John Derbyshire doesn't know what he's writing about where ID is concerned

John Derbyshire- like most critics of Intelligent Design- doesn't know what Intelligent Design is.

No, it's not the notion that the world, or life, or anything else "came into existence as the result of a series of supernatural events." It's simply the idea that evidence can be found in the structure of creation of an intelligence at work. And yes, in practice that does mean an Intelligence, upper case "i."

But it speaks volumes that so few- if any- critics of ID can accurately describe it. It's not Creationism, whether in disguise or otherwise. It's completely compatible with evolution- though admittedly not with classical Darwinian evolution, which insists dogmatically- upon the basis of exactly the kind of argument ID makes in support of the opposite point- that evolution is totally random, and that the universe is the result of a series of accidents and coincidences.

It behooves at least conservative colunmnists to become a bit more accurately acquainted with their subject matter than Derbyshire apparently has on Intelligent Design.

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