For years, advocates of intelligent design (or worse) have trumpeted their ignorance in an attempt to discredit evolution. Tonight (Nov. 16), the one-sided argument is coming to Binghamton.

Gerald Schroeder, author of ‘God According to God: A Physicist Proves We’ve Been Wrong About God All Along’ and ‘The Hidden Face of God: Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth,’ is an Orthodox Jewish apologist and MIT-trained scientist whose career has been centered on the connection between science and spirituality. He’s on the way to our fair city.

After seeing these titles, I felt the scientific merit quickly slipping away from the discussion. According to Schroeder’s website, ‘Schroeder has spent his career revealing the hand of God in the intricate discoveries of physics.’ Uh-oh.

Poking around Schroeder’s website led me to some more scary, traditional and Bible-thumping opinions. For example, the weakness of the fossil record is discussed (this is a classic). He also mentions my personal favorite: the evidence for dinosaurs being mentioned in the Bible (wink wink, they walked beside people).

Even the brightest physicist from MIT can be the most ignorant. His credentials include a master’s and doctorate and a slew of other positions of merit ‘ and yet, he is coming to discuss God and intelligent design. What a waste.

The biggest problem I have with intelligent design is the slyness with which it is fed to the general public. Advocates of intelligent design say that ‘alternate theories’ should be taught alongside evolution.

I always thought this transparency was obvious. But scarily, I’ve heard many bright people agree. After all, they say, ‘Why shouldn’t other theories be taught?’

And actually, I have a succinct answer to this question. Intelligent design is not, and never will be, a theory. For the millionth time, there is no way to test whether some intelligent being created life.

Personally, I’d be fine with other theories being presented. The key word here being, of course, ‘theories.’ If some viable alternative to evolution via natural selection comes up and holds water in light of scientific testing, that’s awesome.

As of right now though, I’m putting the ‘theory’ of evolution in the same category as the ‘theory’ of gravity. I’m sure it exists.

I’m also sure there are some things that never happened, including, but not limited to: dinosaurs walking around with people and Noah loading up two of every animal onto an ark.

I think that if Schroeder’s ideas were ever accepted, it would suck the fun out of science. Instead of questioning how something evolved, scientists would question how or why something was designed. To me, that would make science hollow.

To any believers of intelligent design: Just because there are some things beyond our current scientific understanding does not mean they can only be attributed to divine power. This is really a lame answer to potentially exciting lines of scientific inquiry.

Unfortunately, there are many brilliant individuals that subscribe to intelligent design. I guess I’ll make one semi-concession to this crazy crowd. I think that if we have a God, it evolved from something.