Intelligent Design

There has been many recent discussion around the country of the looming issue of intelligent design and the introduction of this concept in public schools. According to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, "intelligent design, or ID, is the controversial assertion that certain features of the universe and of living things exhibit the characteristics of a product resulting from an intelligent cause or agent, not an unguided process such as natural selection. Though publicly most ID advocates state that their focus is on detecting evidence of design in nature, without regard to who or what the designer might be, in statements to their constituents and supporters nearly all state explicitly that they believe the designer to be the Christian God (Intelligent Design, Wikipedia)" Because of this relation to Christianity, intelligent design is a form of creationism and, as a concept that is not based on scientific method, it does not belong in our science classrooms.

Professor Kenneth Miller argued at the Dover Area School District trial on whether the ID theory should be taught in these Pennsylvania schools. In an article in The Brown Daily Herald, Miller states that "intelligent design is an idea that has no standing whatsoever in the scientific community. I strongly believe that ideas that have not been able to gather any significant amount of scientific support should not be part of scientific education" (Parks). This trial originated over a four-paragraph statement written by the Dover High School Board, discussing problems with the theory of evolution and introducing ID as an alternative. As a result, eleven parents from the Pennsylvania district are suing.

To get a better background on why this is becoming such a strong issue in current society, I have researched the topic of ID a little further. The interesting thing about the intelligent design theory is that supporters talk about the evidence they have found to prove this specific way of origin. Unfortunately, any informative piece covering this topic gives none of that "evidence" to the readers. Proponents to ID have stated themselves that "ID is controversial because of the implications of its evidence, rather than the significant weight of its evidence," (Intelligent Design, ID Network). Is that not strange? Shouldn't a topic that is so strongly debated in the science world be showing proof that this is in fact a valid theory? According to the book, Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences, the theory of evolution is easily supported by experiments on the origins of new species and their adaptation to the environment. Based on studies done by Charles Darwin, evolution could be explained through the process of natural selection. Defined, this is the differential survival of organisms following their naturally occurring

variation. In this process, offspring of organisms differ from on another and from their parents from what is passed on to them genetically. Organisms in nature usually produce more offspring than can survive in the environment and reproduction is based on the constraints of food, space, and other resources. If traits are passed on to a particular offspring to where it is given an advantage in their environment, that organism will be more likely to survive and pass on those traits. As these differences accumulate over generations, organisms will branch out from their ancestors. "Studies in

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