Critique of Intelligent Design: Materialism vs. Creationism From Antiquity to Present

The ongoing debate on teaching evolution in U.S. public schools raises fundamental questions: will creationism triumph in the 2,500-year-old conflict with materialism and reason? Is science once more to be suppressed by religious dogma, as it has been in the past? A critique of religious dogma has historically provided the basis for rational inquiry into the physical and social world. Understanding the critique of Intelligent Design is key to comprehending the forces of irrationalism challenging the teaching of evolution in U.S. public schools and seeking to undermine the natural and social sciences.

This critique illuminates the 2,500-year evolution of the materialist critique - the explanation of the world in terms of itself, from antiquity to the present. It engages with the work of influential thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Lucretius, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, David Hume, William Paley, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Stephen Jay Gould, and contemporary advocates of 'intelligent design'.

Proponents of intelligent design, or creationism in a more subtle guise, have recently reignited the age-old war between materialism and creationism. They claim to elevate their doctrine to empirical truth and seek to incorporate it into science curricula. These advocates attack modern science, advancing a pseudo-scientific view and a reactionary political culture in line with their theology and their perceived moral order. They single out for criticism the greatest modern representatives of materialist-scientific thought: Darwin, Marx, and Freud.

This critique of Intelligent Design provides a direct reply to the criticisms of intelligent design proponents and a compelling account of the long debate between materialism and religion in the West. It offers an overview of the contemporary fight concerning nature, science, history, morality, and knowledge. Separate chapters are devoted to the design debate in antiquity, the Enlightenment and natural theology, Marx, Darwin, and Freud, as well as current scientific debates over evolution and design.

Ultimately, this work provides empowering tools to understand and defend critical and scientific reasoning in both the natural and social sciences, and in society as a whole. It serves as a vital resource in the ongoing battle to preserve the teaching of evolution and uphold the primacy of reason and empiricism in the face of religious dogma and irrationalism.

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