I admit that I used to refuse to consider religion at one point in my life. But recently it's been something I've become more and more interested in. I find the faith people can have in their religion, without any scientific evidence or personal experience to back it up, absolutely fascinating.

I've never been able to truely believe in something that I've not experienced or had explained with supporting evidence. I don't see how people can.

However, I'm all for personal choice and freedom of speech. I think we should all be able to make the important decisions about our beliefs without being pressured into anything. I'm as much against science being forced upon students as I am against evangelists.

So it's interesting to hear George Bush's comments on introducing Intelligent Design theories into the US education system. ID is just a front for creationism however. The idea behind ID is that life is too beautiful, too complex and too perfect to have evolved and it suggests evolution is non-existent due to the numerous holes in it's theory. However, it doesn't go on to suggest how life did come about.

Needless to say, as soon as school children are introduced to the idea that life was intelligently designed, they will ask WHO the designer was. And that leads directly into the controversial world of Creationism and Religion, most commonly Cristianity beliefs.

Now this is all very well, as long as evolution and science isn't thrown out of the window. But it's a little crazy to be teaching something like ID to kids. I don't quite get it.

We're meant to learn about life and to prepare ourselves for the big wide world whilst we're in education... It's one thing if Bush believes in ID, but I find it even harder to accept that he wants to teach kids the groundless theory.

Evolutionary theory certainly doesn't explain how we are and how we got here perfectly, it does indeed have many holes. However there is a good scientific base to the idea and has alot of physical evidence to support it. In essence, it's a valid theory.

There's nothing to support Creationism however, nothing I've ever heard about at least. It may well be a strong view, but I certainly wouldn't want my children to be taught circumstantial theories. It would surely put the idea in their heads that they can go through life without questioning, at the very fundemental level, life.

And that's the reason I've become interested in religion, I want to understand how people can unquestioningly believe in their God(s) and the rules and regulations of their religion. Without proof, without experience and without gaining anything material in return... it seems such a beautifully simple state of mind.

No offence intended, of course. ;-)