That than which none greater can be thought...

We're all familiar with the old NewYorker cartoon of the frazzled scientist displaying his work on a formula on a chalkboard, where, to make everything come out just right, he has written, "And then a miracle happens." It's a statement on scientific whimsy and frustration and, sans formula, the basis of Intelligent Design. Intelligent design is a hoax on par with any of the great hoaxes of history, such as the Loch Ness Monster (coincidentally, a main buttress for the beliefs of young earthers everywhere).

Intelligent Design is basically defined by it's attacks on evolution. Evolution cannot explain everything, life is so complex, it requires conception of an intelligent designer to have created life. At this point, Intelligent design proponents bacically concede that evolution governs pretty much everything after the creation of the cell. Even there, there is very little actual debate.

In basing it's conclusions by working backwards from preconceived ideas about the creation of life, Intelligent Design is, ironically, perhaps, the most postmodern creation of metascience, infused with superstition and myth. Dragons may not be considered proof of intelligent design, but the people who believe this are not that far from the folks at the Discovery institute.

The thing that strikes me is that I've seen very thorough dismantling of the intelligent design attacks on evolution, but no thorough dismantling of intelligent design with the same scientific rigor. I'd like to start rectifying that. I have a few questions I think should be posed to all proponents of intelligent design belief. I will do further research and see if I can track down answers to these questions.

1) My biggest question is, who created the creator? If life is so complex as to be impossible without the help of a creator, mustn't the creator also have been created? This seems wholly circular to me. If life had to have a creator, how can the creator escape the same requirement. Is the creator not also intelligent?

2) Where is this creator now? What is this creator's role in the continued evolution of life? How can this be empirically measured?

3) By what scientific means did the creator in fact create life? Was magic involved? Miracle?

4) If the creator is so powerful, why does the creator not create new life or species out of whole cloth and/or in the lab? If the answer to this question is, "life was created perfect," isn't that a display of religious belief? If that is the answer, why have species evolved and died off?

5) If the intelligent design theory was derived from biblical creation, and not the Flying Spaghetti Monster, why are other supposedly "scientific" Biblical concepts like the earth being the center of the universe false?

I will have more questions tomorrow. So far, this stuff is 14th Century baby stuff that the church argued and never really came to a consensus on.