1 - Is Intelligent Design a valid scientific theory? Why or why not?
Look up the definition of science!
(Or read up on Science Theory). Science, especially natural sciences like physics etc, never claim that something is "definitely true"; they offer a theory. Any theory should include a test to break that theory; an experiment designed to prove it wrong.
There are other factors such as Occam's Razor: In science, the theory which needs the smallest amount of assumptions is considered best.
ID basically takes scientific explanations of the world, and adds something utterly ludicrous which many people feel the need to belive in (superhuman beings, deities, demons, etc) as "creators of all that". This ignores the fact that we very much understand how the world works nowadays: We have a pretty good understanding of how the quantum world works; we can look at cosmic background radiation that tells us a lot about how this universe formed; we know how the universe got its various elements (helium and hydrogen came around after the big bang, when energy levels decreased enough for particles to exist. Anything heavier, including 99% of your body, was created in supernovae.)
Why add a "designer" to all that? Of course it may be fun to fantasize about people living inside black holes, or super powerful alien creatures who are stupid enough to abduct and torture farmers from Kentucky, or something that somehow existed before the universe formed and/or caused the small asymmetries which created protons ... Basically, it's speculation.
And since it does not offer any test or experiment to prove or disprove this hypothetical "designer", we can safely say that it is definitely not science, and anyone who claims otherwise is lying (though he may not be aware of that due to his religious ideology)
2 - Is evolution a valid scientific theory? Why or why not?
Darwin noticed that one species had spread out and specialized in various ways; his theory about how the fittest tend to survive and multiply has since been used with great success in e.g. biology, genetic analysis etc.
(Statements like "Humans are descended from apes" or "darwinism means we should just shoot beggars instead of feedign them" are gross misunderstandings. a) modern humans and apes have a common ancestor (which in turn evolved from a small rat-like mammal but that's off topic). Some apes have like 98% DNA the same as ours; yet a 2% difference means that our common forefathers split apart a really long time ago. Social Darwinism is mostly just a pseudo-scientific for cruelty and murder, since it ignores the fact that humans are herd animals with inbuilt empathy.)
Evolution is a scientific theory in that it has been (in its modernized form) tested innumerable times, and all of the evidence found (genetic analyses of various species etc) supports it.
3 - Do you consider evolution to be a theory, or a fact? Why?
It's a theory I believe to be true.
4 - Do you consider Intelligent Design a scientific way of thinking, or mainly a religious way of thinking? Why?
As stated above: ID has nothing to do with science. Science makes theories about stuff and offers ways to test whether this theory is better than the previous onesl. ID basically says "there's something we can't understand or look for but I know it's there".
Compare this with Dark Matter: We KNOW that noninteracting dark matter exists, though we cannot observe it and have no idea what it it, really. Buzt we know it is there, because we know how gravity works, and we see that most galaxies move in a way that indicates a large mass around them.; we know it's not the normal stuff (neutrons and protons etc) because we can look for them.
So Dark Matter is a scientific theory: It is currently the model that best explains how the universe behaves.
ID is a simple lie from religious fanatics who distrust science: An untestable, basically ridiculous assumption that explains nothing and complicates everything.
5 - Should evolution be taught in public schools? Explain.
Of course, since schools ought to convey knowledge.
6 - Should Intelligent Design be taught in public schools? Explain.
Of course not, since it is not a school's job to tell fairy tales.
7 - Should Intelligent Design and evolution both be taught alongside one another? Explain.
Of course not. Schools should teach knowledge, not focus on myths and fairy tales.
ID might be mentioned in Biology as an outdated curiosity. Just like in Geography, the teacher might explain that Mount Olympus was considered the seat of the gods in Ancient Greece; or in maths the teacher could mention that Kabbala sought spirituality in mathematics. Schools should nowever not teach Kabbala or ID.
8 - Is it possible to believe in a divine being, as well as Evolution?
Apparently yes, though I as a rather fervent atheist don't really understand how. I've met a religious astrophysicist who keeps waffling about how amazingly well everything fits together on the level of quantums and atom nuclei and the various constants in the world ... size of the atom, weight of the electron type of stuff, if any of these were different we would not be around.
The same guy then adds that while it is of course okay to fantasize about reasons for this "fine tuning" or "precision adjustment" of natural laws, but that there is nothing scientific about that.
IMO it is a decision the human makes: Even someone working in physics may decide that they WANT to belive in something divine, or demons and gods and prophets and stuff, in order to be able to cope with life as a human being. That is a perfectly okay choice -- as long as the scientist does not claim to be able to "prove" his beliefs, or adds an utterly ridiculous theory to all of science and yells "you can't disprove me so I'm right" as ID "theorists" do.
Humans are multi-faceted. IMO most sane people accept scientific facts. At the same time, they will refuse to believe what their spirit guide, priest, shaman or whatever tell them, but also refuse to totally reject religious teachings because they find comfort there.
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