When God is used to explain a scientific fact further scientific investigation stops. When your hypothesis fails to explain a given phenomena it’s very convenient to just say that God must have intervened, it’s the lazy man’s way out.
For example Newton’s law of gravity lets you calculate the force of attraction between any two objects. If you add a third object then each one attracts the other two. Add another object then another etc until you get all the planets in the solar system and the calculations get very complex. Newton’s equations calculated that either all of the planets would already have crashed into the sun or flown off into space and disappeared. Newton’s answer to this was that God intervened and made things right.
For more than 100 years all work on this model stopped until French mathematician Simon de Laplace rejected the God hypothesis and took up the problem as a scientific challenge. Laplace developed a new branch of mathematics called perturbation theory, which allowed him to look at the combined effect of all of the many forces. He demonstrated that the solar system was stable over long periods of time. When Napoleon Bonaparte asked Laplace what role God played in the regulation of the heavens Laplace replied, “I have no need of that hypothesis”.
The promoters of Intelligent Design only try to disprove evolution and replace it with the idea that God intervened to make things right. If they have their way scientific progress will stop just like it did for Newton.
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