R0bert ID has nothing to do with science. Evolution is the nature of biological nature; science is the investigation of nature. ID is anti-nature, supernatural, human mythology.
ID requires a magical intelligence.

The cult of ID comes directly from the Discovery Institute via the Moonies and Islamists with much is attributed to Erik Von Daniken’s ID x UFO theory. The purpose of ID is clear, to brainwash young converts into becoming superstitious and to discredit science. ID is nothing other than a new age pop occult trend. The logic of ID runs on the premise that people are too stupid to understand anything remotely complicated and so will grasp onto the simplest explanation offered. Ironically ID is far more complicated than evolution because it claims that evolution is a product of magical interference from god or elite geneticists flying around in flying saucers. The fundamental foundation is absent. There are no aliens that ID myth depends to base the so called theory, no astronaut or god. There is no evidence of the occult magic a god would require to do such a task and no technology a Martian requires.

The ancient Greeks worked out the world is a sphere and this was rejected by Christians as a round world because a flat earth is simple and a round one remotely complicated. For this Darwin suffers the same persecution as Galileo for the same reason.

ID will not last the century as it is no more than a pop occult trend like crystal healing and chain mail. It requires the same level of faith in absence of fact.
Teaching children ID is irresponsible and if it is believed by them it becomes child abuse.

Evolution is here to stay along with Chemistry and Physics.

West, ID is definately not science, I think I stated that. In the school system RE is about the only place for it,

"Teaching children ID is irresponsible and if it is believed by them it becomes child abuse." - I'm more of the view that we need to teach them about some of this stuff but in context. Let them see how ID fits in with the pattern of attempts by some christians to find some way to keep genesis as the literal word of god.

I tend more to the view that the risk is not educating kids about the history and context of the things which they will probably be exposed to at some point anyway.

RE should not be an opportunity for recruiting by various belief groups but rather an honest coverage of the core claims of major belief groups placed into a real world context. Does what they say match what they do? Have key understandings of the revealed word of god changed over time as society has changed and if so what are the implications for the current absolutes? How do non thiestic systems of belief compare?

Teach the kids the parts which can be proven and let them form their own opinions.

R0bert

Well, this woud make an interesting school excursion!

Here’s some highlights form the article, and it’s fun to browse the museum’s website.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1946370,00.html

“The world's first Creationist museum - dedicated to the idea that the creation of the world, as told in Genesis, is factually correct - will soon open...

“The Creation Museum - motto: "Prepare to Believe!" - will be the first institution in the world whose contents, with the exception of a few turtles swimming in an artificial pond, are entirely fake. It is dedicated to the proposition that the account of the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis is completely correct, and its mission is to convince visitors through a mixture of animatronic models, tableaux and a strangely Disneyfied version of the Bible story.

“…Don't think for a minute that this is some sort of crazy little hole-in-the-corner project. The museum is costing $25m (£13m) and all but $3m has already been raised from private donations.

“…And, as we know, up to 50 million of them (creationalists in US population) do believe that the Bible's account of Creation is literally true.
($22million raised from 50 million believers? Not bad!)

“"We want to try to convince people using observational science," he says. "It's done very gently but forthrightly. We give both sides, which is more than the Science Museum in London does."

“Nothing contradicts the Bible's account of the origins."

“the museum's website, AnswersInGenesis.org. They are expecting 300,000 visitors a year. "You've not seen anything yet," he says with a smile."

Uhmmm how does one tell the difference between 'evolutionist' and 'creationist'?

50 million Americans believe this utter twaddle? Scary indeed.

That 'Answers in Genesis' website would be hilarious if it wasn't meant to be serious.

How many of them believe in a Flat Earth too? Or support their government's disastrous adventure in Iraq...

I bet they're highly correlated.

R0bert I agree with you up to a point because I don’t think there is a hierarchy of religious beliefs and so Christianity should not necessarily be taught except a broad outline but along side other relevant religions in a historical context.

ID has the potential to destroy Christianity. As Christianity is in the process of attaching its fortunes to ID. When ID sinks Christianity will sink with it. ID is Christianities Titanic. ID is unsustainable because there are too many ice bergs of truth. Despite Christian (and Islamist) attacks on science if ID is not supported by cold hard science it will not survive and will go down with the other new age beliefs.

Celivia it appears obvious the Creation Museum is like something out of ‘Deliverance’. Still good to know so the area can be avoided.

CJ you may have hit upon something there. Perhaps it was the flat earth mentality that created the war in Iraq. Until Iraq was news because of the Kuwait invasion Iraq was on the edge of the world in the nether regions. For most Americans the map ended at Israel and Palestine and western Iran. Beyond were the mystical lands of monsters and Orientals, Cyclops and fire breathing dragons where entire armies of the Raj and Romans disappeared. The discourse concerning Afghanistan and Taliban is still that of an unconquerable mythical land at the ends of the world. Im sure the Chinese have no such mythical regard and capable of domesticating the territory within weeks of pouring over the Pamirs.

Australia also has this flat earth view. We tend to look toward the Pacific. The Indian Ocean Basin is that out of the way place where Dutch pirates suffered the Batavia, Dampier took refuge , the spice islands of the East Indies, Ceylon and Zanzibar lay. The exotic pirate refuge of Madagascar, deep dark Africa and the much coverted India. The true edge of the world the southern ocean where Nuyts discovered Lillyput, stares down from a lonely windswept coast toward and beyond the South Pole into outer space.

I really don’t think I am getting this West; Evolutionary Theory by Charles Darwin has on a number of Occasion been consigned to the Theory bin, even a few notable Evolutionary Apologists who would not sign off on corrupting their disciplines found the exact same answers.
To actually believe in the chance of living organisms as complex as living creatures, were a result of Pond scum, or E T mixing his genes; well , it works in Science fiction movies but , not the real world.
The Flat Earth west; well, even if you go back and read the Book of Enoch, he refers to the shape of the Earth and names it, on his assent. Note; that is well before credible Astronomers arrived on to the scene. It would also bee poignant to note how similar this event sounded to Mohammad’s little story; these days it would be called “Plagiarism”, not just a coincidence.

Operational Science West has proven the complete opposite of what you assert; {‘Unless you mean Agnosticism}; It has proven all the Pan Utopian Ideals and theories false, It in part has proven that there is such a thing as a creator, How you go about explaining it is some what a different matter; primarily because we do not have all the answers; But we do know what it is not.
Perhaps from a theosophical perspective the Flat Earth you mention is of that dimension consigned to the Nephilim?

I better desist, everyone is going to sleep.