"To hear some conservatives talk, there is no room for proponents of intelligent design (ID) in the 'big tent.' In recent months commentators such as John Derbyshire in National Review and George Will and Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post have inveighed against ID. Warning that 'the conservative coalition' is coming unglued, Will all but called on 'the storm-tossed and rudderless Republican Party' to repudiate the ID movement.

Conservatives who hope to be on the winning side, however, may want to put their money on ID, even if they harbor a few reservations at present. Here's why. For starters, the affirmation of design is good for science. Like all knowledge, science is a pattern-seeking project. The human mind inherently seeks intelligible order. Thus the conviction that such an order exists to be found is a crucial assumption. No scientists are going to find their work diminished because they ground it in the search for an inbuilt design in nature."

Labels: David C. Price