Mythology in the White House

From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 8/5/05: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/ 235325_mythology.html

Mythology in the White House

THE INDEPENDENT

The theory of 'intelligent design' was once dismissed by a Kansas professor as 'creationism in a cheap tuxedo.'

Yet, the tuxedo in question appears to be hanging in George W. Bush's wardrobe.

President Bush was asked this week whether he thought U.S. schoolchildren should learn about Charles Darwin's theory of evolution or the theory of intelligent design.

Proponents of the latter maintain that life on Earth is too complex to have developed through evolution, implying that a 'higher power' must have had a hand in creation.

That power is naturally presumed to be God.

Astonishingly, the president answered that both theories should be taught side by side.

Why?

'So people can understand what the debate is about.'

There is, of course, no 'debate' between the two theories on scientific grounds.

And it is astonishing that this struggle is still going on 80 years after the Scopes Monkey trial.

The fact is that Darwinism has been subjected to empirical scrutiny and accepted by every serious biologist in the world.

Intelligent design, on the other hand, was devised by a group of Christian fundamentalists to bolster their literal interpretation of the Bible's creation story.

There is no scientific evidence whatsoever to back it up.

According to the president, 'Part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought.'

This is true.

But it is unjustified to introduce this theory in a science class

Who originated this theory of 'Intelligent Design' ? I'd like to put an '-ism' suffix after their name when referring to it.

I'm sure it had to be either George W. Bush or maybe Dan Quail or someone of that intellectual magnitude.

I understand our so-called president has also called into question

In 1991, lawyer Phillip E. Johnson coined the phrase 'intelligent design' to refer to the idea that there is scientific evidence that life was created through unspecified processes by an intelligent but unidentified designer. Biochemist Michael Behe devised the argument of 'irreducible complexity' (IC) to which Dembski added his doctrine of 'specified complexity' (SC) as a supporting element. IC is, however, by far the most frequently cited of the two hypotheses, as Dembski's mathematical arguments rest on Behe's assertion that irreducibly complex systems can not evolve gradually. Dembski's specified complexity rides on Behe's claim, and its validity is dependant on the validity of irreducible complexity...

Although intelligent design proponents (including Dembski) have made little effort to publish peer-reviewed scientific research to support their hypotheses, in recent years they have made vigorous efforts to promote the teaching of intelligent design in schools.