'Intelligent design' debate is still evolving

Published in L.A. Times Letters Section, August 10, 2005

An informed public need not entertain any question or debate about whether or not "intelligent design," or ID, should be taught in public school science classes. The key point in this issue was beautifully and illustratively summed up in your Aug. 6 editorial, "Faith vs. evidence." The editorial states that "ID and evolutionary theory are not just irreconcilable; they are in realms as distant as astronomy and the polka." This is precisely the point. Evolutionary theory, whether one agrees with its every tenet or not, has a scientific basis and an explanatory capacity that ID simply cannot provide and does not attempt to offer. ID is not science. A point of view is not science. The answer is as simple and elegant as that.