I feel vindicated. Federal Judge John Jones ruled that Intelligent Design should not be taught in public schools, and that “the secular purposes claimed by the board amount to a pretext for the board’s real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom.” Bravissimo!
While religious conservatives will always try to have their way with politics, education, and every other avenue of influence, one characteristic behind the Intelligent Design movement makes me particularly sick: that while virtually all of the proponents of I.D. are conservative Christians, few of them will publicly admit that their efforts are religiously motivated. While the likes of Pat Robertson elevate Intelligent Design to the level of a litmus test of our belief in God, conservative Christians continue to lamely insinuate that I.D. is a bona fide scientific theory.
Should we Christians be plotting in secret, presenting one face in public and another in our inner sanctum, dressing up a particularly sectarian doctrine into a semblance of scientific theory, just to get our way with the world? Is our lust for influence so great that we would cross every ethical boundary, and sacrifice any intellectual integrity to achieve it? Would we ravish the process of scientific thought so as to recreate “science” in our own image, just to promote our agenda? Vanity!
Let’s be level with it: I.D. is the reanimated corpse of Creationism. I for one have no problem believing that a benevolent and personal God created the universe and all its laws and mechanics. But there are many avenues of exploring such ideas: philosophy, theology, art, and religion. Why must we shoehorn this point of view into science? Leave science alone, so that we can also enjoy the fruits of its labor without the meddling hands of theologians.
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