The Evolution-Creation debate has been making headlines again lately. Today the news reported the latest move in this on-going battle: a Kansas University is offering a new course in creation mythology. Part of this course looks at “Intelligent Design” as a modern-day creation myth.

Not suprisingly, there are those who are unhappy about the word “myth” being used to describe “Intelligent Design” and the Biblical Creation story it defends. After all, the word “myth” is used commonly to describe something that is not true or even misleading. In the context of religion, however, the word “myth” has little to do with truth or untruth. Rather, a myth is a story that tells a deeper meaning of some kind; it is a narrative with some kind of metaphysical, instructive or explanatory aspect.

The problem with the debate between “Intelligent Design” and Evolutionary Theory is that there really is no debate to be had. They are not competing theories at all. Evolution is a theory in that it is a testable, revisable way of explaining biological activities. It is not a perfect explanation but it is useful. “Intelligent Design”, however, is not a theory. It cannot be tested and is not particularly useful for explaining what we see under a microscope.

What “Intelligent Design” can do is describe matters of a metaphysical nature (Evolution can’t do this for us). But like any myth, we cannot test whether it is true or untrue. For this reason it does not make sense to include it in the science classroom even though it may indeed have something to teach us.