The End of Intelligent Design

First Things has posted a nice article about intelligent design by S. Barr, professor of physics at U. Delaware.  An excerpt:

"What has the intelligent design movement achieved? As science, nothing. The goal of science is to increase our understanding of the natural world, and there is not a single phenomenon that we understand better today or are likely to understand better in the future through the efforts of ID theorists. If we are to look for ID achievements, then, it must be in the realm of natural theology. And there, I think, the movement must be judged not only a failure, but a debacle."

The quote doesn't do justice to the tone of the essay which is conciliatory and importantly, Barr allows wonder to be reason enough for belief without creating a God v. Nature fight.  He can marvel at the anthropomorphic "fit" of the universe and believe it is God created without fighting about evolution.  I think this is important because so many people experience wonder when they consider nature and it does transport their thoughts to God.  Encouraging it without conceding to Intelligent Design's philosophies is important because it doesn't ignore a great many people's experience of God in nature. (I still don't think ID is science).  His responses in the comments reinforce how gracious he is.  It's an eminently reasonable and gracious essay that I hope makes nice inroads with the ID crowd.