The Meat of the Matter

Questions

On Monday, President Bush said that schools should teach intelligent design alongside evolution when teaching students about the creation of life. Bush went on to say, "I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought. You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes." (Ed. How big of him. Try wearing a Kerry campaign button to one of his speeches.) Fox News defines the "Intelligent Design" theory as follows: "The theory of intelligent design says life on earth is too complex to have developed through evolution, implying that a higher power must have had a hand in creation." So now Bush is stumping for this "scientism" of Intelligent Design as a viable alternative to the fact of evolution. Here are my questions: 1. Why does the theory of evolution preclude the possibility of an intelligent designer? 2. Given the facts that: a) Almost none of the species today existed 500,000 years ago, and b) Almost none of the species that existed 500,000 years ago exist today c) All the new species are remarkably similar on a genetic level to a species that existed in the past. Is the intelligent designer creating new, slightly altered species all the time, while allowing his earlier creations to die off? Why is this intelligent? What would be his purpose for this? It doesn't really matter, because we will never know. And what we are left with is called ... e-vo-lu-tion. (Insert the sound of arrogant, condescending laughter.)