Chapter 13
So ID promoters freely admit that a population can undergo genetic changes. They even admit that small amounts of evolution do take place, the kind that results in small modifications to existing organisms. Remember, they call this “microevolution.” So, for instance, they say that you might get dogs of different sizes, or horses of different colors, but you will not see dogs turning into a new species.
What they ignore is that if there are enough changes to a population of dogs, or any other organism, over time, then eventually that population will be considered a new species. If the new, genetically changed group of dogs could not interbreed with the dogs of the original population, then it would be considered a new species. That’s the biological definition.
The key words in the preceding paragraph are the words “over time.” For a vertebrate population to show these levels of changes, many generations over thousands of years would have to be involved. Since this is outside the span of a human lifetime, no single human scientist can chart the complete progress of a living vertebrate population as it becomes a new species, or even several new species.
However, new microorganisms evolve into being on a regular basis. For instance, the AIDS virus (HIV), other viruses, and bacteria, have short enough generations that human beings actually can observe the evolution of new organisms.
So what does ID do when confronted with the fact that microorganisms evolve into new species all the time, and that this is well documented by science? They declare that this evolution is “microevolution,” and that means that, according to them, it doesn’t count.
Likewise, when moths become a different color after the trees in their environment change color, ID promoters tell us that this doesn’t count as real evolution but only as microevolution as well.
So, in other words, if a change can be observed and measured, then ID promoters insist that it isn’t real evolution.
This proves that ID is religion, and not science.
Why? Because science is about measuring and testing. To be science, an idea must be measurable and testable. That is, you have to be able to make a prediction about the natural world, and be able to test that prediction. Without this testing against reality, an idea may be philosophy or religion, but it isn’t science.
So by cleverly claiming that any change that can be measured doesn’t count, ID promoters have made ID untestable.
By ID promoters’ own definition, ID cannot be tested, since any experiment we could do to either prove it or disprove it would automatically be classified by ID promoters as being microevolutionary in nature.
This means that ID’s promoters are stuck with an idea that cannot be tested scientifically.
ID proponent Michael Behe concedes, “You can’t prove intelligent design by experiment.”47
That means that ID is not science. ID’s own promoters have defined it as being outside the realm of science.
Therefore, accepting ID requires, and must be taken on, a leap of faith. This means that ID can’t be taught in science classrooms, no matter what its promoters say.
Now let’s talk about some animals that ID proponents don’t want you to know about.
47. Quoted in Claudia Wallis, “The Evolution Wars,” Time, August 7, 2005, 32.