Anybody who knows me knows that I find the whole concept of so-called “intelligent design” quite disturbing. The fact that public school systems in Kansas and South Carolina are considering tainting science with such misguided and foolhardy “educational theory,” and that President Bush is very open in his support, makes me feel sad for the U.S.

Don’t get me wrong: there is a place for teaching ID. That place is in church or in a private school. Heck – teach it to your kids at home, if you’re so inclined. Just don’t taint the public school curriculum with a theory that is essentially a warped endorsement of a religious belief system that is far from universally accepted.

But don’t over 100 years of scientific research, thousands of extremely open-minded and truly intelligent scholars, millions of years’ worth of fossil evidence, and hundreds of millions of free-thinking inhabitants of this earth (both living and dead) by saying that ID belongs in the same league as evolutionary science. Even though, tehchnically speaking, evolution is still theory, there is enough non-trivial, substantive evidence to present it as fact.

Daniel Dennett, professor of philosophy at Tufts University, wrote an extremely well-reasoned critique of the movement toward introducing ID into public school systems. His piece places the burden of proof on the promoters of ID: quit whining about being “attacked” by scientists and show us the proof of your theory. And from everything I’ve been able to learn about ID, its supporters have yet to lay out a convincing argument.

Let’s put it this way: when Tony Blankley (conservative, editor of the Washington Times and regular on the “McLaughlin Group“) equates ID with the systematic promotion of religion in schools, and argues that ID does not belong in the public school system, there’s not much footing to use. After all, there’s got to be a good reason for Tony to break ranks with BushCo.

So keep ID out of the public schools and let the reality-based world breathe again.

(All of this talk about ID really makes want to believe in the flying spaghetti monster.)