THE BESTSELLER of 1802 was William Paley’s Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity. Paley, a Cambridge divine, argued that plants and animals were complex, therefore they had been designed, which proved the existence of a designer, namely God. Readers found his argument so compelling that by 1809 the book was in its 12th edition.

And the argument is still compelling. It used to go by the name of “creationism” but has been rebranded as “intelligent design” (ID), and its protagonists are increasingly fervent. The local school board in Dover, Pennsylvania, for example, has ruled that teachers must include intelligent design in the curriculum as well as Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Dover school board for “violating the constitutional separation of Church and State under the guise of science education”. This is no mere reprise of the infamous Scopes trial of 1925 — when a Tennessee teacher was dismissed for teaching Darwin’s theory — because today’s proponents of intelligent design are themselves devilishly intelligent, and they no longer claim that every word in the Bible is true.

Rather, they claim that no rational person could deny that the complexity of plants and animals proves the existence of a supernatural designer.

Indeed today’s proponents of intelligent design, unlike the creationists of old, invoke Plato and Aristotle, and were thrilled when the British philosopher Antony Flew recently converted from atheism to ID, although still rejecting the details of Christianity.

In reality, however, 99 per cent of ID supporters are fundamentalist Christians who believe in the literal truth of Genesis, Deep South-style. This is why ID’s hub is the Discovery Institute — which, despite its authoritative name, is a typical American palaeoconservative think-tank. British supporters of ID are less sophisticated and Sir Peter Vardy, the Geordie millionaire who bankrolls Emmanuel College, the city technology college in Gateshead, and other city academies that teach creationism in the North East, speaks of his fundamentalist Christianity.

I have no objection to ID being taught in schools as long as Darwinism gets equal time. Indeed, such a debate is more, not less, likely to inculcate a true understanding of natural selection, because theories of intelligent design and creationism are transparently absurd and driven not by a search for truth but by faith. Richard Dawkins may not be universally popular but his book, The Blind Watchmaker, kills Dr Paley’s tome stone dead.

The author is a biochemist and Vice-Chancellor of Buckingham University

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