Intelligent design is the claim that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, modified to avoid specifying the nature or identity of the designer. Its primary proponents, all of whom are associated with the Discovery Institute, believe the designer to be God. Intelligent design's advocates claim it is a scientific theory, and seek to fundamentally redefine science to accept supernatural explanations. The unequivocal consensus in the scientific community is that intelligent design is not science. "Intelligent design" originated in response to a 1987 United States Supreme Court ruling involving separation of church and state. The intelligent design movement culminated in the 2005 case Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District in which U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III ruled that intelligent design is not science, that it "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents", and concluded that the school district's promotion of it therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1492: Christopher Columbus made landfall in the Caribbean, believing he had reached East Asia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus)

1915: A German firing squad executed British nurse Edith Cavell for helping Allied soldiers to escape occupied Belgium. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell)

1928: An iron lung medical ventilator, designed by Philip Drinker and colleagues at Children's Hospital, Boston, was used for the first time in the treatment of polio victims. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/iron_lung)

1984: The Provisional Irish Republican Army failed in its attempt to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and most of her cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_hotel_bombing)

2002: A series of bombs exploded in Bali, Indonesia, killing 202 people and injuring a further 209. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Bali_bombings)

_____________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:

jaded: Worn out, wearied, or lacking enthusiasm; exhausted. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jaded)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

Everything abstract is ultimately part of the concrete. Everything inanimate finally serves the living. That is why every activity dealing in abstraction stands in ultimate service to a living whole. -- Edith Stein (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edith_Stein)