It appears that the Intelligent Design movement has already had its 15 minutes of fame in the media, but the effects of the debate linger and continue to make people from both sides angry and frustrated. I am fascinated by this debate for several reasons, but most of all because both sides think that people on the other side must be complete morons. I really can’t think of another debate with this much hostility and sarcasm. The closest analog would be the abortion debate, but in that case, both sides think the other side is immoral. Here, both sides accuse the other of plain stupidity.
I think that this debate was a total waste of everyone’s time, and accomplished nothing. As indicated by the title of my new series, I characterize neither side as a winner: instead, they tie for last. By that I mean that if you started out believing in intelligent design when this debate began, you still do – and now you are even more angry at the evolutionists! And if you started out believing in evolution, you still do – and now you think that ID people are completely ridiculous! Now that is what I call a useless debate – nothing was accomplished except filling the world with more anger.
So where did this debate go wrong? Could it have been productive? And just what is a Christian, Jew, or Muslim supposed to believe? Are we obligated to be ID adherents, simply because we believe God is responsible for this universe? What about all those evolutionists who are Christians – are they being inconsistent? Does an evolutionary account of the world challenge religion?
I am optimistic that after we wade through some of the misunderstandings together, we can come up with some worthwhile thoughts, and answer some of these questions. This will be my theme for the next several blogs.
