Intelligent Design vs Evolution... OR IS IT?

One thing that bothers me most about the ID vs Evolution debate is that people assume they are mutually exclusive, both sides creating a sort of false dichotomy. The fact is there are people who believe in Evolution via Intelligent Design (like several Popes oddly enough, also many Deists, some scientists ) and people who believe in Intelligent Design without believing in an 'almighty' Creator(s) (like Raelians and some other scientists ). Intelligent Design's main enemy, of course, is not Darwinism, since concepts like natural selection and micro-evolution are valid in both theories. Its the religious fanatics who try to 'help' by throwing their holy book at scientists, claim that the Earth was created in only 6 days, or use it to try to push religious indoctrination into schools, which gives the whole thing a false image because the actual theory doesn't support any of those things. I came to the realization that most people I have personally spoken to on the subject haven't actually looked into the science behind either side, even their own side. Most ID people believe it simply because they fear their religion will be invalidated if they do not. Most Darwinists believe it simply because they fear mainstream religion (rightly so), and think any attack on macro-evolution must be an attempt to take us back to the Dark Ages. Alternately, because they did a head count and want to follow the majority of scientists. That's fine and no harm done, but the majority of scientists used to believe in the theory of spontaneous generation. The important thing is to realize that there are legit scientists on both sides, both sides have both religious and non-religious people, and both sides have idiots that speak in all caps or use profanity and lolspeak to get their point across. Religion shouldn't be part of the debate and we shouldn't judge either side by the dumbest proponent, in my view.

Anyway, I have been reading an article by a scientist, but I haven't finished the article yet. Its here. It has a lot of scientific jargon and references so I am sometimes needing to read paragraphs two or three times or stop and check other references to be sure I understand what they are saying and it that it follows. If anyone actually reads that, they can tell me what they think of it. And hell, its a public journal, you can tell me what you think of anything you want whether you read it or not :p

Prayer

My problems with the monotheistic concept of praying for God to do things:

1) If ones believes that the one Deity is all knowing, then why are they asking Them to do things They already know needs done? Even worse is when people believe their Deity inspired them to ask for it, because then the Deity is asking you do tell Them to do something that They knew needed done but has already actively chosen not to do.
2) Begging one's Deity to do things that They already know about is treating Them like a tyrant who could help out of kindness but would rather get kicks from hearing people beg for it. That is disrespectful, in my view.
3) Asking a supreme Deity to change their way of doing things just for one person is presumptuous and the exact opposite of humility. (Apparently George Carlin says it funnier than me.) Even asking them to change it for everyone on Earth is presumptuous, as our planet is a tiny bit of dust in the grand scheme of the universe.
4) Asking for some things is effectively asking a Deity to override people's free will. Examples would be asking for someone to be saved, or asking for favorable election results (Huckabee saying "Well, I didn't major in math, I majored in miracles." springs to mind.) If a 'good' Deity could and would do that, we wouldn't be in the messes we are in to begin with.
5) Saying that a Deity answered a prayer insinuates that one believes other people, who prayed but died or lost out anyway, are somehow lesser than them or are less loved by their Deity.
6) In many cases saying a Deity saved someone, or that it was a miracle, takes well deserved respect and thanks away from the police, doctors, military, or others who actually saved the person. If one really believed God was capable of such things, they would take their sick to a priest rather than a hospital. Its hard to ignore that people who do that typically die.

If a monotheist really believes in their Deity, they should never ask for anything. They should simply believe that what is suppose to happen will happen, and spend more time trying to understand why things happen than asking an almighty Deity to change their way of doing things just for them.