“Of course my motives were religious.”

Percival Davis

Creation science, like the fabled phoenix, has again risen from the ashes.  In its latest incarnation, terms like “God” and “the Creator” have vanished; replaced by what the Christian Right hopes will become a politically correct and legally acceptable surrogate, “intelligent design”. 

This latest effort to interject biblical creation as a scientific alternative to the nearly universally accepted, although still emerging, theories of evolution is only slightly more subtle than backdoor attempts to reintroduce prayer in school under the guise of daily moments of silence. 

As with the old-time religion of creation science, advocates of intelligent design parade forth a handful of purportedly neutral scientists who are prepared to defend its veracity.  They are also fond of citing the academic and literary pedigrees of such proponents.  One, Percival Davis, a college professor of life sciences, includes a reference to his [questionable] co-authorship of a mainstream text, “Biology” while conveniently omitting his shared authorship of “A Case for Creation”; and he frankly admits, “Of course my motives were religious.”

During the 1990s, Christian coalitions in communities in Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana and Ohio presented petitions to local school boards urging the adoption of “Of Pandas and People”, published by the Foundation for Thought and Ethics, as a scientific reevaluation of evolutionary theories.  While pointing out perceived flaws in Darwinian theories and gaps in fossil records, the book suggests the world is far too complicated to have evolved from natural forces.  Therefore, there must have been an “intelligent design” behind its formation.  It is interesting to note the Foundation’s founder was previously employed for the Campus Crusades for Christ ministries as its marketing director … where he touted literal interpretations of the scriptures.

Recently, the school board for the Dover Area School District, located 20 miles south of Harrisburg, PA, mandated teaching of intelligent design together with and on a par with evolution in all biology classes.  The district’s curriculum committee also lobbied for the use of “Pandas”.  Educational officials in Kansas recently tried to eliminate question relating to evolution on state exams.  Only a judicial ruling prevented a Georgia school district from placing “warning labels” in science text books suggesting evolution was just one of several theories.  One wonders why these same do-gooders are not pushing for similar admonitions and alternatives where the theories of special and general relatively, Pythagorean geometry, gravity, plate tectonics, music and hundreds of other disciplines are concerned.

More threatening to ensuring America’s youth are equipped with the education and knowledge to successfully compete for 21st century jobs and maintaining the separation of church and state have been the narrow-minded efforts by such religiously conservative members of Congress such as Senator Rick Santorum who came close to successfully inserting similar intelligent design requirements in the No Child Left Behind Act.

Evolutionists are quick to admit the fossil record is incomplete, but note it provides ample evidence of transitional forms of life even though it does not necessarily demonstrate a smooth progression from species to species.  They note that the chance of any life form becoming fossilized is infinitesimal extremely small.  As such, it is remarkable there have been so many fossils discovered and catalogued.  The current absence of answers to all possible questions concerning evolution is not evidence the theory is not valid.

Meantime, intelligent design exploits such unanswered questions while promoting an alternative which relies solely on faith and not requiring any sort of independent scientific testing.  By its nature, intelligent design, like creation science, will always be a speculative theory incapable of hard proof beyond the belief systems of its adherents.  

This debate, as with periodic attempts to mandate prayer in school, accomplishes little other than dividing those who would impose their religious beliefs and customs on the rest of society and those who, while supporting First Amendment rights protecting religion, reject the notion of transforming our secular society into a benevolent theocracy.

Despite popular myths to the contrary, our founding fathers who drafted of the Constitution and Bill of Rights were not, as a whole, a particularly religious lot.  Rather, many, while theists, fell into the now demonized category of secular humanists.  Yet, without their significant input, the freedoms and tolerance which now enables religious conservatives to become open activists might not now exist.

It’s time to end the assaults on the secular nature of the American social fabric.  Our elected representatives should stop wasting their time and our money pontificating over ways to regulate individual behavior and further their narrow religious agendas and get on with such mundane jobs as eliminating the staggering budget deficit, fixing the gaping deficiencies in our intelligence systems, ensuring affordable health care is available to all Americans, ending the waves of illegal immigrants flooding into the country, and rebuilding our decaying cities.

For the religiously-devout, alternative theories on the origins of life, as well as prayer, can and should be taught in their homes, churches, mosques and synagogues.