ID: VATICAN OFFICIAL SAYS INTELLIGENT DESIGN ...

... isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms.

The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that "intelligent design" isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms, the latest high-ranking Roman Catholic official to enter the evolution debate in the United States.

There is a rule of thumb in plotting data: one citation does a curve not make; nor do two! The simple fact that a "Catholic" official has made a statement of his opinion doesn't mean he speaks for the Catholic church, let alone its parishioners. Nor does his association with an agency of the Vatican somehow make him above errors in reasoning.

The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was "wrong" and was akin to mixing apples with oranges.

"Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be," the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. "If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science."

I don't claim to be a genius or anything near; however, if the behavioral sciences are science, then there is nothing, in my opinion, wrong with calling the controlled observations of ID proponents science.

Proponents of intelligent design are seeking to get public schools in the United States to teach it as part of the science curriculum. Critics say intelligent design is merely creationism — a literal reading of the Bible's story of creation — camouflaged in scientific language, and they say it does not belong in science curriculum.

It's never long before a non-theologian reveals his theology, and Coyne does not disappoint ...

"If they respect the results of modern science, and indeed the best of modern biblical research, religious believers must move away from the notion of a dictator God or a designer God, a Newtonian God who made the universe as a watch that ticks along regularly."

Rather, he argued, God should be seen more as an encouraging parent.

Ah, 'xcuse me but how about God's sovereignty, transcendence, and the doctrine of completed revelation (both general and special)? And just whose "biblical research" is best in your sight sir? Would you care to cite some of your sources?

"God in his infinite freedom continuously creates a world that reflects that freedom at all levels of the evolutionary process to greater and greater complexity," he wrote. "He is not continually intervening, but rather allows, participates, loves."

'Xcuse me again, did you just say "continuously creates" and "not continuously intervening" in the same double-talk? And are you saying that the Catholic church no longer holds to an orthodox position concerning God resting from His work on the seventh day?

Last week, Pope Benedict XVI waded indirectly into the evolution debate by saying the universe was made by an "intelligent project" and criticizing those who in the name of science say its creation was without direction or order.

Hhmm! I think the guy who uses Roman numerals in his title trumps the guy with the telescope!

Astronomy; Catholic; Church; Creation; Evolution; ID; Intelligent design ;Science