Evolution and Intelligent Design

BYU professor Steven Peck wrote a tremendous op-ed on science and faith.

Some highlights:

My last complaint about Intelligent Design is that it sets religion and science against each other. It puts forward a false dichotomy in students' minds that suggests that evolution and faith are incompatible. It makes people of religious faith suspicious of science. When students genuinely think that science and religion are incompatible, one of two things typically happens. They embrace science and, since it is incompatible to religion, religion is abandoned. The other is that they maintain their faith but remain inappropriately suspicious of science and dismiss its methods and findings, inclining themselves to superstition and pseudoscience.

And:

Faith and science need not be enemies. I embrace both fully and without reservation. My religious convictions are part of who I am. My science and faith reciprocate and inform one another. They are part of the way I understand my place in the universe. Intelligent Design does nothing to promote the search for understanding and cooperation between these two vital ways of knowing. It is a darkening of the mind on every level, both religiously and scientifically.

I couldn't have said it better myself -- as scientifically proven by my previous, inferior efforts (and here).

I stand by my earlier observation in the comments to my post linked to above: "One point I made on Doug Wright's show that I want to make here (and that everyone here seems to agree with by the tone of comments), this issue is important and we can have civil dialogue about it. When we are at our best as a society we can publicly discuss topics without immediately degrading to name calling. Though I believe we should not teach ID in the public schools, it thrills me that we're having policy discussions about science and the interface of morals, religion and education."