Evolution ?

It would appear that worldwide society in generally becoming more religious and less secular/science-orientated in it's outlook. I'm sure this is due to a certain extent to the way the media highlights certain issues and events - such as the teaching of ID (intelligent design) in some US schools - but nevertheless it is worrying.

ID basically says Life, the Universe and everything shows so much purpose, order and complexity that it must have been designed (more detail here).

Thankfully the international scientific community has something to say about this. The BBC has this story - Scientists urge evolution lessons - which says, 'A statement signed by 67 national science academies says evidence on the origins of life is being "concealed, denied, or confused" in some classes'.

The paper says that there are certain evidence based facts that have never been contradicted by any experiements or observations (such as the age of the planet). It then goes on to point out the way in which science examines evidence and proposes hypotheses to be tested from which theories are developed. It also acknowledges that scientist are always willing to re-examine theories in light of new evidence - 'Science is open ended, and subject to correction and expansion as new theoretical and empirical understanding emerges'.

(The full report can be found here.)

Evolution should be taught in science classes. It should be debated, challenged, tested and examined as any theory in a science lesson should be. That is the nature of science. ID would have to earn it's place in the science lesson like any other new theory and, as yet, no papers on ID have been submitted to a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

In my opinion, the fact that this spinning ball of rock slowly developed the right conditions for life to emerge; that life survived mega quakes, asteroid strikes, extremes of weather conditions and tectonic upheaval; that life evolved in such diverse and wonderful ways is amazing. To put all that down to a designer seems a bit of a cop out.

I am in awe of the natural world because of it's origins. Look at a flower - isn't it more amazing that it evolved to be so beautiful?