Editor, Times-Union: Governor Mitch Daniels has expressed some reluctance at the endorsement of teaching Intelligent Design in our public schools. That reluctance is well founded.
Intelligent Design is marketed as a form of science holding that there is evidence in the material universe that a Designer created it. The "science" behind this may be somewhat dubious. It is essentially an effort to counter Darwinian evolution to the extent that some scientists conclude that the universe and living things have evolved and that there is no Creator behind these events.
Atheistic Darwinians have attempted to assert that people of religion who see a Master's hand in the universe are simply ignorant and uninformed and are clinging to outdated myths. Intelligent Design proponents argue that Darwinists are overcome by their atheism and that natural selection cannot explain the complexities of the universe.
What these arguments fail to embrace are those of us who embrace science and the faith. We see the validity of some elements of Darwinianism and yet maintain the understanding that there is a divine purpose in in creation. Not only is strident atheism unthinkable, attempting to market theology as science is equally troubling. Have we not yet learned the moral physics principle that two wrongs cannot ever equal right? Belief in the existence of the Creator cannot be abandoned in the face of bad science any more than it can be proven by theology masked as pseudo-science.
I agree with the caution expressed by Governor Daniels.
