To the Editor:
''Intelligent design'' is far from a new theory (front page, April 8). It was first proposed by the 17th-century naturalist John Ray and then popularized in 1802 by the Rev. William Paley in his classic, ''Natural Theology.'' Darwin dismissed it in 1859 just as the scientific community is now dismissing Dr. Michael J. Behe's ''irreducible complexities.''
The fact that creationists are recycling two-century-old ideas only indicates their desperation when confronted with the facts of evolution.
RICHARD F. FIRENZE
Binghamton, N.Y., April 8, 2001
The writer is chairman of the biology department, Broome Community College.