Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Conclusion to the Series on Intelligent Design

Recent support for the Intelligent Design movement has caused a major wave in scientific communities. Historically Darwinists could write off those that support Intelligent Design as ignorant religious fundamentalists. However a new understanding of the differences between Intelligent Design and Creationism has driven a wedge into their argument. Although Intelligent Design does claim to find substantial evidence in the world for a designer, Intelligent Design does not claim to have knowledge about that designer nor does it seek it.

Intelligent Design has forced many in the scientific community to realize that there is a difference between philosophical assertions and scientific ones. For example, a true Darwinist cannot look at something in the world and say it is “bad.” For that would either be contrary to the “natural selection” viewpoint or it would pre-suppose a designer who made a mistake. Either way it would be a philosophical observation and not a scientific one. It is important for academic integrity for philosophy to remain philosophy and science to remain science.

Intelligent Design has also shown many that its foundational concepts are used in everyday life and accepted without challenge. Crime Scene Investigators, Archeologists, Military Cryptographers and many more use Intelligent Design to help them with their tasks all the time. Yet when these same proven and trusted precepts are moved over to the biological realm, a huge uproar occurs. Intelligent Design has shown that many people are ignorantly living in an inconsistent worldview.

Intelligent Design has brought to the surface several hypocrisies in the scientific community. Scientists are trying to have the best of both worlds when they exclude Intelligent Design when trying to explain origin of life but embrace it when they need to figure out whether something is a worthless rock or priceless artifact. Intelligent Design has also forced the scientific community to reveal its ugly side. As more and more overwhelming evidence for Intelligent Design becomes apparent, more and more of the arguments against it turn to smear campaigns against the person’s character rather than against the theory itself.

In the past few years the Intelligent Design movement has gained massive momentum. More and more top scientists are beginning to study the concepts Intelligent Design utilizes and are beginning to realize the truth behind it. History has shown that there is a pendulum of public opinion that sways back and forth. Since 1859 the pendulum has been swinging towards the theory that evolution contains the answers to the origin of life. However, with the recent developments in Intelligent Design, I believe that pendulum has clearly reached its apex and is rapidly swinging the other direction.

Thank you for taking the time to bear with me through this series. I realized Intelligent Design is not an easy topic to understand and you may be even more confused than when you started. But I hope you have learned a few things and realize that when held to the same standard of other sciences, biology must at least look at Intelligent Design theory as a possibility until evolution moves from a theory to a scientific law.

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