Why do certain people get mad at the mere MENTION of Intelligent Design?

Answer 1

Certain people will get mad at the mere mention of intelligent design just as "certain people" will get mad at the mere mention of evolution. In fact, certain people will get mad if you teach their kids about recycling, or have them read Shakespeare, or show any clips from a Hollywood motion picture in your classroom.

However, to reply to some of your other responses -- there *is* evidence that points to intelligent design. Plenty to consider it a viable theory for the creation of the universe.

Whether you believe in Evolution (big E) or Creation (big C), you are operating on faith (little F). :)

Answer 2

The anger arises from the fact that some people just refuse to see the facts right in front of their faces. They go through their lives in general ignorance of science and yet insist on weighing in on the subject with their outdated mythologies. The universe is the way it is simply because of the material it's made of and the four forces acting on that material. There is simply no other way it could exist. I've said it before in this forum. Too many people are willing to believe anything they are told without asking a few simple questions such as "how" and "why". Logical deduction seems to be a rare commodity these days. Harlan Ellison said it best. "The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity".

Answer 3

Good science teaching should include controversies. But, whenever you mention this kind of stuff, evolutionists jump from their trees and start behaving as if someone had stolen their bananas. Apparently, academic freedom is for other subjects.

As Cal Thomas has said, “Why are believers in one model—evolution—seeking to impose their faith on those who hold that there is scientific evidence which supports the other model? It’s because they fear they will lose their influence and academic power base after a free and open debate. They are like political dictators who oppose democracy, fearing it will rob them of power.”

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

It's frustration on the part of scientists because pro-ID people are insisting that ID should be taught as *science*, which it is not.
A scientific hypothesis has to fulfil a number of criteria:
[1] It must be parsimonious. In other words, it must follow Occam's Razor, and intoduce the minimum number of new variables to the explanation.
[2] It must be falsifiable. In other words, you must be able to design experiments which can show the hypothesis to be *not* true.
[3] It must make predictions about the subject. Similarly to [2], it must suggest findings, which you can then design experiments to test.

ID does none of these things:
[1] instead of introducing less variables, it complicates the subject infinitely. The answer "a supernatural agency did it" just leads to further questions like "how did they do it?", "who created the supernatural agency?" and so on.
[2] you cannot design experiments to disprove a supernatural agency, because such agencies are beyond the physical universe, and therefore not open to scientific investigation.
[3] knowing nothing about the motivations and methods of such supernatural agencies, we cannot make any predictions about what we might expect to find, should they exist.

Now - having said all that - ID is *not* science.
This is not to say that it is neccessarily not true, and it is not to say the ID cannot be taught as philosophy, or in religious classes. These are excellent fora for exploring such ideas. but *not* science classes.

A lot of the anger people feel is actually *frustration*. Like someone insisting that Canada is part of the USA, and refusing to concede that it isn't, despite all your arguments to the contrary, and you showing them maps, constitutions, history books, etc.
But a lot of the anger is just that - anger. Because the ID movement in the USA is blatantly just an attempt to shoehorn Creationism, especially Evangelical Christian creationism, into science. Read the details of the Wedge Strategy document from the Discovery Institute to see how this is the case. Quoting from it:
it's goal is to is to "defeat [scientific] materialism" represented by evolution, "reverse the stifling materialist world view and replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions" to "affirm the reality of God." and to "renew" American culture by shaping public policy to reflect conservative Christian, namely evangelical Protestant, values.

Answer 5

Not knowing which "certain people" you are referring to, I would say that mentioning "intelligent design" as part of a science curriculum, is nothing but a back door way to sneak in creationism. It has no business being taught as a theory, because their is no physical evidence to support it.

Answer 6

People are angry that creationists are trying to pass religion as science. Intelligent design is not science. It's just a religiously-motivated theory that, by definition, can't be tested, and therefore has no place in the realm of science.

Answer 7

ID was fabricated by otherwise honest people who decided to use the weasel tactics of lawyers and politicians to advance their cause. The cause happened to be creationism which had already been soundly rejected by the weasel lawyers and politicians of the moderates and the left. So, the best that could come of ID was a rehash of creationism.

Answer 8

because some people want it to be taught in public schools, even though it has no basis in science, and a public school is no place to push religious beliefs on children. intelligent design is just code for creationism, if people want to believe that, fine, but it should be taught in churches, not schools.

Answer 9

intelligent design is based on religion which cannot be proved or disproved. a major part of intelligent design is faith based...on the other hand, there is concrete evidence supporting that fact evolution has occurred

Answer 10

Because it is an insult to our intelligence.

John H (just waiting for the wave of hate mail)