By Jerry Burke
But what it did not do, apparently, was shut the book on the debate over where life on Earth came from.
As I write this, 80 years after the famed "Monkey Trial," a second one of sorts opened Thursday, with evolution under attack once again. The Kansas State Board of Education is hosting four days of trial-like hearings that give evolution's critics a public forum to attack the theory attributed to 19th century British scientist Charles Darwin.
Darwin, who ranks just under Bill Clinton, Satan and Michael Moore on the "most evil" lists of some creationists, came up with this crazy idea in 1859 that species change over time and that such changes can lead to new species, giving different ones, such as man and apes, common ancestors.
Creationism, the belief that a supreme being created the universe in seven days, is recounted in the Old Testament book of Genesis, with God making man in his own image.
Over the past 146 years, biologists have tested the theory of evolution again and again. It is what most scientists would consider a sound theory, supported by thousands of volumes of observation and experiment.
Over the last 3,000 years, creationism has remained the same. Well, almost. For many of its believers it has morphed into something called "intelligent design," which says some features of the natural world, because of their "well-ordered complexities," are best explained by an intelligent cause, namely God.
Intelligent design is a theory, backed by, well, the Bible. It is a theory that instead of going any further toward establishing proof, only openly attacks the theory of evolution, claiming, for example, that there are gaps in the fossil record that "disproves" the gradual changes in living beings.
There are a lot of theories in our world. Some say that a "magic bullet" hit both President Kennedy and Governor John Connolly seven times, changing direction twice, and came out in perfect condition.
There is a theory that Saddam Hussein possessed large quantities of biological and chemical weapons about two years ago and could attack us in 15 minutes.
There was a theory that Matt LeBlanc could pull off a hit television series without the help of his "Friends."
The degree to which a theory is accepted in the scientific community depends totally on whether or not the conclusions of experiments support it. Bad theories, those that are not supported by evidence, were often once good theories because, at a certain point in time, they were the best explanation for natural phenomena (see "bloodletting"). When Genesis was written, chances are it was the best explanation of the creation of the world at the time.
That time was 2,000 B.C. We've come a long way, baby.
This isn't an attack on faith. No student faces religious persecution because his teacher discusses Darwin. In fact, for all of their rantings about "people of faith" being attacked, fundamentalists in this country should really read up on the Holocaust, or the human rights violations in China and Africa, or take a look at those wonderful Abu Ghraib photos.
That's persecution, my friend. Waking up in the morning and practicing your religion while an occasional critic calls you a nut for urging others to believe as you do or face the fires of hell is not persecution. Get over it.
When it comes to evolution, you can have it both ways. There is nothing in Darwin's theory that says God doesn't exist or that there isn't a higher power at work behind the scenes. Evolution is just a theory, a good one, which tries to explain our origins. To equate intelligent design to evolution is, quite frankly, a cop-out.
What experiments has intelligent design theory undergone? What unexpected observations have challenged intelligent design theorists? None, and in their mind, none can. So why bother looking any further? If the answer to everything is "God did it," why bother investigating anything?
Just because you can't prove a vague theory wrong doesn't mean it's right. On that note, I'm off to check out my horoscope on the off chance that I and one-twelfth of the population are ready for a new romance.
