The Sandbox

I'm all for intelligent design if it merely means that evolution, not to mention the birth of the universe, was authored by God. (or whatever other name you might possibly have for an intelligent creator). But that adds little to the discussion of either religion or science. The division between natural and supernatural that Thomas Aquinas laid down would still hold. Science is the study of the creation itself, and postulates a self-enclosed, self-regulating system.

However, if Intelligent Design is the hypothesis that God authored creation but did so poorly, forgetting to make evolution robust enough to climb over certain levels in complexity, then there are problems. That would imply that God is an imperfect creator, that he does a half-assed job, then patches things together with Divine Duct Tape. Religion is affected by this conception of God. And science, as we know it, become impossible. There is no theoretical limit to the where the laws end and the Holy Duct Tape begins.