[Wikipedia] October 12: Intelligent design

Intelligent design is the claim that "certain features of the universe
and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not
an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form
of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God,
modified to avoid specifying the nature or identity of the designer.
Its primary proponents, all of whom are associated with the Discovery
Institute, believe the designer to be God. Intelligent design's
advocates claim it is a scientific theory, and seek to fundamentally
redefine science to accept supernatural explanations. The unequivocal
consensus in the scientific community is that intelligent design is
not science. "Intelligent design" originated in response to a 1987
United States Supreme Court ruling involving separation of church and
state. The intelligent design movement culminated in the 2005 case
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District in which U.S. District Judge
John E. Jones III ruled that intelligent design is not science, that
it "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious,
antecedents", and concluded that the school district's promotion of it
therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution.

Read the rest of this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1492:
Christopher Columbus made landfall in the Caribbean, believing he
had reached East Asia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus)

1915:
A German firing squad executed British nurse Edith Cavell for
helping Allied soldiers to escape occupied Belgium.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell)

1928:
An iron lung medical ventilator, designed by Philip Drinker and
colleagues at Children's Hospital, Boston, was used for the first time
in the treatment of polio victims.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/iron_lung)

1984:
The Provisional Irish Republican Army failed in its attempt to
assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and most of her
cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_hotel_bombing)

2002:
A series of bombs exploded in Bali, Indonesia, killing 202 people
and injuring a further 209.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Bali_bombings)

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Wiktionary's Word of the day:

jaded: Worn out, wearied, or lacking enthusiasm; exhausted.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jaded)

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Wikiquote of the day:

Everything abstract is ultimately part of the concrete. Everything
inanimate finally serves the living. That is why every activity
dealing in abstraction stands in ultimate service to a living whole.
-- Edith Stein
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edith_Stein)