Don't get into a theological or philosophical argument with the fundies

[Guaranteed]

They're using the philosophical term "intelligent design" to try to slip their fundie crap into our schools.

I'm seeing two problems with our response to this: One, that we're getting sucked into the argument instead of just saying "Keep your religion out of our schools." We don't want to hinge whether it gets taught on the outcome of an argument over the existence of God, or a god.

And, two, we're not recognizing that the term itself is non-religious, although they're not using it that way. We have to understand the distinction between the concept of "intelligent design," as used in philosophy, and their fundie crap.

There have been many arguments for intelligent design over the past millenium, and admittedly most of them were put forward by religious figures. But they were put forward in a non-religious fashion, by people like Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes and Kant. There were also arguments from the other side, typically empiricists, like David Hume. They argued over "intelligent design," but in a secular fashion.

The term is just run-of-the-mill philosophy.

But we can't let them use that secular term to try to get their foot in the door. Whatever the truth-value of the argument, religion doesn't belong in schools. They can just forget it.

So that's what's going on, here.