Ask a proponent of Intelligent Design Creationism if he really believes that the "Designer" could be an advanced space alien. Who designed the alien, then?

Could the "Designer" be a non-Christian god, like Odin, Zeus, or Brahman? Could the "Designer" be another supernatural figure recognized within Christianity? "Of course not!", he will say. Ask him why not.

Who says that Intelligent Design is the same as Creationism?

Before: "Creation means that various forms of life began abruptly through the agency of an intelligent Creator with their distinctive features already intactfish with fins and scales, birds with feathers, beaks, and wings, etc."

After: "Intelligent design means that various forms of life began abruptly through an intelligent agency, with their distinctive features already intact fish with fins and scales, birds with feathers, beaks, and wings, etc."

New! For those of you who think incorrectly that both sides of every issue should be presented just to be fair, a webpage cataloguing all of the scientific evidence in favor of Intelligent Design Creationism and a list of all the articles published by Intelligent Design Creationism proponents in peer-reviewed science journals showing that Intelligent Design Creationism is a valid research program.

The Pro-ID Webpage

Intelligent Design Creationism

• Intelligent Design (ID) from The Skeptic's Dictionary.
• Intelligent Design (ID) from Wikipedia. See also
  • Wedge Strategy
  • Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
  • Of Pandas and People
    • Missing link: "cdesign proponentsists" This is what happens when you globally replace "creationists" with "design proponents" without proofreading
  • Teach the Controversy
  • Irreducible Complexity
  • Discovery Institute
  • Creationism
• National Center for Science Education Defending the Teaching of Evolution in the Public Schools
  • 10 Answers to Jonathan Wells' "10 Questions to Ask Your Biology Teacher"
  • ICONS OF EVOLUTION? Why much of what Jonathan Wells writes about evolution is wrong by Alan D. Gishlick
• Creation and Intelligent Design Watch from CSICOP
• Texas Citizens for Science
• Evo.Sphere
• The Wedge Strategy from AntiEvolution.org - The Critic's Resource on AntiEvolution
• Understanding The Intelligent Design Creationist Movement by Barbara Forrest, Ph.D.- a position paper from the The Center for Inquiry
  • PDF format
• Intelligent Design? from Natural History
• Evolution Denialism from scienceblogs.com
• Why the Intelligent Design "Theory" is Bullshit
• Scientific Societies Rejecting Intelligent Design Creationism
  • AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Board Resolution Urges Opposition to "Intelligent Design" Theory in U.S. Science Classes
    • AAAS Board Resolution on Intelligent Design Theory
  • Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences
  • Many more from the National Center for Science Education
• "Is It Science Yet?: Intelligent Design Creationism and the Constitution" by Matthew J. Brauer, Barbara Forrest, and Steven G. Gey in Washington University Law Quarterly 83 (1)
• "It Is Alive", by Gregory A. Petsko, ASBMB Today, August 2008 - page 1, page 2
• The Evolution Debate - Guest editorial by George V. Coyne, Director Emeritus of the Vatican Observatory. The Physics Teacher January 2008.
• Show Me the Science - By Daniel C. Dennett in The New York Times 28 August 2005
• So-called Intelligent Design is Not Science - Adapted from NCAS Skeptical Eye, Volume 18, Number 1, 2006
  • from National Capital Area Skeptics
• Random Walking by Richard E. Dickerson
• From RNA to Humans - A Symposium on Evolution, Rockefeller University, 1-2 May 2008
• What is...'Intelligent Design?' by Terence Kealey, from The Times (London) December 18, 2004.
  Quoting from the story: "... theories of intelligent design and creationism are transparently absurd and driven not by a search for truth but by faith."
• "Evolution and Intelligent Design" from the Diane Rehm Show (NPR) August 4, 2005
• Rev. Ridiculous doesn't speak well for intelligent design - If Intelligent Design Creationism is science and not religion, then why is the Reverend Pat Robertson upset?
• Intelligent Design: The New Creationism Threatens All of Science and Society from the American Physical Society (APS)
• Chapter 11: "Creation Science" 2.0 excerpt from The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney
• The Plot to Kill Evolution Inside the Crusade to Bring Creationism 2.0 to America's Classrooms - Wired, October 2004.
• Intelligent Design from An Index to Creationist Claims at The TalkOrigins Archive
• Intelligent Design 101: Short on science, long on snake oil by James Curtsinger, The Minnesota Daily 11 October 2005
• Sandwalk - Strolling with a skeptical biochemist by Laurence A. Moran
  • Ohmygod! These photographs are faked!
  • Peppered Moths and the Confused IDiots
  • Who Is David Tyler?
  • Fossil Horses and Directed Evolution
  • Intelligent Design Creationism: Frontloading
  • Defining Irreducible Complexity
  • Where's the Evidence for Intelligent Design Creationism?
  • Creationist Delusions about Transitional Fossils and Information
  • Propaganda Techniques: Appeal to Stupidity
  • Casey Luskin Gets it Wrong (Again)
  • Are IDiots Creationists?
  • Intelligent Design Creationism Is Anti-Science
  • Do You Ever Wonder Why We Call them IDiots?
  • Vestigial Structures Are Evidence of Evolution
• Prominent biology professor defends evolution, criticizes intelligent design by Chintan Desai in The California Aggie 05 April 2007
• Trial transcript of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District Dover, Pennsylvania Intelligent Design Case from The TalkOrigins Archive
• Threw the Book at 'Em from the Scientific American blog 20 December 2005
• Pharyngula
  • Thank you, Michael Behe by PZ Myers 20 December 2005
  • Three years and counting by PZ Myers 7 April 2007
• Intelligent design - a pig that doesn't fly
• The Flagellum Unspun - The Collapse of "Irreducible Complexity" by Kenneth R. Miller
  from his Evolution Resources
• The Emperor's New Designer Clothes by Victor J. Stenger
• Devolution - Why intelligent design isn't by H. Allen Orr
• Behe's Empty Box by John Catalano
• A reducibly complex mousetrap by John H. McDonald
  Quoting from the website:
  'To illustrate the concept of irreducible complexity, Behe uses the common snap mousetrap. "If any one of the components of the mousetrap (the base, hammer, spring, catch, or holding bar) is removed, then the trap does not function. In other words, the simple little mousetrap has no ability to trap a mouse until several separate parts are all assembled. Because the mousetrap is necessarily composed of several parts, it is irreducibly complex." (Behe, 1996).'
  WRONG!
• Fuz Rana vs. John Rennie on NPR's Glenn Mitchell show, KERA 90.1 FM Dallas, TX, July 9th, 2002 transcript
• Evolution for ID-iots on YouTube
• Seed - game of plant evolution
• "Evolving Inventions" by John R. Koza, Martin A. Keane and Matthew J. Streeter, Scientific American February 2003 p53
• Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory - parody of Intelligent Design from the Onion.
• And male nipples serve what intelligently designed purpose again?
• ID Creationist Bingo
• The reDiscovery Institute - a parody of the Discovery Institute
  • featuring the new periodic table
• Intelligent Design Society of Kansas FAQ (parody)
• Teach the Controversy - Why stop with evolution vs. creationism? Teach both sides of EVERY science! Give the flat earth theory a chance in school. Did extraterrestrials build the pyramids? Remember, the heliocentric theory is just a theory!
• This bumper sticker and other paraphernalia from Cafepress.com
• Texas State Education board opposes intelligent design in curricula
  Even creationists say theory doesn't belong in class with evolution
  Dallas Morning News, 23 August 2007 -- See the results of reader voting
• How to get kicked off Bill Dembski's blog: Raise the question of the age of the Earth. The "big tent" is the fact that ID welcomes all views on the age of the Earth, including Young Earth Creationist views that the Earth is 6,000-10,000 years old!
• Evolution Is Not Up For Debate -- Except at Republican Debates
• INTELLIGENT DESIGN: CREATIONIST ASTRONOMER DENIED TENURE
  Quoting from the website: "Guillermo Gonzalez was denied tenure at Iowa State University. The Discovery Institute was shocked at this blatant disregard of the cherished principle of 'viewpoint diversity.' With Jay Richards, a theologian, Gonzalez wrote The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery. It's a daffy twist on the anthropic principle, which was already daffy enough. The simple fact is that his colleagues voted him off the island. It's not like he was tenured and then fired." --Robert Park, What's New Friday, May 18, 2007
• Flock of Dodos - The Evolution - Intelligent Design Circus
  • Buy it at amazon.com
  • Read about it at the Internet Movie Database
• Kanas vs. Darwin - the movie!
  • kansasvdarwin.com movie home page
  • Kansas vs. Darwin house parties from Texas Freedom Network
• Expelled Exposed - learn the truth about Ben Stein's mockumentary
  • Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed--Scientific American's Take June 2008
  • Ben Stein's Expelled: No Integrity Displayed by John Rennie, Scientific American, June 2008
  • Ben Stein's Expelled Exposed by Michael Shermer, Scientific American, June 2008
  • Six Things in Expelled That Ben Stein Doesn't Want You to Know... ...about intelligent design and evolution - by John Rennie and Steve Mirsky, Scientific American, June 2008
  • Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed-- Ben Stein Launches a Science-free Attack on Darwin by Michael Shermer, Scientific American
  • Expelled Explained Science Talk Podcast hosted by Steve Mirsky
  • YouTube videos
  • Expelled from Expelled!
  • Intelligent design film far worse than stupid - from MSNBC
• Why do people laugh at creationists? - from YouTube, featuring
  • Why Do People Laugh At Creationists? (pt. 23) - Ben Stein gets schooled
• Intelligent Design vs. Evolution -- THE GAME! From Living Waters Ministries' Ray Comfort (guess which side they take). With an endorsement by Kirk Cameron, how can it possibly be trash?
  • Banana: The Athiests Nightmare - Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron. (No, they're not joking; they are completely serious.)
• The History of Creationist Thought by comedian Robin Ince
• This is just too funny! Casey Luskin, Esquire, from discovery.org has recently pointed out, referring to this very webpage,
  "Their listing of course readings on ID lacks a single article that is friendly towards ID! ... There is not a single article by an ID-proponent to balance out the 3 dozen or so articles that they list in this "Intelligent Design" section."
  Imagine that! No articles friendly toward the nonsense that is Intelligent Design Creationism in a course devoted to debunking pseudoscience. Shocker! But also wrong. I guess he didn't get as far as the section below. Should I complain that the Discovery Institute also presents a one-sided version if ID?
• More Luskin Whining from Ed Brayton at scienceblogs.com addresses Luskin's criticism.

The SMU "Darwin vs. Design" event - 13,14 April 2007

• Vatican celebrates Darwin - The Vatican is holding a conference next year to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of the Species

• Creationism is fine, just don't call it science - Austin American-Statesman, 24 April 2008
• Texas higher education board rejects 'creation science' degree proposal - Dallas Morning News, 23 April 2008

• Latest in the TEA Monkey Trial - August 13th, 2008 at 5:47 pm, The Texas Observer blog
• Texas education official forced to resign over evolution from the National Center for Science Education
• Reaction to the Comer resignation from the National Center for Science Education
• Official Leaves Post as Texas Prepares to Debate Science Education Standards from the New York Times 2 Decemeber 2007
• Official forced out for telling the truth on intelligent design editorial from the Corpus Christi Caller Times
• Evolution and Texas editorial from the New York Times 4 December 2007
• Teaching of evolution to go under microscope by Karen Ayres Smith / The Dallas Morning News / 13 December 2007
• More articles from Google News

(Un)Intelligent Design guest lecture by Professor John Wise (SMU Biology) 17 April 2006

Intelligent Design is not Science guest lecture by Professor John Wise (SMU Biology) 18 April 2007

Kitzmiller et al. vs. Dover Area School District et al. Memorandum Opinion 20 Dec 2005 by Judge John E. Jones III

Supplement to Expert Witness Report : Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District by Dr. Barbara Forrest

Intelligent Design Creationism Proponents (Cdesign Proponentsists)

• Phillip Johnson - father of the Intelligent Design Creationism movement and AIDS denier.
  
  
• Michael Behe - professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University
  • but read the Biochemistry Department Position on Evolution and "Intelligent Design"
  • Michael Behe from The TalkOrigins Archive
  
  
  
• William Dembski
  Rather than testifying in the Kitzmiller case, Bill Dembski removed himself as a witness for the defense (why, pray tell?) and instead posted this animation complete with flatulence sound effects.
  • Bwa ha ha! Quoting from the website: "Just when you think the ID guys can't get any sillier and more immature, you see stuff like this." --Nick Matzke
  • Judge Jones School of Law posted by Bill Dembski himself
    Let's see ... what words would describe this? Unscholarly? Anti-intellectual? Academic unprofessionalism?
  • Flatulence removed from "The Judge Jones School of Law" - Bill Dembski's own words, folks.
  
  
  
• Jonathan Wells
• Scott Minnich
• Steve Fuller
• Stephen Meyer
• Bruce Chapman
• David Berlinski
  • Cows into Whales

Intelligent Design Creationism Opponents

• Eugenie Scott
• Ken Miller
• Barbara Forrest

Books

Read these and learn some science

• The Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin
  Read it online for free! Here is another online version.
• Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of Species Updated by Steve Jones
• Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design by Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross
• Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics: Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives by Robert T. Pennock (Editor)
• Evolution vs. Creationism : An Introduction by Eugenie C. Scott
• Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design Is Wrong for Our Schools by Eugenie C. Scott and Glenn Branch
• Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism edited by Matt Young and Taner Edis
• The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design by Richard Dawkins
• Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design by Michael Shermer
• The Counter-Creationism Handbook by Mark Isaak
• The Dover Books Cometh from the Panda's Thumb
  • Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul by Edward Humes
  • 40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, OxyContin®, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania by Matthew Chapman (the great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin!)
  • The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything: Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, PA by Gordy Slack
  • The Devil in Dover: A Journalist's Story of Dogma v. Darwin in Small-town America by Lauri Lebo
  • God on Trial: Dispatches from America's Religious Battlefields by Peter Irons
  • The Panda's Black Box: Opening up the Intelligent Design Controversy Nathaniel C. Comfort (Editor)
• 
  
  or read these and ... um ... don't learn any science
  
  
• Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon
  
  
• Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology by William Dembski
• The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design by William A. Dembski
  
  
• Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution by Michael J. Behe
  • A Review of Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution by Robert Dorit
  • Darwin v. Intelligent Design (Again) - a review by H. Allen Orr of Darwin's Black Box
  • A Review of Darwin's Black Box by Keith Robison
  
  
• The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism by Michael J. Behe
  • EVOLUTION: God as Genetic Engineer review by Sean B. Carroll in Science
  
  
• Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? Why Much of What We Teach About Evolution is Wrong by Jonathan Wells
  • 10 Answers to Jonathan Wells' "10 Questions to Ask Your Biology Teacher"
  • ICONS OF EVOLUTION? Why much of what Jonathan Wells writes about evolution is wrong by Alan D. Gishlick
  • Ohmygod! These photographs are faked!
  • Peppered Moths and the Confused IDiots
  • Fossil Horses and Directed Evolution
  
  
• The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards
  • INTELLIGENT DESIGN: CREATIONIST ASTRONOMER DENIED TENURE
  
  
• Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds by Phillip E. Johnson
• Darwin on Trial by Phillip E. Johnson

Quotations:

• "In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science. We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents."
  --Judge John E. Jones III, Kitzmiller et al. vs. Dover Area School District et al. Memorandum Opinion 20 Dec 2005
  
  
• "Intelligent design isn't science, even though it pretends to be. If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science."
  --Reverend George V. Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory
  
  
• "We find that science's descriptions of cosmological, geological, and biological evolution are not in conflict with theology." and "Therefore be it resolved that the General Conference of the United Methodist Church go on record as opposing the introduction of any faith-based theories such as Creationism or Intelligent Design into the science curriculum of our public schools."
  --The United Methodist Church at its General Convention 2008
  
  
• "Evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology" and "intelligent design is not a scientific concept."
  --John Marberger, President George W. Bush's science adviser, responding to Bush's suggestion that we teach intelligent design in the schools
  
  
• "ID leaders know the benefits of submitting their work to independent review and have established at least two purportedly "peer-reviewed" journals for ID articles. However, one has languished for want of material and quietly ceased publication, while the other has a more overtly philosophical orientation. Both journals employ a weak standard of "peer review" that amounts to no more than vetting by the editorial board or society fellows."
  --Matthew J. Brauer, Barbara Forrest, and Steven G. Gey in "Is It Science Yet?: Intelligent Design Creationism and the Constitution" Washington University Law Quarterly 83 (1)
  
  
• "To explain the origin of the DNA/protein machine by invoking a supernatural Designer is to explain precisely nothing, for it leaves unexplained the origin of the Designer. You have to say something like 'God was always there', and if you allow yourself that kind of lazy way out, you might as well just say 'DNA was always there', or "Life was always there', and be done with it."
  --Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker : Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design p. 141
  
  
• "The old argument of design in nature, as given by Paley, which formerly seemed to me to be so conclusive, fails, now that the law of natural selection has been discovered. We can no longer argue that, for instance, the beautiful hinge of a bivalve shell must have been made by an intelligent being, like the hinge of a door by man. There seems to be no more design in the variability of organic beings and in the action of natural selection, than in the course which the wind blows."
  --Charles Darwin from The Autobiography of Charles Darwin
  
  
• "While we respect Prof. Behe's right to express his views, they are his alone and are in no way endorsed by the department. It is our collective position that intelligent design has no basis in science, has not been tested experimentally, and should not be regarded as scientific."
  --Lehigh University Biochemistry Department Position on Evolution and "Intelligent Design"
  
  
• "Pseudoscientists make poorly substantiated or demonstrably false claims and refuse to relinquish them when shown the counterevidence. 'Scientific' creationism and its 2.0 version, 'intelligent design,' provide the canonical examples of the conservative embrace of pseudoscience. Creationists and intelligent design proponents claim to act scientifically, but in fact they do little more than spread scientific-sounding arguments in defense of a biblical or religious agenda. It is doubtful whether any amount of evidence would change their minds."
  --Chris Mooney in The Republican War on Science p. 22
  
  
• "Dembski's law of conservation of information and the rest of Intelligent Design are not just pseudoscience, they are wrong pseudoscience."
  --Victor J. Stenger in The Emperor's New Designer Clothes
  
  
• "Incorporating intelligent design into science classrooms is an obvious impediment to scientific progress."
  --Alan J. Scott in "Danger! Scientific Inquiry Hazard" Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 31, No. 3, May/June 2007
  
  
• "Let's not kid ourselves. Regardless of superficial scientific appearances, intelligent design was fabricated by a handful of Christian apologists with the mission of discrediting evolution and of bringing conservative Christian values into public school classrooms."
  --Charles L. Rulon in "Debating Creationists" Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 31, No. 3, May/June 2007
  
  
• "... putting intelligent design in opposition to Darwin is like offering a program on faith healing versus oncology. Faith healing is worth discussing, but not as a scientific alternative to medical treatment ..."
  --Lee Cullum, "A problem at its genesis," Dallas Morning News Opinion Viewpoints 4 April 2007.
  
  
• Bill Maher on Intelligent Design: "You don't have to teach both sides of a debate, if one side is a load of crap."
  
  
  
  Quotations from ID proponents
  I thought you guys claim that ID is science and not religion. Your own words say something quite different:
  
  
• "Intelligent design is just the Logos theology of John's Gospel restated in the idiom of information theory."
  --William Dembski, Signs of intelligence: A primer on the discernment of intelligent design. Touchstone 12(4) (Jul/Aug 1999): 76-84.
  
  
• "the conceptual soundness of a scientific theory cannot be maintained apart from Christ"
  --William Dembski, Intelligent Design: The Bridge between Science and Theology, 1998, p. 209
  
  
• "Our strategy has been to change the subject a bit so that we can get the issue of intelligent design, which really means the reality of God, before the academic world and into the schools."
  --Phillip Johnson, American Family Radio, 10 January 2003.
  
  
• "there are no peer reviewed articles by anyone advocating for intelligent design supported by pertinent experiments or calculations which provide detailed rigorous accounts of how intelligent design of any biological system occurred."
  --Michael Behe, 2005
  
  
• "Father's words, my studies, and my prayers convinced me that I should devote my life to destroying Darwinism, just as many of my fellow Unificationists had already devoted their lives to destroying Marxism."
  --Jonathan Wells, Darwinism: Why I Went for a Second Ph.D.
  (Incidentally, the person whom Wells calls "Father" is Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church which is also known as the "Moonies", and the ultraconservative Washington Times.)
  
  
• "Many states have brought in Intelligent Design but they have called it science. A design needs a designer which is god. It's religion, not science."
  --William Nowers, one of the founders of Creation and Evolution Studies Ministry and author of the book, Creation-Evolution and a Nation in Distress, being surprisingly honest about the goals of "intelligent design"/creationism proponents. His ministry is making an effort to put religion in science classes in Virginia.
  
  
• Eric Rothschild: But you are clear, under your definition, the definition that sweeps in intelligent design, astrology is also a scientific theory, correct?
  Michael Behe: Yes, that's correct.
  --Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, Trial transcript: Day 11 (October 18, 2005), PM Session, Part 1
  
  
• "We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture."
  --Ray Mummert, Dover PA pastor
  
  
• More quotations from ID proponents can be found in The Horse's Mouth by Brian Poindexter, 2003.
  
  

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