"Intelligent" design

By now you've heard that the ACLU, bless their liberal hearts, are going after Dover, PA, which has judiciously required that intelligent design (ID) theory be taught in 9th-grade biology classes. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with intelligent design, don't worry; it's just creationism in a cheap suit.

Proponents of ID are fond of pointing out that evolution is "just a theory", which signals a complete misunderstanding of the difference between the lay uses and the scientific uses of the word "theory." To the layman, a theory is an educated guess; to the scientist, it is an explanation, backed by empirical evidence, of a natural phenomenon. See the difference?

It's telling that ID proponents don't want to teach alternatives to other scientific theories, like gravity or atomic theory. Why, perhaps high school chemistry courses should give time to the notion that matter is composed not of atoms, but of the four elements! After all, atomic theory is "just a theory."

Hey, ID advocates! You are at best intellectually dishonest, and at worst small-minded fools who have been blinded by a religious view of the world you insist upon foisting on the rest of the world. Fuck you.