It's not a matter of faith, it's a matter of science
Christian Creationists cannot claim proprietory rights to the theory of Intelligent Design. There is considerably more to it than what the Creationists promote.
What can be the objection to open up investigation into Intelligent Design on the merits of scientific principles?
Let religion be taught in religion class, but let scientific method apply in science class. Don't deify Darwin ... the jury is still out.
Recently, the noted British philosophy professor Antony Flew, a prominent life-time champion of atheism, has concluded after all, at the age of 81, that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. "A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature," he commented in a telephone interview. "I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins," he said. "It could be a person in the sense of a being that has intelligence and a purpose, I suppose." While teaching at Oxford, Aberdeen, Keele and Reading Universities in Britain and in visits to USA and Canadian campuses, and in his books and articles, lectures and debates, Dr. Flew denied there was evidence for the existence of God. Yet over the last few months, he has come to think differently. In a video "Has Science Discovered God?" Dr. Flew explains that investigation into DNA "has shown. by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce (life), that intelligence must have been involved." In a letter to the Philosophy Now magazine (August-September, 2004), he wrote: "It has become inordinately difficult even to begin to think about constructing a naturalistic theory of the evolution of that first reproducing organism.My whole life has been guided by the principle of Plato's Socrates: Follow the evidence, wherever it leads." �ABC News story: "Famous Atheist Now Believes in God", The Associated Press, December 9, 2004
It's presented as a battle between science and religion, but a more powerful and rational argument for the case to teach the theory of Intelligent Design alongside Darwin's theory of evolution in schools is in the interests of pure science. To borrow the words of Bill Frist, Republican Senate majority leader, who recently voted for stem cell research opposed by President Bush and defended his stance: "It isn't just a matter of faith, it's a matter of science."
Christian creationists argue for presentation of religious beliefs as an alternative to Darwin's theory, but public schools across the nation are bound by "separation of state and religion", so realistically the most they can hope for in that secular environment is a passing mention of a religious viewpoint contrary to that of mainstream science.
But there's more to the concept of Intelligent Design than religious faith. The Bhagavad-gita and other ancient Sanskrit texts of India such as Srimad-Bhagavatam expound scientifically on the origins of life and this universe and other universes besides and on anti-matter. The evidence goes well beyond the scope of a religion class.
If the educationists can be persuaded to open the classrooms up to real science, that is, investigation and debate based on scientific principles, teachers and students may get access to the oldest body of knowledge in the world: the Vedas. http://www.bhaktivedantas.com
