I’d have to agree with most of what you say about Stein and his documentary. However, I also feel that this debate has become so shrill that people on both sides of it aren’t really thinking carefully. Evolution as a scientific theory has an incredible amount of evidence and has had significant utility in advancing biology. However, there are also interesting questions being raised by the ID camp – questions which I think are inherently scientific. Specifically, I think the question “Is it possible to determine whether an organism has been designed?” is an interesting (and scientific) question. Perhaps we are far from being advanced enough in our understanding of biology in order to effectively approach such a question. Perhaps most of the people asking this question have ulterior motives. Perhaps this question won’t lead to a useful overarching framework within biology. Nevertheless, I think scientists should be careful not to declare questions like this unscientific and uninteresting simply because of who is asking them.
Blog of the Airtightnoodle 
April 18, 2008 at 12:32 am
Bens Stein is hot!
April 18, 2008 at 12:32 am
*Ben
April 20, 2008 at 1:09 am
I’d have to agree with most of what you say about Stein and his documentary. However, I also feel that this debate has become so shrill that people on both sides of it aren’t really thinking carefully. Evolution as a scientific theory has an incredible amount of evidence and has had significant utility in advancing biology. However, there are also interesting questions being raised by the ID camp – questions which I think are inherently scientific. Specifically, I think the question “Is it possible to determine whether an organism has been designed?” is an interesting (and scientific) question. Perhaps we are far from being advanced enough in our understanding of biology in order to effectively approach such a question. Perhaps most of the people asking this question have ulterior motives. Perhaps this question won’t lead to a useful overarching framework within biology. Nevertheless, I think scientists should be careful not to declare questions like this unscientific and uninteresting simply because of who is asking them.