(December 15, 2016 at 11:35 pm)RoadRunner79 Wrote:(December 15, 2016 at 1:58 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: .
Ah, I see. Thanks!
I thought maybe ID meant that someone accepts evolution completely, but still believes that God was behind it all and set everything into motion to begin with.
I believe that you are thinking of theistic evolution. "Intelligent design" is the theory, that an intelligent cause is the best explanation for certain features of the universe and living things; and that this may be detected by the evidence left behind. You will hear words such as Complex Specified information, Irreducible Complexity, and Fine Tuning in discussions of intelligent design. In science; intelligent design is a mathematically rigid discipline. It deals quite a bit with probabilities, calculating available outcomes verses viable outcomes. While the different arguments have their own nuances, each essentially comes down to showing that an agent capable of making choices, is a more likely explanation than either necessity (strong physical forces) or chance (weak physical forces).
Intelligent design has been utilized in other areas of science for some time, such as; anthropology, forensic sciences that seek to explain the cause of events such as a death or fire, cryptanalysis and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). The goal is to determine whether natural causes or intelligent causes best explain the evidence. To obtain a meaningful arrangement requires an intelligent cause, and often even natural intuition will tell us this. If you came home to find your house cleaned and everything put away neatly, you may immediately ask who did this (or who was in your house, if you thought no one was home). You are unlikely to think that an explosion in the washing machine, nor a influx of energy, arranged things in this manner.
You also seen this type of reasoning, a while back, when crop circles where appearing in various areas. Natural or random forces where quickly ruled out, because of the complexity, and deliberate nature of the designs. Some speculated that these impressions where beyond the capability of human beings, and suggested that they where the results of aliens. This was shown to be false, but doesn't impact the reasoning, that lead to an intelligent agent as the cause. Some may argue however, that known intelligent agents where in the suspect list (humans), and that a personal designer cannot be implored, where one is not known to exist. However, if similar impressions where found on Mars, the exact same reasoning, would lead us to the same results. However this time, the intelligent agent is unknown (unless someone hacked the Mars rover to make them when no one is looking). It would still be evidence of an intelligent cause.
This comes to a common accusation of intelligent design, and the criticism that it is creationism or veiled theologically. This is not accurate. There are intelligent design advocates, who are not religious. Antony Flew for instance (who participated in a number of debates as an atheist) ultimately became convinced of intelligent design (which led him to deism not theism). Intelligent design theory moves forward from the evidence, to determine if something is best explained by design or not. Creationism on the other hand, often starts with the assumption that things where created, and then tries to fit the evidence into that worldview. I.D. looks to limit it's claims to what can be inferred from scientific evidence and research. Something may be designed, but not give evidence of it. Or the evidence may not give clues to what or who the designer is. Similarly, I.D. is not against evolution. It is certainly not against natural variation and changes in the frequency of details which appear within a species over time. It is not against common descent evolution (although would posit, that certain changes require a cause capable of choice and purpose). Even modern synthesis (the neo-Darwin mechanism of unguided mutation plus selection) is not at odds with Intelligent design entirely (smaller point mutations may happen to add benefit although far more likely to be neutral or detrimental). However where the conflict comes in, is that an intelligent design advocate doesn't believe in universal common descent primarily moved by unguided modification plus natural selection. This belief under the name of evolution is more about ideology, and less about science.
Note: I would take much of what a number of people here say about I.D. tentatively, and encourage you to check out the facts from other sources. Also, neither of the two articles I cited previously had anything to do with I.D.
TOTAL BULLSHIT
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