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[Phys-L] Re: ID defenders



John Mallinckrodt wrote:

[1] I would implore us to stick to the simple facts.

Yes. Good advice.

[2] ID is not science BECAUSE it is invulnerable to evidence.

I agree with the conclusion, and mostly agree with the subordinate
clause ("BECAUSE...") but in the spirit of item [1] I would
recommend a slightly more nuanced refutation of ID.

The ID guys have made a considerable effort to dress up their
product as a scientific theory. It's like a cowbird chick in
the nest of science, pretending to be something it's not.

As Popper put it, a scientific theory should be falsifiable ...
but not false.

There are only two possibilities:

* If we use the ordinary definition of “intelligent”, then the
notion of “intelligent design” is demonstrably false. The proponenets
of “intelligent design” have attached great significance to certain
remarkably finely-tuned gene sequences. They say they don’t know how
such a thing could have evolved, and therefore it must have been
intelligently designed. As mentioned at
http://www.av8n.com/physics/no-evidence.htm
this is an argument from no evidence, and is therefore worthless. What’s
even worse is that there are many other gene sequences that cannot be
regarded as “intelligently” designed in any meaningful sense. The “designer”
is evidently not very intelligent. The “watchmaker” has remarkably poor
workmanship ... and/or has a vicious sadistic streak, as discussed at
http://www.av8n.com/physics/no-evidence.htm#sec-bad

* The other possibility is to twist the definition of “intelligent” so that
gene sequences that don’t make any sense are nevertheless considered
“intelligent”. At this point, the notion of “intelligent design” becomes
unfalsifiable.

So there you have it. “Intelligent design” is a lose/lose proposition. It is
either false, or unfalsifiable. It does not pass the test. It either fails
the test, or skives off completely.