In the late nineteenth century, Charles Darwin's discoveries about evolution were described as a theory. That may have been accurate at the time, but since then many scientists have argued that they constitute fact. The difference is in part due to subsequent discoveries in the fields of biology and genetics. The discovery of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick and the recent elucidation of genomes (including human) have revealed the map and sequence by which life conveys its essential instructions.

This road map that dictates how life is to develop and evolve does not require God's intervention and guidance at every step. But it does not argue--nor has it ever--against the existence of a grand creator.

The theory of intelligent design is superfluous: It is not a defense of God and religion but rather a veiled attempt to find wiggle room in the term "theory" in order to justify the most literal and dangerous reading of the Bible--that beings did not automatically evolve one from the other based on survival of the fittest and encrypted genetic instructions. Intelligent design is not science but ideology. There may be a religious concept that God must be present to guide every step of life, but such a notion has no place in a science class.

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