Monkeys on trial... again

So they've put evolution back on trial.

Besides the fact that this whole thing is just dumb, there's something I've never, ever understood about this argument (this argument being evolution versus "intelligent design" or whatever they're calling it this week). Evolution is a scientific theory that is taught in science classes. What's wrong with that? "Intelligent design," on the other hand, is a religious theory; how exactly does that fit into a science class?

And let's look at this quote:

"Detractors also argue that evolution is invalid science because it cannot be tested or verified and say it is inappropriately being indoctrinated into education and discouraging consideration of alternatives."

And how exactly can "intelligent design" be tested? What, some guy wrote it down in a book a long time ago, ergo it's true? Hey, guess what, same thing happened with evolution. That's it, question answered, trial over!

I don't even have the patience for these kinds of arguments. People are homeless, starving, being killed by suicide bombers, 13 year olds are pregnant, mothers are trading their children for cars and/or money, we don't have a cure for cancer, there's a whole universe to explore and discover but we don't seem too interested in funding NASA, the US has a disgusting infant mortality rate, and I'm too depressed to even go on... and these people are spending how many hours and how many dollars arguing over evolution? Why? What's it going to help? How many homeless people will it shelter? How many lives will it enrich? How many children will it save?

Now granted, I'm no saint. I certainly don't spend my days and nights rescuing abandoned puppies (though a few friends and I did spend a couple hours one night trying to "rescue" a kitten from a drain; but that's another story...) and feeding homeless mothers, and yet, I'm not quite the drain on the system that this foolishness is.

And one final note, it really makes me sick that people are so damned impressed with themselves that they think it's just unfathomable that they're the result of evolution (a "process" I think the article called it). You know, if they'd go work in a soup kitchen for a while, they just might find the meaning that their lives are apparently lacking.