Intelligent Design...

This week the city of Dover, Pennsylvania removed from office eight board members who sought to add "intelligent design" to the science curriculum of their schools. Bravo to the citizens!

Intelligent design is the belief that the universe, and ultimately life on planet earth, could not have come to be as it has without some kind of intelligent thought behind it, an intelligent being to have direct it into existence, this intelligent being would, of course, be God. Whether or not one believes in God, creationism, or intelligent design is actually irrelevant in the argument on whether what this school board was seeking to do was appropriate. I emphasized the word "belief" because that is all that intelligent design is, a belief; it is not science. Science is a very rigorous process of developing theories based on the methodical testing of hypotheses, utilizing the Scientific Method.

There is no such process involved in the development of intelligent design. Proponents of intelligent design basically say that there are some things that cannot be explained by science, and those things are proof of intelligent design. Some call it "God of the gaps". However, no part of intelligent design is testable, as it produces no hypotheses.

At best, if intelligent design has a place in the classroom, it would be in a philosopy class, one dealing with ontological arguments, or proofs of the existence of God. In this case, by all means, it should be allowed. But it is not science, and hence, cannot and should not be allowed to take up valuable time in the science classroom.