The debate over intelligent design (ID) should have been resolved when a judge in Scranton, Pa., rejected the Dover, Pa., school board’s attempt to insert intelligent design in its biology curriculum, saying it violated the separation of church and state. The judge, a churchgoing Republican and appointee of President Bush, could probably tell you that religion had everything and nothing to do with his decision.
Let me explain. Intelligent design has everything to do with religion; it is simply creationism relabeled – literally. The book that the Dover school board recommended its students read on the subject, “Of Pandas and People,” simply replaced creationism in older editions with intelligent design in newer ones.
Religion had everything to do with the judge’s decision because it was quite clear that this was an ideological attempt to inject creation “science” (i.e. religion) into the classroom. In a public school system that is paid for by everyone’s tax dollars, no one religious thought should be promoted over another. This is America, where we are all created equal.
At the same time, religion had nothing to do with the judge’s decision in that you can still be Christian and a) understand that religion doesn’t belong in a science classroom, and b) believe in evolution. Yes, it’s true! As my father once put it, “Creationism explains the who; evolution explains the how.” Belief in evolution doesn’t necessarily preclude belief in God. In fact, one could argue that God plays a direct role in evolution.
Biology is not about the origins of the universe. In my high school biology class we barely spent the first few minutes of class going over all the possible ways the universe might have begun, but this is not what biology is about. Biology is about determining what kinds of changes happen in species in the world around us.
The fact is, evolution has nothing to do with religion, while intelligent design has everything to do with religion. Evolution doesn’t tell us how the universe began unless we take a step of faith. Unlike evolution, intelligent design by the very nature of the theory requires us to takes that step of faith, insisting that we consider the existence of a higher being – not just a theory of mechanics, but a being outside of human observation. That is a matter of faith, not science.
It is well and good to want to promote God and religion in society. A philosophy class for high school students would be a wonderful place to explore the origins of the universe and our place in the world. God knows that public education is suffering enough already between lack of funding and standardized testing – a philosophy class might be a good place where students can explore their worldviews in a respectful setting and take time to establish their own identity.
Parents, too, have a role to play – by going to a house of worship or other means, parents can make sure their families are well-grounded in the religious tradition of their choice. Private school is another option. But as long as churches aren’t required to teach evolution in Sunday school, schools shouldn’t have to teach creationism in biology.
In the debates on these pages, supporters of intelligent design have called evolution “Darwinism” and argued that it requires faith in the unknown. Those who use evolution to insist on a certain theory on the origins of the universe could be called ideologues, just as those who cite intelligent design insist on a higher being as the reason we are here. Neither approach is scientific.
However we got here, human society hasn’t advanced by sitting on our hands and just believing or disbelieving in something simply because it is too complex for us to understand (“irreducibly” or otherwise). If God does exist, as I believe, he gave us a brain. We need to get out there, make observations and test our theories in the world we can see. Someday it might take us to the moon – oh wait, it did.