There has been debate over education of young people in America, with some arguing that fundamental theories of science should not simple be accepted and taught because there are people who don't believe them. My state of Ohio tried to reduce education about the Theory of Evolution, and add Intelligent Design to the science curriculum. Most science teachers opposed that attempt.
I have read Michael Behe's book, Darwin's Black Box. What I learned from it is that Dr. Behe has a limited imagination and is either very lazy, an incompetent researcher, or dishonest. He claimed to show multiple systems and structures that were, in his words, irreducibly complex so that it was impossible for them to have developed by step-wise evolution. In every case, it took actual scientists about half an hour to prove him wrong with examples from nature, so the evidence was there. Behe just never found it. Or maybe never looked. Or thought no one else would notice that he was just wrong about everything.
Hardly anyone talks about that kind of intelligent design anymore, as far as I've seen. It lasted longer than it deserved in public discourse, as it was nonsense, and shown to be nonsense as soon as it was seen. There may still be people who want to argue against the Theory of Evolution, and find ways to indoctrinate children with other forms of nonsense to protect them from useful knowledge and understanding of biology, but I don't hear about it much anymore.
There is, however, real intelligent design in the world. It is brought to us by the same people who destroyed the pseudoscience version. Biologists. Genetic engineering requires intelligence, and is designed to bring about new organisms, even if the changes are modest. As far as I know, no one has designed a completely new species of living thing. Genes have been added to the genomes of existing forms of life for a range of reasons. These genes have been taken from existing forms of life. It is possible that someone has designed some kind of gene from scratch, and added it into some living organism. Mostly, though, genetic engineering, or genetically modified organisms, are made from creating new combinations of genes in a known living thing. The intelligence comes from the scientists, who design organisms to do what they feel is needed for a some purpose.
Even when scientists want a gene that isn't known to exist, they use tools of evolution to create them rather than trying to design the genes themselves. A strain of E. coli that uses an artificial amino acid, and is dependent on it, was developed by growing cultures under conditions that increased the rate of mutation, and finding mutant proteins that came closer and closer to the desired action, until one was found. That is how the necessary enzymes were developed. Then a codon for the artificial amino acid was put into several proteins already present, so they would contain the artificial amino acid. That made this strain of E coli resistant to viruses that could usually infect E coli. It also made the bacteria absolutely dependent on a source of the artificial amino acid, so it could only grow in the lab. That strain has since been used to produce various biologics, medicines based on proteins.
The tools available for intelligent design in the lab continue to improve. It is impossible to predict what scientists may be able to do with them in the future. The scientists probably still don't call their work Intelligent Design, but the description fits. Even artists have got into the game. Maybe they will start calling their biological are projects Intelligent Design as an ironic reference to the history of the term.
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