Look... enough already
I don't come into your churches with my physics textbooks and demand that you teach quantum mechanics. Please don't bring your religious dogma into my science classrooms!
This whole "intelligent design" is nothing but a sham to teach religion in the guise of science. It's just another term for creationism - that God created the world. Okay, it's fine with me if you want to believe that. But I don't. Do I tell you how wrong you are, and give you a million reasons why the big bang and evolution make more sense? No. So what's your problem?
Look, I have no issue with religion. You're entitled to your beliefs and I respect that 100%. We live in a free country, and I will be the first one out to protect your right to practise your religion freely if it is ever threatened. So please do the same for me and stop trying to shove your beliefs down everyone else's throat.
The problem with calling intelligent design "science" is that science is based on a process of logical deduction, and intelligent design falls apart when put to the logic test:
Fact: Proponents of intelligent design claim that the universe is so complex that it had to have been created by an intelligent designer (e.g. God).
Fact: A designer so intelligent as to create such a complex universe must, itself, be quite complex.
So... if complex entities require an intelligent designer, who or what created the intelligent designer? An intelligent intelligent designer designer? Oh really... then who created that? An intelligent intelligent intelligent designer designer designer? And so on.
This is a logical paradox known as infinite regression, and it leaves the question of the original intelligent designer hanging. That's not good science!
You can only avoid the infinite regression problem by saying that the intelligent designer exists in a physical realm more complex than we can understand... i.e. a deity, a god, and that simply reduces intelligent design to a religious argument.
Which it is.
So please, I don't care what you believe, just stop trying to teach it as science.
This whole "intelligent design" is nothing but a sham to teach religion in the guise of science. It's just another term for creationism - that God created the world. Okay, it's fine with me if you want to believe that. But I don't. Do I tell you how wrong you are, and give you a million reasons why the big bang and evolution make more sense? No. So what's your problem?
Look, I have no issue with religion. You're entitled to your beliefs and I respect that 100%. We live in a free country, and I will be the first one out to protect your right to practise your religion freely if it is ever threatened. So please do the same for me and stop trying to shove your beliefs down everyone else's throat.
The problem with calling intelligent design "science" is that science is based on a process of logical deduction, and intelligent design falls apart when put to the logic test:
Fact: Proponents of intelligent design claim that the universe is so complex that it had to have been created by an intelligent designer (e.g. God).
Fact: A designer so intelligent as to create such a complex universe must, itself, be quite complex.
So... if complex entities require an intelligent designer, who or what created the intelligent designer? An intelligent intelligent designer designer? Oh really... then who created that? An intelligent intelligent intelligent designer designer designer? And so on.
This is a logical paradox known as infinite regression, and it leaves the question of the original intelligent designer hanging. That's not good science!
You can only avoid the infinite regression problem by saying that the intelligent designer exists in a physical realm more complex than we can understand... i.e. a deity, a god, and that simply reduces intelligent design to a religious argument.
Which it is.
So please, I don't care what you believe, just stop trying to teach it as science.
Comments
I also am an atheist, but I don't go around trying to "convert" religious people to atheism. It's rude and unwelcome. Just like when religious people try to convert me to their beliefs. :)
I'm so glad to live in a free country. I want to keep it that way. I hate it when people try to enshrine one belief system or another into law. Even if it were my own beliefs (science/atheism), I would not want it codified into law if it meant that someone else would no longer be free to practise their religion.
Like you, I believe everyone is entitled to their own beliefs (or lack thereof), without interference from someone who thinks they know whats best for you. It never ever works. I could sit here right now and tell you that I don't believe in God, because that may be what you want to hear, but it would be a lie because the belief in God is part of my fundamental core. I can't change it just by saying the words, no more than you (or my friend) can accept that God exists just because I told you that its so.
There are so many people who do not believe that way, my ex husband for example, and even my mother. She clicks her tongue in disapproval when I talk about getting together with my friend because he is a "non believer." Doesn't matter to me mom, he's entitled to it just as we are all free to choose. He will always be my best friend regardless.
You say God, I say Big Bang. You say Genesis, I say Evolution. It's really just two different sets of beliefs. I think the primary difference is that religion takes on an element of faith that is dismissed by science, while science requires an element of evidence that is not required by religion. But it would be rather pompous of me to argue that evidence is more important than faith - it is not, except to a scientist - and the inverse is true to a religious person - making such a claim a circular argument, a logical paradox that is an affront to science itself.
Certainly there is, to varying degrees, elements of both faith and evidence to both science and religion. So I really like that you pointed out to him that atheism is his religion. While perhaps not factually correct, since religion is generally a belief system rooted in faith, which atheism is not, it nevertheless makes it clear to him that it is pretty obnoxious for him to keep putting down your religion. If he's going to do that, then he can't complain when the Jehovah's Witnesses come a-knockin' bright and early Saturday morning. That's right, if there's one thing that most atheists have in common, it is that we hate attempts at conversion, so we shouldn't be doing it to others either.
I'm glad you're friends with him. It shows that we can all get along despite our different beliefs. Now if only someone would explain that to the Israelis and the Palestinians...