and he expects us to understand what he's saying. Lay off that hooch long enough to write with some coherence.

doesn't have an ax to grind.

Then we agree. I didn't say "never" either. My point is that from a scientific perspective alone the questions are still open. Specifically - evolution does not explain the origin of life, and physics does not explain the origin of the cosmos. Why then should our children be taught that they do -- and in a science class of all places?

It is true that no scientist has reproduced the abiogenesis of a cell. This is to be expected, as evolution occurs over millions of years, and modern science has only been around for a few hundreds. It is not true, however that scientists have not found evolutionary pathways that lead from anorganic chemical compounds to cells. On the contrary, the problem is that they have found too many such pathways and can't figure out which one nature has actually taken.

When you say "more likely", do you mean more likely even after accounting for ID's "who created the creator" problem? It's easy to explain a mystery if you wrap the explanation's hard parts into an even larger mystery.

georgeob1 wrote:

An analogous argument can be put forward with respect to the origin of the cosmos and our existence itself. We have a pretty good model of the laws of physics that appear to apply throughout the visible universe. Despite that we have virtually nothing with which to explain its origin.

If Einstein was right about space-time being curved, "what happened before the Big Bang?" is just the four-dimensional equivalent of "what lies north of the North Pole?" While the question sounds like a deep mystery, and while it feels threatening to think it may be just shallow nonsense, this seems to be exactly what it is.

Rex talks like a true IDiot.