Intelligent design and science: Difference between revisions

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The intelligent design movement states that there is a debate among scientists about whether life evolved. The movement stresses the importance of recognizing the existence of this supposed debate, seeking to convince the public, politicians, and cultural leaders that schools should "[[Teach the Controversy]]".<ref>
{{vcitecite news
|author=Shaw, Linda
|work=Seattle Times
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|url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002225932_design31m.html
|title=Does Seattle group "teach controversy" or contribute to it?
}}</ref> In fact, there is no such controversy in the [[scientific community]]; the [[scientific consensus]] is that life evolved.<ref>{{vcitecite web
|publisher=National Association of Biology Teachers
|url=http://www.nabt.org/sub/position_statements/evolution.asp
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|archivedate=2006-09-27
}}</ref><ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url = http://www.interacademies.net/Object.File/Master/6/150/Evolution%20statement.pdf
|format = PDF
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|accessdate=2008-10-17
}}
</ref><ref>{{Cite book | last = Dixon | first = Thomas | title = Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2008 | ___location = Oxford | page = 102 | isbn = 978-0-19-929551-7}}</ref> Intelligent design is widely viewed as a [[stalking horse]] for its proponents' campaign against what they say is the [[Materialism|materialist]] foundation of science, which they argue leaves no room for the possibility of God.<ref>{{vcitecite news |date=November 27, 2005
|first=Mark
|last=Coultan
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|accessdate=2007-07-29
}}</ref><ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.au.org/church-state/february-2005-church-state/featured/intelligent-design-creationism%E2%80%99s-trojan-horse-a
|title=Intelligent Design: Creationism's Trojan Horse
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Advocates of intelligent design from a Christian standpoint seek to keep God and the Bible out of the discussion, and present intelligent design in the language of science as though it were a scientific hypothesis.<ref name=IDstatementOnCreator group="n">
 
"...intelligent design does not address metaphysical and religious questions such as the nature or identity of the designer," and "...the nature, moral character and purposes of this intelligence lie beyond the competence of science and must be left to religion and philosophy". In: {{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/filesDB-download.php?command=download&id=565
|title=''Truth Sheet # 09-05 Does intelligent design postulate a "supernatural creator?''
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</ref><ref name=Johnson-Touchstone group="n">
 
{{vcitecite journal
|author=Phillip Johnson
|journal=Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity
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}} ''"...the first thing that has to be done is to get the Bible out of the discussion.... This is not to say that the biblical issues are unimportant; the point is rather that the time to address them will be after we have separated materialist prejudice from scientific fact".'' [http://www.arn.org/docs/johnson/le_wedge.htm The Wedge]
</ref> However, among a significant proportion of the general public in the United States the major concern is whether conventional evolutionary biology is compatible with belief in God and in the Bible, and how this issue is taught in schools.<ref name="Time-15-Aug-2005"/> The public controversy was given widespread media coverage in the United States, particularly during the ''Kitzmiller v. Dover'' trial in late 2005 and after President [[George W. Bush]] expressed support for the idea of teaching intelligent design alongside evolution in August 2005. In response to Bush's statement and the pending federal trial, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine ran an eight-page cover story on the Evolution Wars in which they examined the issue of teaching intelligent design in the classroom.<ref name="TIME">
*{{vcitecite web
|url=http://ncse.com/news/2005/08/evolution-wars-time-00696
|title="The evolution wars" in Time
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|accessdate=2009-11-18
}}
*{{vcitecite journal
|last=Martin
|first=Justin D.
|coauthorsauthor2=Kaye D. Trammell; |author3=Daphne Landers; |author4=Jeanne M. Valois; |author5=Terri Bailey
|year=2006
|title=Journalism and the Debate Over Origins: Newspaper Coverage of Intelligent Design
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|doi=10.1207/s15328415jmr0501_3
}}
*{{vcitecite journal
|last=Dingwall
|first=Robert
|coauthorsauthor2=Meryl Aldridge
|year=2006
|title=Television wildlife programming as a source of popular scientific information: a case study of evolution
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|doi=10.1177/0963662506060588
}}
*{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2005/0810time.asp
|title=Time for evolution wars
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}}</ref><ref name=DeWolf>
 
{{vcitecite journal
|url = http://www.umt.edu/mlr/Discovery%20Institute%20Article.pdf
|format = PDF
|title = Intelligent Design Will Survive Kitzmiller v. Dover
|author = DeWolf, David K
|coauthorsauthor2 = West, Johng G; |author3=Luskin, Casey
|journal = [[University of Montana]] Law Review
|volume = 68
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</ref> The cover of the magazine featured a parody of [[The Creation of Adam]] from the [[Sistine Chapel]]. Rather than pointing at Adam, Michelangelo's God points at the image of a chimpanzee contemplating the caption reading "The push to teach 'intelligent design' raises a question: Does God have a place in science class?".<ref name="Chimp">
*{{vcitecite news
|first=John Angus
|last=Campbell
|authorlink=John Angus Campbell
|coauthorsauthor2=Bill Marty
|title=Does God have a place in class?: Intelligent design ignites great debate
|url=http://www.discovery.org/a/2920
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|accessdate=2009-02-16
}}
*{{vcitecite book
|last=Wells
|first=Jonathan
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|page=273
}}
*{{vcitecite book
|last=Hewlett
|first=Martinez
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|date=December 20, 2005
}}, [[s:Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District/2:Context#Page 24 of 139|Ruling, p. 24]].</ref><ref name=ForrestMayPaper>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.centerforinquiry.net/uploads/attachments/intelligent-design.pdf
|format=PDF
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{{Main|Theistic science}}
[[empirical|Empirical science]] uses the [[scientific method]] to create ''[[a posteriori]]'' knowledge based on observation and repeated testing of hypotheses and theories. Intelligent design proponents seek to change this fundamental basis of science<ref name="Forrest2000">
{{vcitecite journal
|last=Forrest
|first=Barbara
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|accessdate=2007-07-27
|doi=10.5840/philo20003213
}}</ref> by eliminating "[[Naturalism (philosophy)|methodological naturalism]]" from science<ref>{{vcitecite book
|last=Johnson
|first=Phillip E.
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|isbn=0-8308-1929-0
}}<nowiki>[Johnson positions himself as a "theistic realist" against "methodological naturalism".]</nowiki></ref> and replacing it with what the leader of the intelligent design movement, [[Phillip E. Johnson]], calls "[[theistic realism]]".<ref name="Johnsonconversation" group="n">
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.arn.org/docs/johnson/ratzsch.htm
|title=Starting a Conversation about Evolution: Johnson, Phillip
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|quote=My colleagues and I speak of 'theistic realism'—or sometimes, 'mere creation'—as the defining concept of our [the ID] movement. This means that we affirm that God is objectively real as Creator, and that the reality of God is tangibly recorded in evidence accessible to science, particularly in biology.
|accessdate=2008-10-18
}}</ref> Some have called this approach "methodological supernaturalism", which means belief in a transcendent, nonnatural dimension of reality inhabited by a transcendent, nonnatural deity.<ref>See, for instance: {{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/philosophy/faculty/koons/ntse/papers/Vuletic.html
|title=Methodological Naturalism and the Supernatural
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|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080114094157/http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/philosophy/faculty/koons/ntse/papers/Vuletic.html
|archivedate=2008-01-14}}</ref> Intelligent design proponents argue that naturalistic explanations fail to explain certain phenomena and that supernatural explanations provide a very simple and intuitive explanation for the origins of life and the universe.<ref name="Watanabe" group="n">
{{vcitecite web
|first=Teresa
|last=Watanabe
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|quote=<nowiki>[Phillip E. Johnson quoted]:</nowiki> We are taking an intuition most people have and making it a scientific and academic enterprise.... We are removing the most important cultural roadblock to accepting the role of God as creator.
}}</ref> Proponents say evidence exists in the forms of [[irreducible complexity]] and [[specified complexity]] that cannot be explained by natural processes.<ref name=DI-topquestions>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.discovery.org/csc/topQuestions.php#questionsAboutIntelligentDesign
|title=Top Questions-1.What is the theory of intelligent design?
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|accessdate=2007-05-13
}}</ref> They also hold that religious neutrality requires the teaching of both evolution and intelligent design in schools, saying that teaching only evolution unfairly discriminates against those holding creationist beliefs. [[teach the controversy|Teaching both]], they argue, allows for the possibility of religious belief, without causing the state to actually promote such beliefs. Many intelligent design followers believe that "[[Scientism]]" is itself a religion that promotes [[secularism]] and [[materialism]] in an attempt to erase [[theism]] from public life, and they view their work in the promotion of intelligent design as a way to return religion to a central role in education and other public spheres. Some allege that this larger debate is often the subtext for arguments made over intelligent design, though others note that intelligent design serves as an effective proxy for the religious beliefs of prominent intelligent design proponents in their efforts to advance their religious point of view within society.<ref>
{{vcitecite journal
|url=http://www.leaderu.com/pjohnson/world2.html
|title=Witnesses For The Prosecution
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|page=18
}}</ref><ref group="n">
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.christianity.ca/news/social-issues/2004/03.001.html
|title=Let's Be Intelligent About Darwin
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|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070608233455/http://www.christianity.ca/news/social-issues/2004/03.001.html
|archivedate=2007-06-08}}</ref><ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://ebd10.ebd.csic.es/pdfs/DarwSciOrPhil.pdf
|format=PDF
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|publisher=The Free Republic
}}</ref> If the argument to give "equal time for all theories" were actually practiced, there would be no logical limit to the number of mutually incompatible supernatural "theories" regarding the origins and diversity of life to be taught in the public school system, including intelligent design parodies such as the [[Flying Spaghetti Monster]] "theory"; intelligent design does not provide a mechanism for discriminating among them. Philosopher of biology [[Elliott Sober]], for example, states that intelligent design is not falsifiable because "[d]efenders of ID always have a way out".<ref>
{{vcitecite journal
|last=Sober
|first=Elliott
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|pmid=17354991
}}</ref><ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070222155420.htm |title=What Is Wrong With Intelligent Design? |accessdate=2007-07-23 |date=February 23, 2007
|publisher=Science Daily
}}</ref> Intelligent design proponent [[Michael Behe]] concedes "You can't prove intelligent design by experiment".<ref name="Time-15-Aug-2005">
{{vcitecite news
|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1090909,00.html
|title=The Evolution Wars
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The inference that an intelligent designer created life on Earth, which advocate William Dembski has said could alternately be an "alien" life force,<ref name="Design Inference">William Dembski, 1998. ''The Design Inference''.</ref> has been compared to the ''[[A priori and a posteriori|a priori]]'' claim that aliens helped the ancient Egyptians build the pyramids.<ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://edisk.fandm.edu/michael.murray/Providence.pdf
|title=Natural Providence (or Design Trouble)
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|publisher=Franklin & Marshall College
}}</ref><ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://puffin.creighton.edu/NRCSE/NRCSEPosReID.html
|title=What is the position of the NRCSE on the teaching of intelligent design <nowiki>[ID]</nowiki> as an alternative to neo-Darwinian evolution in Nebraska schools?
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==Inter-faith outreach==
Supporters of intelligent design have also reached out to other faith groups with similar accounts of creation with the hope that the broader coalition will have greater influence in supporting science education that does not contradict their religious views.<ref name="Watanabe" group="n" /> Many religious bodies have responded by [[Level of support for evolution#Support for evolution by religious bodies|expressing support for evolution]]. The Roman Catholic Church has stated that religious faith is fully compatible with science, which is limited to dealing only with the natural world<ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/p91.htm
|title=Catechetical Lecture at St. Stephan's Cathedral, Vienna
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|quote=Purpose and design in the natural world, [has] no difficulty [...] with the theory of evolution [within] the borders of scientific theory.
}}</ref>—a position described by the term ''[[theistic evolution]]''.<ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://ncse.com/creationism/general/creationevolution-continuum
|title=The Creation/Evolution Continuum
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|publisher=[[National Center for Science Education]]
}}</ref> While some in the Roman Catholic Church reject Intelligent design for various philosophical and theological reasons,<ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.ncccusa.org/pdfs/evolutionbrochurefinal.pdf
|title=Science, Religion, and the Teaching of Evolution in Public School Science Classes
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|publisher=[[National Council of Churches]]
}}</ref><ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://puffin.creighton.edu/NRCSE/IDTHG.html
|title=Intelligent Design as a Theological Problem
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|format=Reprint
}}</ref> others, such as [[Christoph Schönborn]], [[Archbishop of Vienna]], have shown support for it.<ref name="Matt Young, Taner Edis">{{cite book |url = https://books.google.com/?id=hYLKdtlVeQgC&pg=PR7&dq=archbishop+of+Vienna+intelligent+design#v=onepage&q=archbishop%20of%20Vienna%20intelligent%20design&f=false |author1=Matt Young|author2=Taner Edis|authorlink2=Taner Edis |title=Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism |publisher=Rutgers, The State University |quote=An influential Roman Catholic cardinal, Cristoph Schonborn, the archbishop of Vienna, appeared to retreat from John Paul II's support for evolution and wrote in ''The New York Times'' that descent with modification is a fact, but evolution in the sense of "an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection" is false. Many of Schonborn's complaints about Darwinian evolution echoed pronouncements originating from the Discovery Institute, the right-wing American think tank that plays a central role in the ID movement (and whose public relations firm submitted Schonborn's article to the Times). |accessdate=2010-12-02 |isbn = 978-0-8135-3872-3 |date = 2006–2003}}</ref><ref name="Ronald L. Numbers">{{cite book |url = https://books.google.com/?id=GQ3TI5njXfIC&pg=PA395&dq=archbishop+of+Vienna+intelligent+design#v=onepage&q=archbishop%20of%20Vienna%20intelligent%20design&f=false |author=Ronald L. Numbers |title=The creationists: from scientific creationism to intelligent design |publisher=[[Random House]] |quote=Miffed by Krauss's comments, officers at the Discovery Institute arranged for the cardinal archbishop of Vienna, Cristoph Sconborn (b. 1945), to write an op-ed piece for the Times dismissing the late pope's statement as "rather vague and unimportant" and denying the truth of "evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense-an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection." The cardinal, it seems, had received the backing of the new pope, Benedict XVI, the former Joseph Ratzinger (b. 1927), who in the mid-1980s, while serving as prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, successor to the notorious Inquisition, had written a defense of the doctrine of creation against Catholics who stressed the sufficiency of "selection and mutation." Humans, he insisted, are "not the products of chance and error," and "the universe is not the product of darkness and unreason. It comes from intelligence, freedom, and from the beauty that is identical with love." Recent discoveries in microbiology and biochemistry, he was happy to say, had revealed "reasonable design." |accessdate=2010-12-02 |isbn = 978-0-674-02339-0 |year = 2006}}</ref><ref name="Parliamentary Assembly">{{cite book |url = https://books.google.com/?id=imUrkSP_5sUC&pg=PA66&dq=archbishop+of+Vienna+intelligent+design#v=onepage&q=archbishop%20of%20Vienna%20intelligent%20design&f=false |title=Parliamentary Assembly, Working Papers: 2007 Ordinary Session |publisher=Council of Europe Publishing |quote=Christoph Schonborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, published an article in ''The New York Times'' stating that the declarations made by Pope John Paul II could not be interpreted as recognising evolution. At the same time, he repeated arguments put forward by the supporters of the intelligent design ideas. |accessdate=2010-12-02 |isbn = 978-92-871-6368-4 |date = 2008-04-25}}</ref> The arguments of intelligent design have been directly challenged by the over 10,000 [[clergy]] who signed the [[Clergy Letter Project]]. Prominent scientists who strongly express religious faith, such as the astronomer [[George Coyne]] and the biologist [[Kenneth R. Miller|Ken Miller]], have been at the forefront of opposition to intelligent design. While creationist organizations have welcomed intelligent design's support against [[naturalism (philosophy)|naturalism]], they have also been critical of its refusal to identify the designer,<ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/wow/is-idm-christian
|title=Intelligent design: is it intelligent; is it Christian?
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|publisher=[[Answers in Genesis]]
}}</ref><ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.reasons.org/resources/fff/2002issue10/index.shtml#more_than_id
|title=More Than Intelligent Design
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|publisher=Harun Yahya International
}}</ref> and have pointed to previous failures of the same argument.<ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2002/0830_IDM.asp
|title=AiG's views on the Intelligent Design Movement
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Rabbi [[Natan Slifkin]] directly criticized the advocates of intelligent design as presenting a perspective of God that is dangerous to religion.<ref name="Slifkin">Natan Slifkin (2006). ''The Challenge of Creation'' (New York: Yashar Books) 288 ff.</ref> Those who promote it as parallel to religion, he asserts, do not truly understand it. Slifkin criticizes intelligent design's advocacy of teaching their perspective in biology classes, wondering why no one claims that God's hand should be taught in other secular classes, such as history, physics or geology. Slifkin also asserts that the intelligent design movement is inordinately concerned with portraying God as "in control" when it comes to things that cannot be easily explained by science, but not in control in respect to things which ''can'' be explained by scientific theory.<ref name="Slifkin" /> Kenneth Miller expressed a view similar to Slifkin's: "[T]he struggles of the Intelligent Design movement are best understood as clamorous and disappointing double failures—rejected by science because they do not fit the facts, and having failed religion because they think too little of God.<ref>
{{vcitecite book
|author=Miller, Kenneth
|chapter=The Flagellum Unspun
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}}</ref>
 
Intelligent design also has advocates from an Islamic standpoint who believe that, while life may have developed in stages over time, human beings are uniquely created by Allah and not evolved from our common ancestor with apes. It is from Adam and Hawwa (Eve) that humanity is said to have originated from. <ref>
{{vcitecite web
| title=[http://www2.nau.edu/~gaud/bio301/content/iscrst.htm "Islam Creation Story"]
| accessdate=2019-02-24
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The [[United States National Academy of Sciences|U.S. National Academy of Sciences]] has stated that "creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the [[scientific method|methods of science]]."<ref>
 
{{vcitecite web
|publisher=National Academy of Sciences
|year=1999
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|date=August 3, 2005
}}</ref><ref name=harvard>
{{vcitecite journal
|quote=For most members of the mainstream scientific community, ID is not a scientific theory, but a [[creationist]] [[pseudoscience]]".
|url=http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hsr/wp-content/themes/hsr/pdf/fall2005/mu.pdf
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|date=Fall 2005
}}</ref><ref name="aaas" group="n">
{{vcitecite web
|quote = Creationists are repackaging their message as the pseudoscience of intelligent design theory.
|url = http://www.aaas.org/spp/sfrl/per/per26.pdf
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Others in the scientific community have concurred,<ref group="n">
 
{{vcitecite journal
|quote=But many scientists regard 'intelligent design' as pseudoscience, and say that it is being used as a Trojan Horse to introduce the teaching of creationism into schools
|last1= Gura
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and some have called it [[junk science]].<ref group="n">
 
{{vcitecite journal
|url=http://www.jci.org/articles/view/28449
|title=Defending science education against intelligent design: a call to action
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|pmc=1451210
}}
*{{vcitecite web
|quote=Biologists aren't alarmed by intelligent design's arrival in Dover and elsewhere because they have all sworn allegiance to atheistic materialism; they're alarmed because intelligent design is junk science.
|author=H. Allen Orr
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}}
*[[Robert T. Pennock]] Tower of Babel: The Evidence Against the New Creationism.
*{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.worldmag.com/articles/11553
|title=Junk science
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}}
</ref><ref>
{{vcitecite book
|url=https://books.google.com/?id=kHeQhdNQvrUC&pg=PA210&lpg=PA210&dq=intelligent+design+junk-science
|first=Dan
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</ref>
For a theory to qualify as scientific,<ref group="n">
{{vcitecite book
|last=Gauch, Jr.
|first=Hugh G.
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|isbn=0-521-01708-4
}} Discusses principles of induction, deduction and probability related to the expectation of consistency, testability, and multiple observations. Chapter 8 discusses parsimony (Occam's razor)</ref><ref>
{{vcitecite book
|last=Elmes
|first=David G.
|coauthorsauthor2=Kantowitz, Barry H.; |author3=Roediger, Henry L.
|title=Research Methods in Psychology
|edition=8th
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*'''Provisional''' or tentative (is open to experimental checking, and does not assert certainty)
 
For any theory, hypothesis or conjecture to be considered scientific, it must meet most, and ideally all, of these criteria. The fewer criteria are met, the less scientific it is; and if it meets only a few or none at all, then it cannot be treated as scientific in any meaningful sense of the word. Typical objections to defining intelligent design as science are that it lacks consistency,<ref>See, e.g., {{vcitecite web
|author=Mark Perakh
|title=The Dream World of William Dembski's Creationism
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|publisher=Talk.reason
|url=http://talkreason.com/articles/Skeptic_paper.cfm
}}</ref> violates the principle of parsimony,<ref group="n">Intelligent design fails to pass Occam's razor. Adding entities (an intelligent agent, a designer) to the equation is not strictly necessary to explain events. See, e.g., {{vcitecite book
|author=Branden Fitelson, ''et|display-authors=etal al.''
|chapter=How Not to Detect Design–Critical Notice: William A. Dembski ''The Design Inference''
|editor=Robert T. Pennock
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|year=2001
|pages=597–616
}}</ref> is not scientifically useful,<ref group="n">See, e.g., {{vcitecite web
|first=Jill E.
|last=Schneider
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|df=
}} The September 2005 statement by 38 [[Nobel Prize|Nobel laureates]] stated that: "Intelligent design is fundamentally unscientific; it cannot be tested as scientific theory because its central conclusion is based on belief in the intervention of a supernatural agent".</ref><ref group="n">
{{vcitecite news
|url=http://www.science.unsw.edu.au/news/2005/intelligent.html
|title=Intelligent Design is not Science: Scientists and teachers speak out
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Critics also say that the intelligent design doctrine does not meet the [[Daubert Standard]],<ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://pharyngula.org/index/science/comments/creationism_and_the_daubert_test/
|title=Creationism and the Daubert test?
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Intelligent design, by appealing to a [[supernatural]] agent, directly conflicts with the [[principle]]s of [[science]], which limit its inquiries to [[empirical]], observable and ultimately [[falsifiable|testable]] [[data]] and which require explanations to be based on empirical [[Scientific method|evidence]]. Dembski, Behe and other intelligent design proponents say bias by the scientific community is to blame for the failure of their research to be published.<ref name="main">[http://www.discovery.org/csc/freeSpeechEvolCampMain.php Free Speech on Evolution Campaign Main Page] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060806232139/http://www.discovery.org/csc/freeSpeechEvolCampMain.php |date=2006-08-06 }} [[Discovery Institute]], [[Center for Science and Culture]].</ref> Intelligent design proponents believe that their writings are rejected for not conforming to purely naturalistic, non-supernatural mechanisms rather than because their research is not up to "journal standards", and that the merit of their articles is overlooked. Some scientists describe this claim as a [[conspiracy theory]].<ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/creation/bush_intelligent_design_2005.html
|title=The President and the teaching of evolution
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Critics and advocates debate over whether intelligent design produces new research and has legitimately attempted to publish this research. For instance, the [[John Templeton Foundation|Templeton Foundation]], a former funder of the Discovery Institute and a major supporter of projects seeking to reconcile science and religion, says that it asked intelligent design proponents to submit proposals for actual research, but none were ever submitted. Charles L. Harper Jr., foundation vice-president, said: "From the point of view of rigor and intellectual seriousness, the intelligent design people don't come out very well in our world of scientific review".<ref>
{{vcitecite news
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/weekinreview/04good.html?ex=1291352400&en=feb5138e425b9001&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
|title=Intelligent Design Might Be Meeting Its Maker
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The only article published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal that made a case for intelligent design was quickly withdrawn by the publisher for having circumvented the journal's peer-review standards.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biolsocwash.org/id_statement.html |title=Statement from the Council of the Biological Society of Washington |accessdate=2014-08-27 |deadurl=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926214521/http://www.biolsocwash.org/id_statement.html |archivedate=September 26, 2007 |df= }}</ref> Written by the Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture Director [[Stephen C. Meyer]], it appeared in the peer-reviewed journal ''Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington'' in August 2004.<ref name="Meyer2004">
{{vcitecite journal
|author=Meyer, S.C.
|year=2004
Line 812:
}}</ref> The article was a [[literature review]], which means that it did not present any new research, but rather culled quotations and claims from other papers to argue that the [[Cambrian explosion]] could not have happened by natural processes. The choice of venue for this article was also considered problematic, because it was so outside the normal subject matter (see [[Sternberg peer review controversy]]<ref group="n">The [[Sternberg peer review controversy]] and several similar academic disputes are the subject of the 2008 documentary "[[Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed]]".</ref>). Dembski has written that "perhaps the best reason [to be skeptical of his ideas] is that intelligent design has yet to establish itself as a thriving scientific research program."<ref>
 
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.designinference.com/documents/2001.03.ID_as_nat_theol.htm
|title=Is Intelligent Design a Form of Natural Theology?
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In a 2001 interview, Dembski said that he stopped submitting to peer-reviewed journals because of their slow time-to-print and that he makes more money from publishing books.<ref>
 
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i17/17a00801.htm
|title=Darwinism Under Attack
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In the [[Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District|Dover trial]], the judge found that intelligent design features no scientific research or testing.<ref>[[s:Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District/4:Whether ID Is Science#Page 88 of 139|Ruling, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District 4: whether ID is science]]</ref> There, intelligent design proponents cited just one paper, on simulation modeling of evolution by Behe and [[David Snoke]],<ref>
 
{{vcitecite journal
|last=Behe
|first=Michael J
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|date=December 20, 2005
}} [[s:Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District/4:Whether ID Is Science#Page 88 of 139|4: whether ID is science]]</ref> [[Michael Lynch (geneticist)|Michael Lynch]] called the conclusions of the article "an artifact of unwarranted biological assumptions, inappropriate mathematical modeling, and faulty logic".<ref>
{{vcitecite journal
|last=Lynch
|first=Michael
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The Discovery Institute has published lists of articles and books which they say support intelligent design and have been peer-reviewed, including the two articles mentioned above. Critics, largely members of the scientific community, reject this claim, stating that no established scientific journal has yet published an intelligent design article. Rather, intelligent design proponents have set up their own journals with peer review that lacks [[impartiality]] and [[rigour|rigor]],<ref group="n">
{{vcitecite journal
|last=Brauer
|first=Matthew J.
|coauthorsauthor2=Forrest, Barbara; |author3=Gey Steven G.
|year=2005
|title=Is It Science Yet?: Intelligent Design Creationism and the Constitution
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|quote=ID leaders know the benefits of submitting their work to independent review and have established at least two purportedly "peer-reviewed" journals for ID articles. However, one has languished for want of material and quietly ceased publication, while the other has a more overtly philosophical orientation. Both journals employ a weak standard of "peer review" that amounts to no more than vetting by the editorial board or society fellows.
}}</ref> consisting entirely of intelligent design supporters. <ref group="n">
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CI/CI001_4.html
|title=Index to Creationist Claims
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|quote=With some of the claims for peer review, notably Campbell and Meyer (2003) and the e-journal PCID, the reviewers are themselves ardent supporters of intelligent design. The purpose of peer review is to expose errors, weaknesses, and significant omissions in fact and argument. That purpose is not served if the reviewers are uncritical.
}}</ref> Critics also state that even if these papers could be accepted as cases of support for intelligent design passing peer review, the output from the ID community is still fairly minuscule, especially when compared to the number of peer reviewed articles supporting evolution.<ref group="n">
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CI/CI001_4.html
|title=Index to Creationist Claims
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|quote=Even by the most generous criteria, the peer-reviewed scientific output from the intelligent design (ID) movement is very low, especially considering the long history and generous funding of the movement. The list of papers and books above is not exhaustive, but there is not a lot else. One week's worth of peer-reviewed papers on evolutionary biology exceeds the entire history of ID peer-review.
}}</ref> Critics state that publishing material is not enough; that scientific ideas must withstand scrutiny and be built upon and that any papers supporting ID have not led to any productive work.<ref group="n">
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CI/CI001_4.html
|title=Index to Creationist Claims
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==Intelligence as an observable quality==
The phrase ''intelligent design'' makes use of an assumption of the quality of an observable [[intelligence (trait)|intelligence]], a concept that has no [[scientific consensus]] definition. William Dembski, for example, has written that "Intelligence leaves behind a characteristic signature". The characteristics of intelligence are assumed by intelligent design proponents to be [[observation|observable]] without specifying what the criteria for the [[measurement]] of intelligence should be. Dembski, instead, asserts that "in special sciences ranging from [[forensics]] to [[archaeology]] to [[SETI]] (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), appeal to a designing intelligence is indispensable".<ref>
{{vcitecite web
|title=Detecting Design in the Natural Sciences
|series=Intelligent Design?
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|work=[[Natural History (magazine)|Natural History]]
}}</ref> How this appeal is made and what this implies as to the definition of intelligence are topics left largely unaddressed. [[Seth Shostak]], a researcher with the [[SETI Institute]], disputed Dembski's comparison of SETI and intelligent design, saying that intelligent design advocates base their inference of design on complexity—the argument being that some biological systems are too complex to have been made by natural processes—while SETI researchers are looking primarily for [[Artificial creation|artificial]]ity.<ref>
{{vcitecite web
|title=SETI and Intelligent Design
|first=Seth
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As a means of criticism, certain [[scientific skepticism|skeptics]] have pointed to a challenge of intelligent design derived from the study of [[artificial intelligence]]. The criticism is a counter to intelligent design claims about what makes a design intelligent, specifically that "no preprogrammed device can be truly intelligent, that intelligence is irreducible to natural processes".<ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.csicop.org/si/2001-03/intelligent-design.html
|title=Darwin in Mind: Intelligent Design Meets Artificial Intelligence
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|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20011018142820/http://www.csicop.org/si/2001-03/intelligent-design.html
|archivedate=2001-10-18}}</ref> This claim is similar in type to an assumption of [[Cartesian dualism]] that posits a strict separation between "mind" and the material [[Universe]]. However, in studies of artificial intelligence, while there is an implicit assumption that supposed "intelligence" or [[creativity]] of a [[computer program]] is determined by the capabilities given to it by the computer [[programmer]], artificial intelligence need not be bound to an inflexible system of rules. Rather, if a computer program can access [[randomness]] as a function, this effectively allows for a flexible, creative, and adaptive intelligence. [[Evolutionary algorithms]], a subfield of machine learning (itself a subfield of artificial intelligence), have been used to mathematically demonstrate that randomness and selection can be used to "evolve" complex, highly adapted structures that are not explicitly designed by a programmer. Evolutionary algorithms use the Darwinian metaphor of random mutation, selection and the survival of the fittest to solve diverse mathematical and scientific problems that are usually not solvable using conventional methods. Intelligence derived from randomness is essentially indistinguishable from the "innate" intelligence associated with biological organisms, and poses a challenge to the intelligent design conception that intelligence itself necessarily requires a designer. [[Cognitive science]] continues to investigate the nature of intelligence along these lines of inquiry. The intelligent design community, for the most part, relies on the assumption that intelligence is readily apparent as a fundamental and basic property of complex systems.<ref>
{{vcitecite web
|url=http://www.ideacenter.org/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/1136
|title=Primer: Intelligent Design Theory in a Nutshell