Emperical science? Do you operation science? Evolution is "origin science." Origin science studies past singularities, rather than present normalities, and looks at how things began, not how they work. This is different from operation science which deals with the way things normally operate. Origin science studies things that only happened once and, by their nature, don't happen again.
Evolution happens every time you take an antibiotic. It is an important tool of Biology, and attacking it was a stupid move for IDers to do. Simply because they were wrong. They've wasted their time, and wasted conservative political capital for no apparent good.