Peregrin Wood wrote this morning about the sham of the pseudoscientific veneer intelligent design proponents have used to mask crude Creationism. The article was brought back to the top of my mind this evening as I looked to the East.
If you are in an area without excessive artificial lighting and with clear skies, to the East you will see, tonight and the next few nights, the planet Mars shining much more brightly than usual. The reason? It’s nothing astrological. Nothing about any supposed firmament. Nothing supernatural.
Scientists know that the orbits of Mars and Earth are bringing them closer together than usual this week. Scientists have known that this would happen for quite some time, because they’ve made centuries of careful observations, and built a reliable scientific theory of gravity as a result. We don’t criticize that theory of gravity by saying that it’s just a theory. It’s a really useful scientific theory, as it turns out. Many theories, like the theory of gravity, are absolutely wonderful – even though they’re theories and not absolute, theocratic-style, declarations of immovable truth.
The theory of natural selection as a cause of biological evolution is another marvelous theory.
What we know about Mars got me thinking about just how much we know about the supposed intelligent designer that neo-Creationist Christian fundamentalists are always gabbing on about. How much do we know about this intelligent designer of the universe? Zero. Absolutely zero.
Oh, the Christian fundamentalist intelligent design crowd says it knows a lot about the supposed intelligent designer. But, the fact is, they don’t really know. They just believe everything that they say they know about this intelligent designer character.
There has never been a truly rigorous study of the intelligent designer, because, well, there’s not even any evidence that any intelligent designer exists. We know more than a trillion times more about the planet Mars than there is for an intelligent designer of the cosmos. That’s not hyperbole. It’s literally true. Zero multiplied by one trillion, after all, is still zero.
There are no photographs or movies of any intelligent designer of the universe. We have plenty of these of the planet Mars. We have sent many robotic probes to the planet Mars to explore it and examine its chemistry. No robotic probes have ever found any sign of an intelligent designer. Almost every night (sometimes there are clouds, or Mars is on the other side of the sun), we can look up and see the planet Mars. Look as hard as you will, but no two people have ever provided any documentation that they’ve seen the intelligent designer at night. The equations of physics explain in minute detail the movements of the planet Mars. No scientific theory, or theological guess for that matter, ever has provided an adequate explanation for the existence of an intelligent designer of an intelligent designer of the cosmos.
Given the comparative track record of the planet Mars and the supposed intelligent designer, I choose to depend on the system of thought that has brought us knowledge of Mars, rather than the system of supposition that has concocted several outlandish tales about an intelligent designer or group of designers of the universe. Before I am able to enjoy a fanciful story, I’ve got to know where I really stand in the world.
