Tuesday, May 10, 2005
The Theory That Won't Entertain a Hypothesis
Red State Rabble hunkered down in the Kansas State Board of Education hearing room and listened when the 23 intelligent design "theorists" organized by the Discovery Institute brought their roadshow to town last week. We heard hour after mind-numbing hour of criticisms about evolution, but there is one thing we didn't hear in all those hours of testimony.
We did not hear even a moment of testimony about what intelligent design theory is, what hypotheses it is testing, what research it plans to conduct.
In fact, the witnesses were highly indignant -- and evasive -- when Science Coalition attorney Pedro Irigonegaray asked them during cross-examination to simply state a hypothesis about the age of the earth or where humans might have come from if they did not evolve from early hominid ancestors.
If there was ever any doubt that intelligent design is not science, it was completely dispelled by the categorical refusal of those "theorists" to state a hypothesis that could be tested by scientific investigation.
We did not hear even a moment of testimony about what intelligent design theory is, what hypotheses it is testing, what research it plans to conduct.
In fact, the witnesses were highly indignant -- and evasive -- when Science Coalition attorney Pedro Irigonegaray asked them during cross-examination to simply state a hypothesis about the age of the earth or where humans might have come from if they did not evolve from early hominid ancestors.
If there was ever any doubt that intelligent design is not science, it was completely dispelled by the categorical refusal of those "theorists" to state a hypothesis that could be tested by scientific investigation.
