"Consider this - could you even potentially imagine a fictional world that ID couldn't describe? It's easy to imagine a fictional world that evolution can't describe."
You can describe an infinite number of diverse fictional worlds that could all comply with evolution.
It is possible to describe a world in which creatures clearly did not evolve if you were to know enough about that world. You can never know enough to be sure that a fictional world was not designed.
Actually it's pretty much impossible to immagine a world that was not created, because the world had to start somewhere. All our natural laws tell us you don't get something from nothing.
What's your scientific theory on the origin of the universe?
What would you suggest we teach in schools about the origin of the universe.
Let me just say that the big bang theory doesn't really seem to cover the origin of the universe, merely what happened after it's existence began.
"What you can't do, though, is ask biology teachers to talk about deep spiritual and philosophical concepts in class - they simply aren't qualified on that front; all they can describe is the biology."
I agree and disagree. :)
It's actually pretty hard to teach history without talking about deep spiritual and philosophical concepts, becuase such beliefs have shaped history.
We should not indoctrinate students in history classes or in science classes. I think that ID should be mentioned as a theory that is believed by some, but cannot be proven or disproven. The theory of evolution should also be taught and a reasonable sampling of the evidence that supports it should be presented.
Most important we should teach students how to study the evidence and see where it leads them, rather than trying to prove theories.
Theories are good at showing us where to look for evidence, but the evidence itself is what we learn from, not the theories. Theories are discardable as things we learn change the way we look at the world.
I agree 100%. Where did the matter/energy in the universe originally come from? No one has a good scientific answer to it. I have no idea what happened before the Big Bang - I only have some awareness of what its observable effects are. This is about all we can really say.
You can describe an infinite number of diverse fictional worlds that could all comply with evolution.
Yes, but that infinite number is still a subset of all fictional worlds imaginable. A silly example - I could imagine a universe, identical to ours, but in which Precambrian strata was littered with the fossilized bones of dogs and cats. Progressive evolution obviously doesn't work as a model in that hypothetical universe. Intelligent design could still work to describe that universe, though, or any imaginable universe.
We should not indoctrinate students in history classes or in science classes. I think that ID should be mentioned as a theory that is believed by some, but cannot be proven or disproven. The theory of evolution should also be taught and a reasonable sampling of the evidence that supports it should be presented.
Sounds reasonable - though it should be explained why ID doesn't meet the criteria of a scientific theory. I don't mean this in a way that diminishes the significance of a Creator, but only that it states that it is outside science.
Most important we should teach students how to study the evidence and see where it leads them, rather than trying to prove theories.
Of course - but it also has to be understood why scientists acknowledge certain theories over others - you can't expect every student to reinvent every known theory from scratch just given raw evidence. (It's taken humanity millenia to do that!) Like I said though, everyone always should be free to draw their own conclusions in the end.