[Wikipedia] October 12: Intelligent design

[Faraaz Damji]

   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)