Does Intelligent Design Have Merit?

• “No”

  

  “Intelligent Design is a Quest for the Supernatural”

• “Objection”

  

  “Ayn Rand's Arbitrary Rules Won’t Stop ID From Explaining Complexity”
  

Intelligent Design is a Quest for the Supernatural

Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights

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Recommend (13) Comments (9)

By the very nature of its approach, "intelligent design" cannot be satisfied with a "designer" who is part of the natural world. Such a "designer" would not answer the basic question its advocates raise: it would not explain biological complexity as such. The only "designer" that would stop their quest for a "design" explanation of complexity is a "designer" about whom one cannot ask any questions or who cannot be subjected to any kind of scientific study--a "designer" that "transcends" nature and its laws--a "designer" not susceptible of rational explanation--in short: a supernatural "designer."

Its advertising to the contrary notwithstanding, "intelligent design" is inherently a quest for the supernatural. Only one "candidate for the role of designer" need apply. Dembski himself--even while trying to deny this implication--concedes that "if there is design in biology and cosmology, then that design could not be the work of an evolved intelligence." It must, he admits, be that of a "transcendent intelligence" to whom he euphemistically refers as "the big G."

Next Argument

"No" Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights

• It's Peddled as Science
  11
• Intelligent Design is in Fact Religiously Based
  15
• Intelligent Design is a Quest for the Supernatural
  13
• It's Bait and Switch
  11

"No" National Center for Science Education

• Intelligent Design is a Religiously Motivated Attack on Science
  10
• Scientists See No Scientific Merit in ID
  8
• ID is a Relabeling of Creationist Attacks on Science Education
  6
• Teaching ID in the Public Schools Infringes Constitutional Rights
  6
• Academic Freedom isn’t a License to Present Non-Science like ID
  9

"No" AUSCS

• Intelligent Design Is Unconstitutional
  5
• Public Schools Are Not Supposed To Promote Religion
  6

"Yes" Discovery Institute

• ID Uses Scien. Method; Infers Design by Testing Positive Predictions
  7
• Intelligent Design Has Scientific Merit in Paleontology
  6
• Any Larger Implications Do Not Disqualify ID From Having Merit
  5
• ID Does Not Address Religious Claims About the Supernatural
  6
• ID is Constitutional and has Educational and Legal Merit
  6
• ID Promises To Open Up New Avenues of Scientific Research
  5

"Yes" Michael Behe

• Detecting Design is a Matter of Physical Evidence and Logic
  6
• Darwin's Mechanism Doesn't Produce Design
  4
• The Sophisticated Nanotechnology of the Cell Reeks of Design
  4

"Yes" Jay W Richards PhD

• Is Intelligent Design Science?
  5
• Is There Merit for ID in Cosmology, Physics, and Astronomy?
  5
• Isn’t ID Just a Sneaky Way to Get God into the Public Square?
  7

Most Objections

• Intelligent Design Is Unconstitutional
  5
• Public Schools Are Not Supposed To Promote Religion
  6
• Intelligent Design is in Fact Religiously Based
  15
• It's Peddled as Science
  11
• Intelligent Design is a Quest for the Supernatural
  13
• It's Bait and Switch
  11
• Intelligent Design is a Religiously Motivated Attack on Science
  10
• Scientists See No Scientific Merit in ID
  8
• ID is a Relabeling of Creationist Attacks on Science Education
  6
• Teaching ID in the Public Schools Infringes Constitutional Rights
  6
• Academic Freedom isn’t a License to Present Non-Science like ID
  9
• ID Uses Scien. Method; Infers Design by Testing Positive Predictions
  7
• ID Does Not Address Religious Claims About the Supernatural
  6

Intelligent Design?

• Yes
• No

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