The first time I heard about Intelligent Design, and the driving force behind it, I was apprehensive. Schools today are filled with plenty of myths and contradictions to cram into young minds that it's absurd to impose a concept they already know. From the beginning we are conditioned to understand the possibility of a higher power, one that has designed the universes unexplainable. Human beings are the most intelligent species on Earth, but why and how is that possible? Where science is unable to explain it, Intelligent Design does. Sort of.
Intelligent Design is a secular belief to prove the existence of God, or a higher power. The major problem with Intelligent Design is its main support system which is a faction of extreme right wing conservatives that want to push the Christianity belief as the main design; overlooking the myriad of religions present on Earth. Intelligent Design stripped down to its basic idea is that there are some things unexplainable by science, and that's where Intelligent Design comes into play. So is it a scientific theory or religious dogma?
First, we must look at what makes something a scientific theory. Using the scientific method, we can infer as to whether or not Intelligent Design is a scientific theory or not. The philosophy of science declares that this method be used without the assumption of supernatural interference. To be considered science, it must be consistent, through and through. It must be parsimonious, which is to be without proposed explanations or beings. It must be useful and explain the phenomena. It must be falsifiable - meaning that it can be argued or proven false. The proposed theory must also be tested multiple times. The idea or theory must be changeable, able to be updated or changed with new evidence and data. It must be progressive, meaning that it has done exactly what theories in the past have done. And to be a scientific theory it must be able to admit that it is possibly incorrect, instead of asserting that it is definite.
For Intelligent Design to be considered scientific theory it must fit most of these criteria, if not all of it. Intelligent Design is argued to not be very consistent, since it has to represent multiple belief systems and be ambiguous enough to do that. It also asserts that there is a higher power, a being that is unexplainable, which breaks the law of parsimony. It cannot be tested and proven false, since the idea projects that there is a super power, one that cannot be spoken to or proven to exist. We cannot correct Intelligent Design, and nothing new can be discovered for it. The idea of Intelligent Design is straight forward and basic, but without hard evidence to prove the existence of a higher power (with the exception of questionable first hand accounts in literature like The Bible), it cannot be considered a scientific theory. Intelligent Design does not leave itself open for correction or admit that it may be wrong. Therefore Intelligent Design by the standards of scientists around the world cannot be considered a scientific theory.
Lately the Intelligent Design movement to make it a science has died down, but it started very strongly. The conflict it had with Evolution being taught in schools was a nationwide controversy splitting the country up. It became a heavy topic going into the 2004 Presidential Election, and states like Kansas even moved to have Intelligent Design taught in schools, as an alternative to Darwin's Theory of Evolution. This move was successful in 2005 as the state of Kansas would allow public schools to teach about Evolution as a theory, and include evidence against it - namely Intelligent Design. In 2006 however, the changing of the guard occurred and Intelligent Design received less push from a more moderate Republican school board. Evolution was back in, and Intelligent Design was lowered.
The same day that Kansas declared Intelligent Design safe to be taught opposite Evolution, Judge John E. Jones III ruled in the case Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District, that Intelligent Design cannot be considered a science because it lacks testing. For it to be a science it must be testable, and Intelligent Design does not meet that requirement.
Intelligent Design is a belief, hoping to prove that there is some sort of alternate being pulling the strings. It explains the world in a second, for what science takes years of data and evidence to make sense of. The world is too complex for a simple sentence to correct it all, especially given evidence that we humans have evolved. To disprove the evolution of man with “the devil placed those bones there” breaking parsimony again, is ludicrous and silly. There's no way to disprove Intelligent Design as being a probably explanation for individuals though. We live in America, and the United States prides itself on being the land of the free; encouraging freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc. Thanks to the Bill of Rights, every individual in the United States has personal and civil liberties they are able to execute, such as the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; a fundamental right for every individual in this country. As a personal belief structure, Intelligent Design has the right motive, but its' execution is absurd and with it comes a lot of extremists who try to push the system to sway a certain direction. This direction opposes around half of the population.
