Does Intelligent Design abandon Faith?

More broadly, does repackaging the theology of creation - whatever the religion - in scientific terminology undermine the role of faith in society?

From the days of the Renaissance, religion and science have shared a wary path in the world of men. Sometimes bloodied and at odds, sometimes joined in the big debates of the time, both have influenced where we are today.

Obviously, politics and religion are old friends. Copernicus and Galileo were as much a threat to the Divine Right of Kings as they were to established religious dogma. Popes routinely influenced political events far beyond the Papal State.

All were eventually challenged from within and without. And benefited from the debate.

And over time, these two aspects of public and private life came to a somewhat uneasy, but beneficial truce. There are plenty of exceptions to the generalization, but both grew to play complimentary and beneficial roles in society.

And both held an independent place.

The Intelligent Design campaign - if that is what it is - has blurred the big picture. It intentionally politicizes religion on the assumption that science has broken that long, beneficial truce. It assumes a battle where there is none.

More importantly, perhaps, it abandons its own raison d'etre, which is faith, in a short sighted effort to "beat" science at its own game.

Faith is the realm of religion - not science. Those that repackage their religious belief in scientific language, and set it in political terms, seem to damn their own faith with faint praise.

and they smell of elderberries.

said, we may be in different cabins, but we're all on the same boat.

ID abandons science and reason and a millenium of advancement.

Faith? Who in the Hell cares whether it does anything to faith?

evolution and science ARE evidence of intelligent design - just not THEIR verson of intelligent design (hardright religious bullies).

anti-theistic.

It goes something like:
"If God is the ultimate law giver, and his primary set of laws are the laws of physics that run the universe, then miracles, which run counter to natural law, also run counter to God's law, which goes against the very nature of God. Therefore, belief in miracles is heretical."

If that makes no sense, I apologize. I'm coming off of an all-night (sociology and economics papers due the same day), so I should probably be in bed, instead of on a message board debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

I guess we have to agree to disagree on this one. I prefer to see all wonder and miracles within the auspices of Spirit.

While most churches accept the canonical Bible as the divinely inspired word of God, most theologians don't believe for a minute that everything in there is literally true. That's also true for Jews, who WROTE the OT and have been studying it for far longer.

The Bible is the core text of Christianity, and does hold it together, but it is only a basic guide. As one Hindu mystic said-- "Once you understand the Vedantas, you can throw them away since they are now useless." (or something like that-- I'd have to dig the book out to get the exact quote)

Back during the Enlightenment, when it was dangerous to admit being an atheist, scientists used to make great play on how their discoveries "showed the glory of God in such a masterful invention" or some such stuff, but we're way past that now.

Faith often starts out as rote recitation of what we learn as children, then often gets washed away as we start thinking of the God of the Gaps and how God just doesn't fit in with modern scientific knowledge-- a God invented when we thought the sun and stars revolved around the earth doesn't fit in with the colliding galaxies we know of now.

Later, some of us still on the spiritual quest realize that science doesn't make God smaller, but makes God grander, and beyond understanding. The God of colliding galaxies is far more interesting than an anthropomorphic one who just hangs around one little planet.

Volcanos aren't caused by a pissed-off volcano god, evolution is demonstrated and does exist, and God is still off doing whatever God wants to do.

And the only conflict is one someone wants to start. There is no conflict between God and science.