UNINTELLIGENT, BY DESIGN

Opponents of evolution keep kicking, even after the licking they took in Dover, Penn. Despite the fact that a federal judge ruled "intelligent design" is nothing more than reheated creationism, IDers still insist they be taken seriously by the scientific community.

This week, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Missouri-Columbia became the latest whiner to his cause. John Marshall complained about ID being kicked "off the playing field of science." The Columbia Tribune quotes Marshall:

"[Intelligent Design is] as much science as Darwinian evolution is science. And as a theory, I believe that intelligent design fits the evidence of biology better than Darwinian evolution."

About 100 people attended the forum. Unfortunately for Marshall, many were scientists trained in chemistry and biology. Frank Schmidt, a biochem professor, decided to dispense with pussyfooting. He asked Marshall why "intelligent design" should be considered science when it doesn't even offer a single testable prediction.

The Tribune reported that "Marshall would not directly answer the question."

He couldn't, of course. There is no science in "intelligent design." Instead of knowledge it relies on ignorance. If something in the natural world is too difficult to immediately understand, the ID answer is supernatural: "God did it."

No wonder Schmidt said Marshall's presentation "really hacks me off." It should hack off anyone who uses a brain to think.