Intelligent Falling (IF) is a satire response to the ongoing Intelligent Design (ID) debate.
It proposes that things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence is pushing them down.
IF advocates are portrayed as citing similar arguments as those used by supporters of ID. They assert that theories explaining gravity are not internally consistent nor mathematically reconcilable with quantum mechanics - therefore gravity is a theory in crisis. The portrayal includes advocates explaining that IF should be taught in school along with the theory of gravity to enable students to make an informed decision on the subject.
= Timeline =
2005 May 16 : David Craig Simpson s I Drew This comic strip titled Teaching Gravity published[http://www.idrewthis.org/2005/gravity.html]
2005 May 26 : Joshua Rosenau, a graduate student at the University of Kansas, presented the idea on his Blog.[http://jgrr.blogspot.com/2005/05/inspiration.html]
2005 August 17 : Intelligent Falling subject of an article in The Onion.[http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39512]
2005 August 17-27 : More than 100,000 Google hits appear on the subject, indicating that Intelligent Falling had become another Internet phenomenon. Most of the hits were in internet blogs and talk pages; however, some media articles start mentioning it as well, mostly in the context of the Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, another satirical response to Intelligent Design.
2005 August 27 : an online petition to treat intelligent falling like intelligent design when making decisions about what theories to teach in public schools went online at [http://www.intelligentfalling.org www.intelligentfalling.org].
= See also =
Flying Spaghetti Monsterism
=External links=
*[
http://www.idrewthis.org/2005/gravity.html Comic] by D.C.Simpson.
*[
http://jgrr.blogspot.com/2005/05/inspiration.html Inspiration] Article by Joshua Rosenau
[http://www.theonion.com/news/index.phpissue=4133&n=2 Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New Intelligent Falling Theory] , article in The Onion.
*[
http://www.intelligentfalling.org Petition] petition for Intelligent Falling
*[
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.skeptic/msg/9e2b5dd4052e099rnum=1 Intelligent Grappling FAQ] is an earlier and similiar parody