intelligent design. Help!?

Question

I'm doing a report about WHY intelligent design should be TAUGHT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

I personally think that it should be taught because Science is there to DISPROVE theories.
Studying ID would disprove "Evolution".

However, I could care less if you believe in it or not as I am not here to argue whether or not it is true. I'm asking why it should be taught in public schools.

So far I have:
1. Natural Selection vs. Evolution
2. The Time that it took God to create the world
-In the Bible it states that 1 day meant 1,000 years and 1 second of God took x amount of years.

Please help!

Thanks!

For #1. I'm saying that ID believes in Natural Selection, while non-ID believers believe in Evolution.

2 Peter 3:8
"...that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years..."

Answer 1

Intelligent design should NOT be taught in schools. Science does not exist merely to disprove theories, although that is a part of it. It is mainly there to create the theories that might shed new light on the world. ID does not explain anything. It is simply a plea to ignorance.

Answer 2

Science does not exist to disprove theories, the disproving and updating of theories is a natural part of the scientific process - there's a big difference. The FSM exists to disprove evolution as well, should that be taught in schools? What about other religions' creation stories?

As for your other points.

1: not sure what you're getting at here, unless you're relying upon an inaccurate understanding of either or both to justify the teaching ID.
2: Care to cite exactly where the bible states that 1 day meant 1,000 years? I've never seen that. Besides, I've heard many proponents of ID claim that they're not specifying *WHICH* god did the intelligent designing....of course, the fact that every proponent of ID I've ever heard of is Christian doesn't help matters much.

Personally, I think attempting to use an ancient holy book as a scientific justification is completely and utterly ridiculous.


ADDENDUM: So I was correct, then - you don't have an accurate understanding of either natural selection or evolution. I would highly recommend looking both of those up on wikipedia and doing a little research so you can actually understand what you're talking about.

Answer 3

So many people these days are confusing biblical creationism with intelligent design. "Intelligent Design is the study of patterns in nature that are best explained as the result of intelligence" (Dr. William Dembski). That's it; it says nothing of who the creator is and how he/she/it/they did it. Intelligent Design encompasses every "creation" story, even aliens seeding life on this planet.

William Paley is famous for using the design argument. In 1802, he came out with a treatise called Natural Theology. He began by arguing that if one were to discover a watch lying in the middle of nowhere and they were to examine that watch closely, the person would logically conclude that it was not an accident, but had purpose; it had a designer. He went on to argue that the overwhelming design in the universe is evidence of a Grand Designer.

Now, is this a valid argument? Well, we detect design all the time. If you find an arrowhead on a deserted island, you assume it was made by someone, even if you can’t see the designer. We can tell the difference between a message written in the sand and the results of the wind and waves on the sand. The carved heads of the presidents on Mt. Rushmore are clearly different from erosional features.

The thing is, reliable methods for detecting design exist and are employed in forensics, archeology, and data fraud analysis. These methods can easily be employed to detect design in biological systems.

When being interviewed by Tavis Smiley, Dr. Stephen Meyer said, “There are developments in some technical fields, complexity and information sciences, that actually enable us to distinguish the results of intelligence as a cause from natural processes. When we run those modes of analysis on the information in DNA, they kick out the answer, ‘Yeah, this was intelligently designed’ . . . There is actually a science of design detection and when you analyze life through the filters of that science, it shows that life was intelligently designed.”

And for those who put so much faith in peer-review, check this out: http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2640&program=CSC%20-%20Scientific%20Research%20and%20Scholarship%20-%20Science

The four main areas the ID movement focuses on: Information Theory, Irreducible Complexity, The Anthropic Principle, and The Design Inference.

What about teaching it in school? I'm sorry, but I have to agree with George W. Bush: "Both sides ought to be properly taught . . . so people can understand what the debate is about . . . Part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought . . . You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes.”

Good science teaching should include controversies. Most Christians I know don't want biblical creationism taught in science classes. What we want is for molecules-to-man evolution to be taught with all its warts (they are not even allowed to present evidence that would put evolution in a poor light). And we want intelligent design to at least to be presented. Unlike leprechauns and unicorns, etc., a significant percentage of the population believes in ID.

Answer 4

The problem you have is that the conjecture of intelligent design is WRONG.

It should be taught in schools though, but not as science or something that might disprove evolution (it doesn't even come close to either) but as an example of the lengths some people will go to just to continue to believe something that is untrue.

Answer 5

for ID to be taught in public schools, there would have to be a theory of ID to teach. there isn't one, never has been (even ID proponents now admit this) and probably never will be (ID proponents certainly don't seem interested in building the case, and if they don't do it, no one will). what you are talking about now is 'teach the (contrived) controversy' which has nothing to do with ID. this is just as vacuous as ID but in different ways. it consists of pointing out "problems" in evolution that are not recognised as problems by more than a handful of working evolutionary scientists. it no more belongs in public schools than crank criticisms of general relativity or quantum mechanics do. the only reason it's had any success at all is that people feel their religious beliefs are threatened by evolution, without really managing to understand the theory. in contrast few people feel threatened by other scientific theories or can fool themselves into thinking that they understand them when they don't.

Answer 6

If ID could possibly be true then perhaps it would disprove evolution. Since evolution happens, I'm afraid you've got no where to go with your argument.

Perhaps you could teach ID in science class to demonstrate what is NOT a scientific theory and what DOES NOT constitute science in any way, shape, or form.

Answer 7

intelligent design is not so intelligent in fact it is not even a scientific theory because it is not based on any scientific fact but merely superstitious imaginings that are not accepted by mainstream science and it is fundamentally dangerous to say otherwise . the universe is factually put at approx. 14 billion years and the planet some 5 billion . Pursuit of what you want is waste of time to be taken on your own not in the classroom unless you are studying religious history or comparative religion or religious theology . these are impure sciences where a mention and perspective can be valid but not in the pure sciences . peace friend but no cigar.one last note :what you suggest is akin to going to a driver instructor and instead of setting behind the wheel sitting in the back seat and letting god drive.

Answer 8

ID could be taught as an example of a Straw Man argument or an Argument from Ignorance.

Answer 9

intelligent design of the universe should be taught in pulic schools because it is the best method to inculcate rationality to the learning minds,the reason is that when we understand the intelligent design of the universe we are able to realize the intelligent designer above the created universe who is the source of all forms of true rationality and intelligence.

Answer 10

It should be taught because it is the truth.