Christ, what a shit storm to read through. I can't believe I made it through the entire thing without shooting myself in the face. I lost count on how many different arguments are going on. The OP's original post was obviously pushing a "documentary" that was full of propaganda (I did watch it on Netflix). There was one good question brought up in the film - should we control what scientists can work on and publish?
If something is reasonable I don't believe it should be denied. Is ID reasonable? Well, that is a tough question to answer and what brought on all this debate. It isn't based on facts and ultimately can't be tested with the technology we have available. This leads me to my opinion on it being left out of public schools. Erect made this point well. We shouldn't teach shit that isn't based on cold hard facts in public schools. That is why we have private schools. Send you kid there if you want them to learn religion. This also leads to the other side. Theories on how the universe was created should be left out if ID is left out. Unless you are presenting all sides to a debate, when it hasn't been proven, all theories should not be brought up.
BTW, I went to a private school (and no, I am not a bible thumper, quite the opposite). What do they even teach in most public schools today about the creation of the universe? Do they even touch on this?
Obviously, we have people here who believe in a "god", atheists, and people in between in this thread. I don't really think anyone is going to agree, or change anyone else's mind. Who gives a shit anyway? Let people believe what they want. I won't try and change your mind so don't try and change mine.
I think the major depate about ID vs. evolution is joke, however. I am not a scientist and didn't take anything beyond Biology 101 in college. But, from what little I have read the two aren't even comparing the same theories. The varied definition of "evolution" doesn't really help this fact and probably confuses a lot of people.
A simple defintion of evolution - Evolution is a process that resluts in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations. Note... a change in population and not an individual.
This is obviously a fact. This simple definition has been proven. As far as arguing whether Darwinism is fact is a slippery slope as well. The dude published his theories about 150 years ago. Obviously, he had some things right and some things have been proven wrong. All his theories were stepping stones to what we know today.
A simple defintion of ID - a theory of life and existence based on the idea only a super intellegence could have conceived anything as complex as the universe. Note - the idea being the "creation" of life.
The simple definition of ID is a theory based on the origins of everything and not how we ended up where we are today, which evolution concentrates on. The fact based theories of evolution start after the whole "where did we come from idea". This is why it is considered a fact and not a theory anymore. If you deny the fact that evolutions exists you are ignorant. Can you see that these are 2 completely different ideas? I just don't get how they are debated against each other all the time. Scientists will probably never know how the universe started and in no way can people who promote ID either. This question is just one of those that we will probably never know the answer to.
The argument about who is right is competely mute because the two ideas being compared aren't even the same thing. Forget the fact that ID is a "cleaver way to get religion in publis schools." This will hopefully never happen because people should be free to decide what they believe for themselves and never forced any "theories". I think you will be safe sending your kids to pubic schools even if they did teach these ideas. You just have to sit them down and discuss with them what you believe is right. There is a whole shit storm of other crap out there in schools today I would be more concerned with like drugs and sex. But I won't tell you how to raise your kids.
You can argue all you want for whatever "side" you are on but you aren't going to change anyone's mind in here. Its a waste of fucking time IMO. You are no better then the door to door religion salesman, or the overzealous athiests trying to "convert" other people to what they believe. The idea of us being able to believe what we want is one of the great things in the world. Call it cheesy but, shit, if something makes you feel more comfortable in your life then go at it. I am not going to try and drag your ass down. Also, if you want to be taken seriously when providing "solid resources on your beliefs" you better leave the Wikipedia and Youtube entries out. I saw far to many of those in this thread.
Cheers