Why do so many americans believe in Intelligent Design?

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aprilfloyd

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As Bill Nye indicates - ID belief is such an American phenomenon.

I agree with Bill, why is it being taught to kids and where are the future engineers and scientists going to come from.

youtube.com/watch?v=gHbYJfwFgOU

Or as Lawrence Krauss puts it, is this child abuse to validate such ignorance.

Why is this state of affairs so peculiar to America

youtube.com/watch?v=UTedvV6oZjo
 
So what is the issue. I am pretty scientifically minded, yet I believe in Intelligent Design. It is not synonymous with Creationism by the way, which I emphatically do not believe in.

Intelligent design simply means that God was and is at work in the creation of, well, creation. All of it. It is not an accident. Evolution is just one of the ways that design was player out; there are other ways.
 
Making the stereotype that many Americans believe in Intelligent Design is really irrelevant to the concept itself. I mean, to ask “why do so many Americans believe in Intelligent Design” is like asking “why do the Swiss have so many guns?” It really has nothing to do with the guns.

By making this thread, are you challenging Intelligent Design or the fact that a lot of Americans believe in it?

On a different note, I contend there is massive evidence of Intelligent Design. The universe is so well ordered, there are so many interesting patterns and coincidences, and it is so fine-tuned that it seems impossible that there could NOT be a Designer.
 
I do not understand why people have such issue with Intelligent Design. 🤷 It’s a scientific theory put forth by scientists using science.

Now, one might argue that there are flaws in their science or in the conclusions they draw. One might even think that ID proponents are hack scientists. There is room for criticism. I think the scientific community most definitely needs to have those conversations. But I’m thankful that proponents of ID are there to bring these issues up so that the conversations actually take place. If not for them, it would be too easy for the majority to get comfortable. When scientists get too comfortable, they make mistakes. 😉

If you lump together ID with Young Earth Creationism, then – yes – I can see having an issue with it. But they are not the same thing.
 
aprilfloyd said:
As Bill Nye indicates - ID belief is such an American phenomenon.

I agree with Bill, why is it being taught to kids and where are the future engineers and scientists going to come from.

youtube.com/watch?v=gHbYJfwFgOU

Or as Lawrence Krauss puts it, is this child abuse to validate such ignorance.

Why is this state of affairs so peculiar to America

youtube.com/watch?v=UTedvV6oZjo
Click to expand...
Forbidden topic. Read the rules. I would love to answer but it isn’t allowed. Linus
 
Linusthe2nd said:
Forbidden topic. Read the rules. I would love to answer but it isn’t allowed. Linus
Click to expand...
Thanks for pointing that out. 😊 I thought I remembered evolution being banned, but I didn’t recall ID being part of that.
 
It’s not a ‘beef’ as such.

But I am interested in why it is so popular in America as opposed to other countries and if there is a reason(s) for this.

As Nye indicates, for example, for America to maintain a lead or to at least stay at the front in terms of science and technology, it needs science graduates of the future. To me that is a good viewpoint and as he says ‘please don’t teach this to children’. He is also worried that teaching pseudo science is not good for America

Krauss is a bit more blunt and says it is a form of ‘child abuse’. I go to to say why is this so popular in the states, compared to other scientific countries.
 
Science is not antithetical to religion - actually Pope John Paul ll said that pretty emphatically. For me, studying science has been a (WooHoo) spiritual moment from time to time. It does not diminish curiosity, searching etc. It may add to ethical experimentation, and ask the question, “Just because we can, should we:”
 
aprilfloyd said:
As Bill Nye indicates - ID belief is such an American phenomenon.

I agree with Bill, why is it being taught to kids and where are the future engineers and scientists going to come from.

youtube.com/watch?v=gHbYJfwFgOU

Or as Lawrence Krauss puts it, is this child abuse to validate such ignorance.

Why is this state of affairs so peculiar to America

youtube.com/watch?v=UTedvV6oZjo
Click to expand...
It Isn’t very common in UK as far as I know, but British scientists are sufficiently concerned by creationism across the pond and creationism (and may be ID) creeping into British schools via our new ‘academy system’, that they are having a big science education push in the media. Personally, I don’t see much difference in creationism and ID. I thought Catholicism coped OK with the real science…is that changing?
Maybe the complications and uncertainties of modern life have driven people to seek simple certainties for their lives, and a literal belief in the bible can provide that; so much so that they will/need to say black is White. The bible, and life, is more complex than that! .It’s all so much more wonderful the more we find out…my Catholic father was a botanist who taught me real science starting with the fossils and rocks in our local hills. I believe it IS child abuse to deny children access to proper science. It’s wonderful - not magic!!
 
I’ve had the privilege to run into some online who were faithful Catholics graduating in the sciences. Why does it always have to contrdict? It does not. For goodness sakes I even read Stephen Hawking is in a pontifical group that advices the Pope in science.( Source Wikipedia)
It’s harder for me to believe we ‘came from nothing’ which is Spontanious Generation.

Pontifical Academy of Sciences:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontifical_Academy_of_Sciences#section_4
 
I am enjoying the posts but would love to know why Americans believe in ID or creationism
 
Walcot said:
It Isn’t very common in UK as far as I know, but British scientists are sufficiently concerned by creationism across the pond and creationism (and may be ID) creeping into British schools via our new ‘academy system’, that they are having a big science education push in the media. Personally, I don’t see much difference in creationism and ID. I thought Catholicism coped OK with the real science…is that changing?
Maybe the complications and uncertainties of modern life have driven people to seek simple certainties for their lives, and a literal belief in the bible can provide that; so much so that they will/need to say black is White. The bible, and life, is more complex than that! .It’s all so much more wonderful the more we find out…my Catholic father was a botanist who taught me real science starting with the fossils and rocks in our local hills. I believe it IS child abuse to deny children access to proper science. It’s wonderful - not magic!!
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Do not conflate religion with anti-science, or science with anti-religion.

There is nothing in either that precludes the other, as my family of scientists, doctors, civil engineers and teachers could tell you. 🙂

Personally I am, like the Catholic church, enthusiastic to see humanity discover more about our world using the tools at our disposal - physical sciences being some of the exciting ones. One of the things that fascinates me at the moment is how our science gives us tantalising hints about the what the nature of God would have to encompass, how our universe was created etc.

There is nothing to intelligent design that need preclude any scientific explanation.

God created it all. This does not preclude wanting to know every fact we can ethically uncover about it!
 
Actually (name removed by moderator), I will have to respectfully disagree with you. “Thieistic evolution” is absolutly incompatible with the orthodox catholic christian faith. Evolution requires death inorder to operate. If Adam and Eve were the product of evolution, then that means that death came before the fall of man. If death came before the fall of man, then it is not the wage of sin as the scriptures state, but instead death would be part of God’s good creation. If death is good, then why do we need a savior who conquers death?
 
aprilfloyd said:
As Bill Nye indicates - ID belief is such an American phenomenon.

I agree with Bill, why is it being taught to kids and where are the future engineers and scientists going to come from.

youtube.com/watch?v=gHbYJfwFgOU

Or as Lawrence Krauss puts it, is this child abuse to validate such ignorance.

Why is this state of affairs so peculiar to America

youtube.com/watch?v=UTedvV6oZjo
Click to expand...
I don’t think intelligent design should be taught in science classes in public schools or private schools, or called a scientific explanation of the creation of the universe. It would be more appropriately taught in a class on religion, the history of religion, or philosophy. Opponents of intelligent design have indicated that it came into prominence because creationism was too negatively criticized and ID was a more subtle way of introducing G-d to students. The name itself also avoids the more contentious term “theistic evolution,” which both sides of the issue may have problems with. Besides, the term “intelligent design” sounds so…intelligent. Personally, I believe in theistic evolution, but I still would not want it taught as a scientific theory, because it is not.
 
VDMA said:
Actually (name removed by moderator), I will have to respectfully disagree with you. “Thieistic evolution” is absolutly incompatible with the orthodox catholic christian faith. Evolution requires death inorder to operate. If Adam and Eve were the product of evolution, then that means that death came before the fall of man. If death came before the fall of man, then it is not the wage of sin as the scriptures state, but instead death would be part of God’s good creation. If death is good, then why do we need a savior who conquers death?
Click to expand...
We should sharply desist the evolution talk so that we do not get banned. I will say that such limitations only exist in our own tiny minds and obviously God is not bound by them in that case any more than when some twirp thinks they are clever by saying “If God is omnipotent…can God make something God cannot destroy?” - I am not sure we should do that.

We are talking about a being who can, by implication of we have been told, hold all possible states of all possible particles and energy in all possible universes at every possible moment all at once, in one mental context* to know it all at once, He is not limited by how we see the world or logic, clearly.

*For want of a better phrase!
 
Who can know why people believe what they do? The best answer is simply because they believe it is true. The more interesting question, to me, is why do so many allegedly rational and scientific people get so offended that people have a different opinion than them over something that is historical. Whatever one believes happened millions of years ago is really just speculation. I’ve lived long enough to see scientific facts, particularly medical facts, be completely reversed. If they can’t even get it right with stuff we can actually observe happening I’m not sure why having a different opinion about something we can not observe is a problem. Actually I do know. People who don’t believe in God often find it very important that you don’t as well. But as far as science goes if you don’t believe in gravity that matters. If you believe in Intelligent Design it really doesn’t matter.

As for why this might be somewhat unique to the US I would speculate that the US is more religious and the US has a high rate of home schooling. The government indoctrination centers are not known for teaching Intelligent Design. They teach a different religious position.
 
VDMA said:
Actually (name removed by moderator), I will have to respectfully disagree with you. “Thieistic evolution” is absolutly incompatible with the orthodox catholic christian faith. Evolution requires death inorder to operate. If Adam and Eve were the product of evolution, then that means that death came before the fall of man. If death came before the fall of man, then it is not the wage of sin as the scriptures state, but instead death would be part of God’s good creation. If death is good, then why do we need a savior who conquers death?
Click to expand...
If physical death was not known in the world before Adam and Eve, then the notice that they would die if they ate the fruit would be a meaningless warning. So they must have known of death of the animals before the fall of man. And since they were the first men of the world, the death that would be imposed was death of men, not of beasts. So evolution producing the first people, no problem. Special creation, no problem. Big bang, no problem. ID supports: big bang, evolution, biology, AND physics.
 
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