Intelligent design

Intelligent Design is a concept that seems to twist a lot of otherwise reasonable people into knots.

It is one of those dividing issues. If I tell a freind with no religious conviction that I am a christian, one of their earliest responses is often to ask if I think 'intelligent design should be taught in schools'.

This is a standard question. It comes across almost as if rehearsed. The person who poses it generally considers only a simple yes/no answer to be fair. Anything else is weasling.

It is is ways like this the place of religious belief in Western society has become  a matter of great intolerance. I do not claim people of religion have always been tolerant in the West. Even today there is much intolerance of irreligion amongst the religious. But the irreligious are also intolerant of belief. Strangely they have their own mantras and dogmas to which everyone must conform. This statement on intelligent design is one of them. They also like to ask you how old you think the earth is. Like I have a clue.

Intelligent design, put simply, is the notion that the world is far too complex, to beautiful, simply too good to be merely coincidence. There must be a creator, a designer. This is not a new concept, although the term 'intelligent design' is relatively new. It is an ancient argument for the existence of a supreme being.

What is new is an attempt to dress up the idea of intelligent design as a scientific theory. It is not. It is a philosophical stance.

So the answer to the question 'should intelligent design be taught in schools' ought to be the same for religious and irreligious alike.

'Absolutely, teach it in philosophy, religious education, social studies. Do not teach it as scientific theory or in science lessons'.

All well meaning and rational people should  be at one with that answer. And they should unite against those that would divide us. Because those that seek to divide us almost certainly want to divide and rule us. That way lies tyrrany.

In particular, Christians should be aware that to dress up faith as science is the opposite of truth. It is a lie, and the devil is the father of lies.