Intelligent Design described

In “Letters to the Editor” of the Cornell Daily Sun Adam Moline makes the following statement which captures much of what is wrong with ID

The problem with intelligent design is not that the background assumptions are bad but that the method employed by Intelligent Design’s advocates is not the scientific method. They use God in the same way that the ancient Greek dramatists did: to circumvent an otherwise insoluble problem in the final act. Just as deus ex machina is an improper means to conclude plays, intelligent design is an improper means to advance knowledge.

At the same time he also corrects a common misunderstanding among creationists

Will Evans ‘06 is incorrect to assert that “science, like religion, is based on a few fundamental assumptions, the first of which is that God … does not exist.” Science, unlike religion, is not based on fundamental assumptions.