What's so clever about 'intelligent design'?

Published on Wednesday 3 September 2008 09:44

IMAGINE if, right here in the 21st century, there were people who denied the theory of gravitation.

Imagine if these people, not content to accept the scientific findings, were seeking to replace the theory of gravitation with one of "Intelligent Falling", which stated that, instead of gravity, objects are pulled towards the Earth by a powerful intelligent force, perhaps known to some people as God.

Now imagine that these people were desperate to get the theory of intelligent falling put into the country's school curriculum, as a replacement for teaching pupils about Newton's theory of gravity, and their subsequent effect on modern science.

But surely that's preposterous? There's loads of evidence for gravity! How could any right-minded person deny all that evidence and want to teach children ridiculous nonsense? If you're thinking along these lines, you're starting to get a feel for the evolution/intelligent design controversy.

Some 150 years after Darwin published his Origin of Species, we find ourselves in a situation where his theory – one of the most well-supported by evidence in all science (some would say that it's the foundation of all biology) – is being vehemently denied by a vocal minority which, polls suggest, is growing.

This minority are variously known as creationists or intelligent design proponents, though the latter is the latest, more "scientific"-sounding euphemism. They are guilty of grossly misrepresenting science, spreading bogus ideas, and attempting to infiltrate our schools to further propagate their delusions.

Tomorrow at 7.30pm, you can join me Edinburgh Zoo for a discussion of the arguments that supporters of creationism and intelligent design use. We'll see just how drastically they get it wrong and how important it is to fight them. Along the way we'll hopefully learn a bit about what the theory of evolution is, what it isn't, and look at a tiny fraction of the vast evidence base that's been built up to support it.

Stuart Ritchie is President of the University of Edinburgh Humanist Society