Intelligent Design

So this Intelligent Design Theory is in the papers today - if by 'today' you mean 'yesterday'. For some reason it's gained itself a lot of credibility without, as far as I konw, a scintilla of evidence to support it. As near as I can work out, the theo0ry goes like this:

There are life forms on this planet that are far too complex to have evolved by chance without some sort of overseeing control from Up Above (or Out There, depending on your perspective.)

Seems like a pretty flimsy argument to me. It has gained a lot of support from Christian groups. I don't know why; if the theory were correct, it debunks the whole biblical 'God created the world in six days' story as completely as does the theory of evolution. I mean, if the Bible is the word of God, you would think He would do enough proof-reading to at least get the main facts right. He is omnipotent after all, surely He could have come up with a way of explaining a complex idea to a group of simple people that was accurate.

In this respect, Christian support for intelligent design is a little bit like all these calls for the Church (of whatever denomination) to adapt its teachings and practises to appeal more to modern/young people; the people doing the calling are more interested in power and being on the winning team than they are with the truth. If a piece of writing was God's word a thousand years ago, then it's God's word today. If God wanted people to behave in a certain way a thousand years ago, then He wants them to behave in a certain way today. God is eternal.

This theory seems to me to be a bit like early attempts to explain how the universe worked. Like Aristotle's ethers and all those other now debunked ideas, it is more to do with what the proposer and followers want to believe and are capable of understanding than it is to do with any actual proof. But 'proof belies faith' I hear you say. 'Circular logic.' I reply. You want me to have faith in an idea without proof because there is no proof. Doesn't make sense to me.

For all I know, there is an Intelligent Designer; I would say to all those people who make hard and fast statements on the subject - on both sides of the debate - until you're dead, you don't know and maybe not even then. Which is of course only a step away from the unscrupulous tact a lot of evangelists use - "How can you be sure there isn't a God? Ifffen you wrong you gonna burn in Hell for ever, bo', but iffen I'm wrong, then all that happens is you wasted your Sunday mornings." Trouble is, the coppers tell you to never pay a blackmailer.