Title Author Date

Design Argument. Vyas, Dhaval Aug 22, 2004

Dear Professor Mark Perakh,
I recently read your book Unintelligent Design twice and it was pleasure to read both times. You did a fantastic job in thoroughly refuting the Creationists and their "Intelligent Design” argument, covering many ideas and different variables. Sadly, these stubborn people just won't go away. I live in a very conservative area (York, Pennsylvania), and I've never seen such anti-evolution and anti-science sentiment in my life. Many people who live in this area never read any real evolution book or fully understand the theory, and yet they argue against it like it’s the most offensive thing they have ever heard. They blindly follow what is written in the Bible and brush off monumental scientific evidence and discoveries. A school here, Dover High School, actually was considering putting the idea of creationism in a Biology textbook!!
I even had a teacher in high school who introduced us to the Intelligent Design argument in a Philosophy class. I think he was trying to prove to us that God existed. He was a strong Christian and made us read garbage articles from Christian Science magazine supporting creationism and trying to refute evolution.
He presented the Philosophy class from a strictly Christian standpoint and made us write 6 of the Ten Commandments on a test when we were studying ethics.
I'm surprised he actually kept his job. But since this is a very conservative Christian area, he was able to get away with it.
It is scary, but the same things could be happening in other school districts across the country. Students are being introduced to fraudulent claims of creationism and thinking evolution is a propaganda mechanism used by the scientific community. They don’t understand how manipulative the religious community can be. Although one should question scientific claims and theories, it is a useless endeavor when hundreds of years of research support the claims. Nonetheless, I think it is only a matter of time before evolution is accepted as a Law rather than a theory.
I think we have seen the very last of the Creationists. Although a few will continue to exist in the future, anyone with a decent education will not take them seriously. The Creationists will be in the same field as the Holocaust deniers; their arguments will lose so much respect that most people will see them as crazy. It is good that scientists like you and others respond to these people every time they come up with a new “argument”. It raises the dignity of the scientific community and demolishes these charlatans. It shows that science is the ultimate search for truth and understanding and human beings will no longer be bogged down by superstition, false beliefs, and a manipulative religious community.

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Title Author Date

Design Argument. Perakh, Mark Aug 23, 2004

Dear Dhaval Vyas:
Thank you for your kind words regarding my book. The picture you presented of your surrounding is upsetting - unfortunately obscurantism runs rampart in this country despite its being a leader in
science, technology, and medicine. We have to do our best to stand up to
the purveyors of darkness.

Best wishes,

Mark Perakh

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