Out of Control

This whole intelligent design vs. darwinism vs. creationism vs. evolution, yada, yada, yada is way out of control. The level of vitriol aimed toward the intelligent design / creationism perspective has really escalated in recently and the overall level of debate has moved well beyond honest dialog to nastiness. There was a recent news piece by ABC Nightline about some creationists giving home schoolers a tour of a museum and it absolutely embarrassed them. And the blogosphere is just shredding creationists. It reminds of the Apple v. PC debates of years ago. Apparently there is a movie coming out this month about this very issue with Ben Stein in it: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. According to the movie trailer, from the view of many ID scholars there no longer is a place for dialog and scientific discovery. The conversation, if you could call it that, has moved right past dialog toward character assassination and defamation. Culturally this is somewhat fascinating in that one of the defining characteristics of our postmodern world is tolerance and pluralism. Yet there is no place for the perspective of creationists or people of the intelligent design perspective. Certainly, I understand it. Many of the creation people have traditionally also been evangelicals and arrogant and annoying and a host of other not so positive adjectives as well. But that really isn't everyone in the ID camp. There are thoughtful ID scholars out there beyond wacky evangelicals. Here's the Expelled trailer: