"Intelligent Design" is misleading

[TomPainesBones]

As a Deist, I happen to believe in Intelligent Design AND Evolution.
But somehow I don't think Bush is interested in looking out for me.

[Tux]

1. Nope

It's not the Deist version (big bang plus evolution) but it really should be called "intelligent design to sneak creationism into schools to convert the godless heathern pagans" theory.

Alas! another Deist. Welcome.

[TomPainesBones]

7. Thanks Tux

:hi:
You're right.
It's just more deceptive Republican word-play.
Trying to blur the line between Intelligent Design & Creationism.

[lildreamer316]

2. Hey guys; help me out with this.

My brain isn't funcitoning correctly right now.Please point me to a detalied explination of your coequal evolution/creationisim beliefs?
Thanks. I happen to quite agree with you I think...; need some more info.

[TomPainesBones]

4. Here ya go Lildreamer...

http://www.deism.org/introduction.htm

[lildreamer316]

5. oh thank you. n/t

[RethugAssKicker]

14. WOW.. Thanks for this link

I'm checking it out now... sounds right up my alley!!!

[TomPainesBones]

15. You're very welcome

It wasn't until I started reading about Thomas Paine that I realized I've been a Deist all my life (and in league with many of the Founding Fathers).

I would wager there are millions of people on the planet who are Deists and don't even know it.

[Cary]

3. You think.

Neo-cons don't believe in thinking and your position on this is just too reasonable (and devoid of wedge issues).

[Connie_Corleone]

6. And how does one teach "intelligent design"?

How can you teach this in a classroom? There's only so much you can say, and whatever is said is subjective.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

8. Intelligent design is not science and has no place is a science class

Do other Western, civilized countries teach it? The answer is NO. And we wonder why the US is falling behind in math and science. :eyes:

[TomPainesBones]

9. I happen to agree with you

I also think that science itself is the study of God,
and the Bible is nothing more than the word of man.

[MasonJar]

10. Read the Harper's Magazine article on the paradox of religion

in America; it is good stuff. And you can look at the Ohio election disclosure from the same source.

[boddhi]

11. danger, warning Will Robinson...

Intelligent Design helps explain some things. We don't know, for example, what happened at the beginning of the universe until 10^-23 seconds. So we put in a deity to get the whole thing jump-started. Ascribing all of the movement of evolution to nothing but random chance is a little iffy at best, so why not have a deity that is moving it along?

However, while Intelligent Design provides a nice religious explanation for scientific gaps, IT IS NOT SCIENCE. Let me say that again: IT IS NOT SCIENCE.

Chaos theory is maturing and allowing us to explain why things move slowly and then suddenly jump (as in evolution) without it being random. People like Hawking have some interesting ideas about what happened in the first submilliseconds of the universe, but further proof is necessary before it can really shift from being an idea to being called a working theory.

<on soapbox>

Science is at a crossroads. The general assumption has been that science helps us understand things, but the definition of "understanding" is changing. It used to be equated with "prediction", i.e., if Science understands something, then we will be able to predict what will happen. We are discovering more and more things that we understand in that we know all of the forces in play, but the outcome is unpredictable and may always be unpredictable, regardless of how accurate our measurements get, e.g. the weather.

But we are just beginning to better understand what "understanding" is and I believe that teaching intelligent design as science will only keep us at this crossroads longer.

<off soapbox>

Having said that, sometimes a good sunset is just a good sunset, even though technically it's an "earth turn". Call me a scientific deist, but when the sky is red and violet and blue and turquoise and there's, perhaps, a thunderstorm building in the south, sometimes it's good for me to just give thanks to all that exists in this miraculous universe that I have a chance to see it for myself...

[slackmaster]

12. Yes, INTENTIONALLY misleading

Fundamentalist Christian style Creationism hiding behind a pseudo-scientific facade.

[Doctor_J]

13. NO, it's false

those are different. It's another bizarre mass of fiction dreamed up by fundies to try and obscure the truth.