The other night, my wife and I rented "Expelled" and watched Ben Stein layout the argument for "freedom of thought".  It was an excellent movie and I think everyone (Christian and non-Christian alike) to see how we are losing this most basic of freedoms in our country.
 
    After the movie, my daughter and I were talking about whether Intelligent Design (ID) helps or hurts scientific discovery.  My answer to that question is simple.  It's was what got us to where we are today.  We would have been lost without it. 

    Let's face it, ID is NOT a new concept, but rather an old concept used by many of our founders of science.  None other than our very own Sir Isaac Newton relied on ID for his very work.  It was ID that even put him on the course of being one of THE most influential scientists our world has ever scene.  If you have ever read anything about Newton, you will often find him talking about "God's great machine" (the universe). You see, Newton saw the world as "ordered" and not "chaotic".  He saw the universe as being designed, and as with any design, it must have purpose, rules and laws to guide it.  Newton wanted to know the "mind of God' by studying it and finding out what rules it obeyed.  To know the rules, was to know the mind of God. 

    I also argue that without ID, Newton never would have attempted to find those rules in the first place (and many of his contemporaries as well).  Imagine, if you will, an alien who is from a world similar to ours, with government, rules and laws to obey.  Then one day this alien is flung magically from his world to ours.  He doesn't know our language so he incapable of asking anyone for help.  He looks around and finds us riding in these big metal chariots.  He then makes the following observations:

   - When these funny looking lights turn one color (red) we stop
   - When these same lights turn another color (green) we go
   - We stay in these lines and use these flashing things before changing direction
   - We all seem to go the same speed and the numbers on our dashboard are about the same as these signs on the road.
   - We also pull over and stop if another chariot with flashing lights comes behind you.

     Through these observations he determines that we must have a government also.  His own knowledge of HIS world leads him to find these laws and determine what they are.
 
     Now, let's say another alien from another world steps through a worm-hole into our world.  Unlike the other alien, this alien comes from a world where he lived all alone with NO government, no laws... just him.  He too cannot speak our language and cannot ask for help.  He looks at our world completely different from the other alien.  He doesn't see order, but instead chaos.  He has never heard of a government or laws.  They are completely foreign to him.   So how would he even THINK to look for those laws and rules guiding our humans lives.  His "world-view" actually prevents him from seeing the how our world works and functions.
 
     To me that is how it would have been for Newton, had he not considered FIRST that the world was ordered and therefore MUST have rules to be obeyed.   So in this chicken-and-egg-question, it is clearly necessary for ID to have come first before the scientific discovery is made. 

     Also, ID enabled Newton to look over certain aspects of his own theories he did not like.  For example, Newton really did not like the idea of "gravity" being an mystical, invisible and at-a-distance force on objects.  He much liked physical forces like pushing blocks or rolling wheels or springs.  These made sense to him, but gravity perplexed him.  But he was able to not concern himself with these facts too much and sort of let God-be-God.   He was able to move on in his discoveries and cover a wide variety of topics rather than get buried by mysteries that others like Einstein would later unravel.  (Speaking of Einstein, he too used ID in his study of the cosmos.  He often said, that when you find an elegant solution you have found God). 

      Why not let God-be-God today?  Why not as we study his masterpiece can we not afford him the honor due him?   Art critics for years have poured over "The Mona Lisa" trying to get a better understanding of the master Da Vinci.  They have dissected every nuance about that one painting (using even scientific methods to see whats UNDER the painting itself).  Yet all of those who study the painting, NONE has never said the painting occured by accident.  No they know someone of great skill painted that painting and that Da Vinci was the most likely artist to have created it. 

     I see no reason why the same cannot be for those today who study God's great masterpiece, the universe, either.