It’s the club of those scientists, journalists and other “thinkers” who feel entitled to condemn and mock intelligent design without having first bothered to do even a little homework on their own and learn what ID actually says. The revered “Doonesbury” cartoonist comes out today with a strip where fictional reporter Rick Redfern asks real-life Texas governor Rick Perry, “You’ve dismissed evolution as ‘Just a theory that’s out there.'”
Perry replies: “Yes, I believe in intelligent design.”
Redfern: “But that’s just creation renamed to get into the classroom. Evolution is the foundation of all life sciences. Without it, whole fields — from biology to genetics to ecology — can’t exist.”
The strip goes on from there and doesn’t get any funnier than that. It reminds us of how grateful we are for every honest and informed critic of ID who, no matter how harsh he may be in his dismissal, has at least taken the trouble of first getting minimally acquainted with ID and then straightforwardly describes the idea before attacking it. To equate intelligent design with creationism is to reveal, without shame, that you’re too lazy to invest that modest effort — either that, or you’re too dishonest.