02.16.06

A Tale of Two Design Arguments

Posted in Evolution at 11:24 pm by nemo

ID keeps getting denounced as not science. OK. But is Darwinism science then?

ID is a design argument. Darwinism, based on natural selection (design language), claims that this process does the designing. Ergo, it is a design argument.

Think about it, keeping in mind that ‘supernatural design’ might be one thing, while ‘naturalistic design’ would be another.
The question is, if supernatural design is not science, can naturalistic design be science?

The statement makes no sense to currently trained scientists. Change the terminology to something like Kant’s analysis of organism, with their ‘natural teleology’, which he founds to be factor, but no really in the realm of knowledge. That is, no much different from the other ‘design’.

The point is that we have not science vs religion here, but two design arguments, neither one science.

ID vs Science

Wednesday, February 15, 2006 — You religious folk may want to send me to the dog house after reading what I have to say today.

I’ve been thinking about the Kitzmiller vs. Dover School District case in Pennsylvania which touched off a blistering debate on the appropriateness of intelligent design theory (ID) in a public science curriculum. The case is over, but it’s not done with. You can bet that we’ll be seeing this or a similar case in the Supreme Court sometime soon. That’s why I want to get ahead of the news and look at it with you today. You may remember that the press presented the case as a duel between two conflicting visions of reality: liberal secularists vs. religious conservatives. A chance for a perfect headline: “Judge Sends Christians Packing.”

But they missed the point, and this guy in a collar who you’re reading is the proof of their folly. How’s that? Because regardless of Judge John Jones’ inadequate rationale as expressed in his judicial decision, I actually agree with him that ID should not be taught as modern science.

Before you throw the Good Book at me, let’s agree on what we mean by modern science and what we mean by intelligent design. Unlike thinkers of ages past, who intertwined gracefully some elements of philosophy with the natural sciences, today we prefer — for reasons of method — to separate one from the other. In these categories, the competence of modern science accepts only what we can observe and measure (empirical evidence). Questions like, “What’s the essence of it?” and “What’s it for?” are sent down the hall to the philosophy department. And that’s fair.

Intelligent design theory asks just that type of “down the hall” question. Its proponents claim that a good scientist can’t look at the complexity of the human eye without asking himself, “How did that happen?,” and responding with the answer, “I don’t know, but I do know that it didn’t just happen; there must be intelligence behind that design.” The affirmation is quite logical, but the evidence would be philosophical, not empirical, and for that reason it belongs down the hall.

You would think this reasonable principle would be valid for everyone. Not so. Judge Jones wrote that ID was “a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory.” An alternative to what? Ask your children or grandchildren what they are taught in their public school about the origin of human beings. They may say “evolution,” but it’s more than that. They are being taught a very unscientific theory called Neo-Darwinism, the belief that there is NO purpose or intelligence behind life forms, that it’s all random. Where’s the empirical evidence for that? As a matter of fact, it’s impossible to prove, either scientifically or otherwise. It too should go down the hall.

“Father, are you saying that evolution is not true?” Nope. I’m saying that mainstream, atheistic, Neo-Darwinism is bad science because it isn’t science. No reasonable person denies that life forms can evolve, but it’s quite different to say that through purely random natural selection one species evolves into another to the point of reaching human intelligence.

What do I think? I think that we should send Judge Jones down the hall. Time for Philosophy 101. He should have written this: ID is “a philosophical alternative being marketed for creationist religious reasons as a scientific theory.” Sure, he wanted to sock it to the creationists for trying to get their product sold under a different brand name. He completely misses the point, nevertheless, when he labels ID as religious and not philosophical. It’s philosophy just like Neo-Darwinism is. So pick and choose, or teach both. Of course philosophical theories have their place in education. They’re all over the place! Hint: any time you see an “ism” there’s a philosophy behind it. Marxism, feminism, elitism, environmentalism, vegetarianism, atheism… I could go on, but I don’t want to give an exhaustive description of the entire Harvard faculty. Or maybe what’s okay for them isn’t okay for the rest of America.

I don’t want to end without clarifying that I do believe in intelligent design when it’s taught in the right place and in the right way. In fact, teaching it to our children as a philosophical (not just religious) theory is a sign of common sense and open-mindedness. Isn’t the whole of reality a little bigger than science? The problem is that in most public schools the “philosophy department down the hall” doesn’t really exist.

Given the state of things, maybe that’s all right. After all, who do you want to teach your kids about something as important as their origin and purpose? That’s your job. Thanks for allowing me to help.

Did I help? Let me know.
fatherjonathan@foxnews.com.

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