Losing My Marbles

I know a lot of my posts lately have had (anti-)religious tones, so I'm going to make a conscious effort to break away from that. Today, I focus on evolution. I know what you're thinking. Many people see evolution as an anti-religious idea. But it really isn't, and I won't portray it as such (for religious people interested in evolution, I recommend Finding Darwin's God by Kenneth Miller, which discusses the resolution between evolution and religion). I'll leave a full discussion of evolution to the experts (see links below), but I want to highlight one issue in the evolution/intelligent design "debate" that often gets overlooked.

There is no evidence for intelligent design. Wait, let me restate that, with emphasis. There is no evidence for intelligent design. Let me elaborate exactly what I mean. The tactics of many proponents of intelligent design involve disproving the Darwinian theory of evolution. The idea is that if evolution is wrong, intelligent design is correct. But this is a false dichotomy. Is it not possible that both are wrong? Imagine a bag with a marble in it. Side A believes that the marble is blue, and Side B argues that the marble is red. Side B has come up with encyclopedias of evidence that the marble is red. Meanwhile, Side A has spent it's time trying to definitively prove that the marble cannot be red. But this tactic will never prove the marble is blue. It can still be yellow, green, etc. Side B, in arguing FOR red, is also arguing AGAINST yellow and green. Side A has no evidence FOR blue (take your time and think about this). This is how the evo/ID debate plays out. There has never been evidence put forth FOR intelligent design (blue), or AGAINST the null hypothesis (yellow or green). On the other hand, all the evidence used by evolutionary biologists is FOR evolution (red), and AGAINST the null hypothesis (yellow, green, and blue). Even if Darwinian evolution is definitively disproven, that does not, in turn, prove ID.

Evolution 101 A review of evolutionary theory and evidence intended for laypeople (podcast)
Expelled Exposed A response to Ben Stein's new movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Pharyngula A science blog by evolutionary biologist PZ Myers