The Kansas Board of Education approved a new science standard that casts doubt on the theory of evolution and introduces "Intelligent Design" into science classes (Source: CNN.com).
For the past few years, fundamentalist Christians everywhere have been crapping their pants with joy over the supposedly scientific theory of Intelligent Design, or ID for short. Basically, the theory claims that life is too complex to have been the product of natural processes such as evolution, and that there must have been an intelligent designer who made it all happen.
Now, people are free to believe in whatever they like. And the existence of an intelligent designer is certainly possible. In fact, I too believe in an intelligent designer, and his name is the Flying Spaghetti Monster. But to say that some random unproven belief system like ID should be taught in school as science is just... stupid.
ID is not scientific at all. Everyone who paid attention in his high school science class knows that, to be considered scientific, a theory must be, among other things, falsifiable. This is where ID falls flat on its face. ID is not falsifiable. Since the Intelligent Designer is invisible and unobservable, there is no way to introduce scientific evidence that can dispute his existence.
On second thought, maybe there is evidence that can disprove ID. I'll state it in two words: Michael Jackson.
That's right, you heard me. I said Michael Jackson.
If Michael Jackson is a product of Intelligent Design, then the intelligent designer may not be that intelligent after all, right?
I can go further and say that the existence of Michael Jackson proves that humans evolved from apes, but that is another topic for another blog entry.