The Associated Press would have you believe that Harvard is undertaking the unprecedented task of going toe-to-toe with the intelligent design. Obviously some individual scientists have chosen to speak out about the relatively merits of ID versus, well, science, but no research institution that I’m aware of has deigned to compare ID with evolution as part of its agenda. The AP article linked above seems to imply (without directly stating) that Harvard’s new research program is intended to study the merits of the two theories. It does this not only spending almost half the [short] article explaining ID, but also by titling the piece “Harvard Jumps Into Evolution Debate” (emphasis mine).

The thing is, if you look at the substance of the information given about Harvard’s new program, it doesn’t sound at all like it’s intended to look at evolution or intelligent design, but rather at the probable origin of life. Perhaps this doesn’t sound like a major distinction, but it’s important to recognize that evolution is not a theory of origins. Rather, evolution attempts to explain how the organisms born at the origin of life became the organisms on Earth today. The Harvard program discussed in the article appears to be more interested in how those initial organisms arose (hence the name of the program “Origins of Life in the Universe Initiative”).

All the same, I’ve got a hunch that if the scientists involved talk about ID at all, it’ll be while have a few laughs over beers after work.

Evolution and origins are always good topics for troll comments; let’s go fishing.