---
title: "Intelligent Design and the cessation of naming of things"
date: 2005-09-27T11:27:17-04:00
url: https://blog.lmorchard.com/2005/09/27/intelligent-design-and-the-cessation-of-naming-of-things/
author: Les Orchard
tags: [asides]
---

# Intelligent Design and the cessation of naming of things

I can't wait until the day that right-wing fundie whackos and their [Intelligent Design shills](http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9452500/) fade back into the woodwork.  Maybe it'll take [putting another man on the Moon](http://www.space.com/news/050920_nasa_moon_response.html) to make the role "rocket scientist" a non-ironic hero again.

In the meantime, although I'm no religious scholar and will resort to sheer snark during debate, here's my angry answer to ID proponents:  

When did God tell you to give up your mind and stop naming things?  Intelligent Design is "[utterly boring](http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9452500/page/2/)" and doesn't help you at all to fulfill one of the first and most basic of mandates in the Bible.  Given this, how can ID be anything but poison?

**Update:** Dahlia Lithwick at Slate says it all in "<a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2127054/">Mind the Gaps - Intelligent design as an answer to all life's great conundrums</a>"
<blockquote cite="http://slate.msn.com/id/2127054/">ID says we shouldn't bother ourselves with resolving scientific inconsistencies or untangling puzzles. We should recognize that what God really wants is for us just to stop learning.</blockquote>

**Update 2:** Also, because I thought it was so apropos:

<blockquote cite="http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/2005/09/30/intelligent_design_and_me">And He’s not going to create a Universe based on rational laws, then not want us to practice our rationality.</blockquote><small style="text-align:right; display:block">Source: <a href="http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/2005/09/30/intelligent_design_and_me">The Fishbowl: Intelligent Design and Me</a></small><br />

<div id="comments" class="comments archived-comments">
            <h3>Archived Comments</h3>
            
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        <li class="comment" id="comment-221086427">
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                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://singe.rucus.net/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=70f4c3580e61128421cd3899a2dcf6f1&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://singe.rucus.net/">Dominic White</a>
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                <a href="#comment-221086427" class="permalink"><time datetime="2005-09-29T19:58:40">2005-09-29T19:58:40</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content"><p>Have a look at http://talkorigins.net/ it has all sorts of interesting refutations of intelligent design. It is a great place to point people who believe it to.</p>

<p>Also if you Google about, you can find Pope John Paul's encyclical on evolutions, which says it isn't inconsistent with Christianity.</p></div>
            
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