Re: Van Till's chapter

From: Steven P Crawford (stevenpcrawford@juno.com)
Date: Wed Jul 26 2000 - 11:16:05 EDT

  • Next message: Stephen E. Jones: "Re: An intelligent discussion with Intelligent Design's designer"

    On Wed, 26 Jul 2000 09:09:58 +0100 "Richard Wein" <rwein@lineone.net>
    writes:

    ....

    > The reason for the vociferous objection of many scientists to
    > ID is because its proponents *falsely* claim that their philosophy
    > is supported by science.

    Yes, I wanted to say something about this but chose to leave it out
    because it seemed outside my main argument. It may indeed be true that
    ID has inadvertently shot itself in the foot. I think the ID movement
    should follow a 4 step program:

    (1) Define the terms, e.g. "What does it to mean to have a 'natural or
    physical explanation'?"

    (2) Develop objective tests for determining when the scientific method
    cannot produce a "natural explanantion" for observable phenomena.

    (3) Demonstrate how a certain phenomenon passes those tests.

    (4) Defend a particular interpretation of what all the above means, e.g.
    "It was 'intelligently designed.'"

    I'm sure that ID'ers follow these steps to some extent. I've only read
    Behe, Johnson, and Lamoureaux's book (Dembski is next), and so I can't
    really tell right now. But from what I have read, ID'ers do seem to mix
    4 with 1-3 too much. It can all too easily appear to the reader that 4,
    instead of being the interpretation of data from 1-3, is actually the
    driving force that gives rise to such "data" in the first place. Rather
    than being the interpretive conclusion as it should be, it becomes the
    unspoken premise. This indeed would leave ID wide open to the charge of
    being "unscientific."

    Theoretically, the scientific community should be able to come to a
    general agreement on the truth or falsehood of 1-3. But even if
    mainstream science should come to accept 1-3, this would still leave 4
    open for discussion since it's a metaphysical interpretation of 1-3. If,
    however, science at large rejects the sheer possibility of 1-3 primarily
    because of ID's interpretation in 4, then that would also qualify as
    being "unscientific."

    Thus, I see both sides of the issue being tempted to fall into
    unscientific modes of thinking.

    Steve C.
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