Intelligent design -- stupid comments
August 16, 2006
If U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick is trying to cast himself as a moderate, last week didn't do much to help his cause.
McGavick caved to the religious right -- kind of -- during a Q & A at Redmond's Marymoor Park when he said all valid theories on the origins of life should be taught in science classes.
Apparently "valid theories" on the origins of life includes the "theory" of intelligent design.
What McGavick didn't acknowledge as he waffled through the question is that intelligent design isn't science, and definitely isn't a valid theory.
Intelligent design, which suggests life as it exists is too complex to have evolved without the help of a higher power, is little more than a ploy by religious activists to inject their faith into a branch of biology they don't agree with.
Looking through a transcript of McGavick's comments, portions of which were posted last week on The Stranger's weblog, it's obvious he was trying as hard as he could not to take a stance on the issue and defaulting to the "teaching the controversy" view.
"Teaching the controversy" is a common defense for adding intelligent design to U.S. science curricula. There's only one problem with that -- science isn't decided by a public vote, so scientifically speaking, "the controversy" is irrelevant.
Even if 99 percent of Americans refused to believe in evolution, it would still be the dominant theory on a scientific basis.
Whether fundamentalist Christians like it or not, evolution based on Charles Darwin's theories about the origin of life is the best explanation out there.
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