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Does the theory of "intelligent design" deserve more support within academe? Should scientists be speaking out against this movement? Note: This discussion is now closed. There will be no more submissions to this Colloquy.
The most recent responses appear first
"The previous design in bacterial flagella. Seeing that flagellun is putting ID and Neodarwinists in conflict..."
"Emilio Carmona states a view that pro-science people are used to hearing from creationists..."
"Professor Carmona: It may well be that something approaching a concensus opinion..."
"In response to Jim Ryan's post (2/14, 1:45). Every lame notion in existence that we cannot falsify at this time..."
"Professor Ryan (no. 448) seems to be using a minimalist definition of science..."
"I don't understand what Jim Ryan considers to be a concession to ID..."
"Professor Ryan asks me why I call weak falsification 'weak'..."
"I think no one here has discussed an important aspect of the debate..."
"Good points, Prof. Swan I think you and Prof. Okimoto are allowing that ID could very well be true..."
"Professor Moody: My thanks for your preliminary statement..."
"Melburn Thurman: I'm not attempting to second-guess the purpose of your questions..."
"I do not take issue with Professor Ryan's argument (http://chronicle.com/colloquy/2001/design/435.htm)..."
"Prof. Okimoto, your #444 concedes to Prof. Moody that option one (of the three options in my #440) is true..."
"Prof. Moody, if weak falsification is as powerful as strong, in what sense is it weak? You say..."
"Professor Ryan: In an earlier discussion we disputed positions..."
"Professor Moody: One should not infer from the phrasings of my questions, what I am thinking..."
"In response to Jim Ryan's post on testability of ID (2/12): Science lives with the fact that notions that are not testable at this time may be true..."
"Professor Ryan asks whether there are observations that falsify both the magician and etch-a-sketch hypotheses of how computer monitors work..."
"Melburn Thurman writes, 'Todd Moody (#432) states he does not believe that it is impossible to distinguish science from magic and religion'..."
"It is meaningless to you. That is because you accept the property interpretations and their units as if they must be correct..."
"Prof. Okimoto says, 'Potentially testable is not the same as testable,' in arguing that ID is not a scientific hypothesis..."
"Prof. Moody, aren't there observations which falsify both the magician hypothesis and the etch-a-sketch hypothesis?..."
"The historical philosophical view of vitalism does not properly represent intelligent design. Vitalism is dualistic..."
"Profs. Ryan and Moody treat my musings on the question of falsifiability vs. utility with grace and courtesy, for which I thank them..."
"Todd Moody (#432) states he does not believe that it is impossible to distinguish science from magic and religion (and one must assume other things as well)..."
"Profs. Swan and Okimoto both seem to be driving ID into the category of 'meaningless statements'..."
"Jim Ryan (2/12) tasks if I think that ID is simply meaningless. I may be a logical positivist..."
"Professor Ryan proposes that the proposition that a magician is responsible for my experience of reading a computer screen right now is only weakly falsifiable..."
"In response to Melburn Thurman's question, 'Are you arguing that it is impossible to distinguish science from religion...'"
"My compliments to the community for ignoring Putnam's recent 'equation coincidence' post..."
"I've placed parts of Todd Moody's latest post in brackets for evaluation..."
"Professor Moody (http://chronicle.com/colloquy/2001/design/415.htm) has some additional problems with my arguments..."
"Mr. Putnam: In my post to you and another contributor I merely asked a question, pure and simple..."
"I think that my position and Moody's are fairly clear. I think that the so-called 'design inference' is not only..."
"Professor Okimoto writes, 'ID can make no predictions on the difference between natural mutations and selection and designed systems...'"
"Prof. Okimoto, may I suggest that you meant all along to argue that ID is meaningless..."
"Professor Moody: Thank you for your reply to my query..."
"Mr. Thurman: If there is something of merit in your advice then please say it..."
"Professor Schmidt's remarks on the distinction between falsifiability and utility are interesting..."
"Prof. Moody, we may as well say, 'Observations do not prove that a magician is not causing your experience of reading a computer screen now..."
"Melburn Thurman asks whether, using my distinction between strong and weak falsification, 'would it be proper to say, then, that religion has been weakly falsified, but not strongly falsified?...'"
"In response to Jim Ryan's 'Ha, Ha, Ha!' post: falsification is a sliding scale and anyone trying to solve problems prefers the strong conclusions over the weak ones..."
"Professor Ryan claims that vitalism can't be reconciled with observations, because 'It says that vital spirits cause biological phenomena. Observations prove otherwise'..."
"Prof. Schmidt, I agree with what you say (although I think you meant to use a different word from 'Popperianism,' since..."
"This submission is directed to the consideration of Mr. Putnam and Mr. Morelli...'"
"Professor Swan writes: 'Professor Moody continues to make the argument from ignorance: if nothing else can explain it, then design wins by default...'"
"Prof. Moody, vitalism can't be reconciled with the observations. It says that vital spirits cause biological phenomena..."
"Todd Moody seems to be missing a very important point about SETI..."
"With all due respect to Profs. Ryan and Moody, they seem to be seduced by a naive Popperism..."
"Regarding Professor Moody's formulations on weak and strong falsification. Using his arguments, would it be proper to say,..."
"Ha, ha, ha! Profs. Okimoto (399, if I read it correctly) and Moody (404) agree on one pro-ID point: that ID hasn't been strongly falsified..."
"Here is another push against the pillars of theoretical physics. It is a physics anomaly. It is formed from important fundamental numbers..."
"Professor Swan: If natural science limits its scope of study to the natural world, then it is the science of intelligent design because that is what the evidence supports..."
"To Mr. Putnam: suggestions for responses to Mr. Swan's critics..."
"I wrote that 'SETI also cannot calculate the probability of ETI existing, but this is no problem for detecting design...'"
"Per Abrahmson: Once again your formulations -- which I would term unfortunate (#305, #80, #65) -- are virtually unsubstantiated by data,..."
"Professor Ryan writes, 'Professor Moody, falsificationists needn't be naive...'"
"Todd Moody (http://chronicle.com/colloquy/2001/design/398.htm) argues against Okimoto's post..."
"Gary Hurd (http://chronicle.com/colloquy/2001/design/393.htm) notes about the suggestion that we consult ISCID..."
"Putnam (http://chronicle.com/colloquy/2001/design/386.htm) suggests that falsifiability is not currently at issue with ID..."
"It is unfortunate that discussions must turn into a 'I win, you lose' competition, in which vitriol, motive, and ad hominem become the standard..."
"Jim Ryan asks if vitalism was a testable hypothesis..."
"Professor Okimoto writes, 'ID and IC also have the problem..."
"Prof. Okimoto, vitalism was a testable hypothesis, wasn't it?..."
"Prof. Swan, I think your second paragraph in your post 383 blurs together the question of whether ID is scientific/testable..."
"All of the arguments which have been put forward favoring Intelligent Design Theory have now been destroyed..."
"Todd Moody seems to be back to the probability argument..."
"Roland F. Hirsch suffers from the delusion..."
"Just a question to philosophers like Prof.Todd Moody..."
"Roland Hirsch has used creationist tactic number 37: show disagreements that exist within science..."
"We may use Professor Okimoto's argument to render a summary of the case that ID is not a scientific theory..."
"Regarding the PNAS article, I don't have the time to fully explain just how wrong Hirsch is about it..."
"Professor Moody, falsificationists needn't be naive in saying that vitalism is false and that the evidence shows it to be false..."
"Hirsch writes, 'Some of the statements in this colloquy are regrettable. Consider, for example, the comment...'"
"The core issue is not to determine if intelligent design is testable..."
"I am rather troubled by Professor Moody's post..."
"Professor Okimoto claims, 'In response to Jim Ryan's request..."
"Professor Ryan notes: Two of the issues in this colloquy..."
"In response to Jim Ryan's request, even the ID and IC proponents admit that they do not have testable scientific hypotheses..."
"I thank Professor Ryan for his succinct summary of the two core issues in this debate..."
"I thank Todd Moody for agreeing to look over the material I referenced..."
"Some of the statements in this colloquy are regrettable..."
"If Professor Swan is unhappy with the expression 'undirected natural processes' as a way to characterize processes that do not involve intelligent agents..."
"Two of the issues in this colloquy are whether ID is a testable/scientific theory and whether there is any evidence for it..."
"Luis Morelli's post (2/4) may reflect a limited understanding of the English language, or it could be viewed as an indication..."
"Nic Tamzek provides a plethora of links to anti-ID material on the web. Some of it I've seen; some of it..."
"Professor Swan: These are your thoughts and not mine. I have made my position clear that correctness and usefulness are not automatically related..."
"I thought that this debate was pretty much over back in the middle of January, but checking back in I've discovered that things have flared up..."
"I don't think that Moody has read the statements of the ID movement (which he presumably supports) very carefully. For example, does Moody agree or disagree..."
"Well, true, in colloquial English, such things as 'natural causes' are said to be those that do not require human intervention, might even be believed to exclude..."
"Despite the absurdities of his statements, Mr. Morelli has made an important contribution to this disussion, in demonstrating to those who might otherwise be unaware..."
"Professor Swan claims that 'The issue is what is meant by "could plausibly have happened." It seems that scientists have put forth quite plausible...'"
"Professor Lucas writes, as a gloss on my expression 'undirected natural processes,': ..."
"Some responses to Ron Okimoto in favor of Jim Lawley. 1) As an engineer do you use supernatural assumptions..."
"Surely Mr. Putnam cannot believe that many others could accept his definition of materialism."
"We know Mr. Sagan's work and read his books and it is not the case. Mr. Sagan's interpretations has foundation on the rational..."
"Should intelligent design be taught along with Darwinism? Yes! For the purpose of answering this question I interpret..."
"Professor Lucas has asked me to elaborate on my claim that ID does not entail anti-evolutionism. It means that ID can..."
"James Putnam makes an interesting argument: 'Natural selection cannot produce design or design changes. It can only selectively destroy...'"
"Todd Moody argues: 'If we accept that macroevolution happens, then the remaining question is whether or not those scientists...'"
"Prof. Moody: 'If we accept that macroevolution happens..."
"Professor Lucas: The study of the universe must have unity as its goal. ..."
"Prof. Moody: Could you please elaborate on this statement? ..."
"Mr. Putnam: I don't have to know the cause of an event to determine that the event took place. ..."
"Natural selection cannot produce design or design changes. It can only selectively destroy design. Natural selection never takes over..."
"Prof. Moody, if you don't mind perhaps I can help out with a few defintions from textbooks on evolutionary biology. ..."
"Prof. Cebull: As far as I can tell, there are as many answers as there are IDers. ..."
"Mr. Putnam: I suggest you read E.O. Wilson's Consilience. You are not the only one trying to meld all knowledge. ..."
"Mr. Morelli: The first sentence merely restates what Carl Sagan stated..."
"Melburn Thurman notes that I accept that the earth is billions of years old, that evolution happens, and that there is good reason..."
"Professor Ryan writes, 'ID theorists would today tend to accept the fossil record of evolution but argue that the initial microbiological steps...'"
"Jim Ryan notes: 'as far as I can tell, ID theorists would today tend to accept the fossil record of evolution...'"
"Mr. Thurman, My arguments do not suggest making psychology the master science. The master science does not yet exist. Science is compartmentalized. ..."
"Prof. Cebull, as far as I can tell, ID theorists would today tend to accept the fossil record of evolution but argue that the initial microbiological steps..."
"The results from our method 'Comparative Anatomy between Living and Non-living Natural Systems' offers responses to these questions: ..."
"Professor Moody: Thank you for your reply to my questions, which probably goes a long way to explicating your positions. ..."
"We represents a new theory that's the results from a unusual method of philosophycs research: ..."
"Now that the question of evolution has reemerged, perhaps I can get a response to the question I posed twice..."
"Melburn Thurman asks me to comment on macroevolution, as that term is used in these discussions..."
"Professor Lucas: How can anyone talk about the origin of the universe if they cannot define cause?..."
"Most of the points which should have been made about the unsastifactory nature of Intelligent Design Theory have now been made. In my opinion those scientists and researchers..."
"Todd Moody brings up the issue of plausibility in determining if something is intelligently created using IC or ID. ..."
"Professor Lucas my statement, 'if human consciousness and intelligence is required..."
"Mr Putnam: 'I cannot see how you have addressed the question of what is 'cause'..."
"An interesting variant on the Argument from Design. However, I submit that you have this backwards. ..."
"Mr. Alexanian: '"In all the possible types of universes that you can conceive of there must be a non-physical entity, ...'"
"Professor Swan wrote, 'Behe's whole argument is based on COULD NOT COME ABOUT. ...'"
"The question is why Moorad Alexanian wants to flood this board with theological arguments. It would appear that his natural element would be the 13th Century, perhaps ..."
"The human mind cannot prove the existence of God. It can infer it just in the same fashion that it infers laws and theories from experimental data. ..."
"Conscious human beings have made the inference that there need be no conscious, ..."
"Moorad Alexanian indulges in playing with words and thereby trying to prove the existence of God..."
"In order to communicate accurately words must have definite meaning..."
"In all the possible types of universes that you can conceive of there must be a non-physical entity, e.g. conscious human beings, ..."
"ID is not science. The scientific-sounding idea is that certain properties..."
"Professor Lucas: Yes there are natural causes ..."
"Just a few comments on Jim Lawley's musings. The real problem with Philip Johnson's argument is that it is stupid. ..."
"James, I think the basis of your thinking is that 'natural' means 'without deity.' Therefore you expend considerable effort..."
"Jim, I agree that Eldredge was somewhat 'sloppy' in his terms and if you parse the sentence rigorously, you have a point. ..."
"Some thoughts from a simple lay person looking in from the outside..."
"Responding to Professor Lucas: The universe is filled with proof..."
"Behe makes a central case out of the Centriole as an irreducibly complex [IC] object..."
"Mr. Thurman writes: 'Complexity, scaled within such a set'..."
"Professor Swan writes: 'The problem that in argument, ID advocates'..."
"Professor Lucas has, in his series of comments, not only elegantly identified many of the problems in conceptualizing artifacts and biological organisms as entities, ..."
"Professor Ryan, I never stated that comparison to the environment was the only criteria, but one that Paley had overlooked. ...'"
"I strongly agree with Paul Lucas that 'Behe's whole argument is based...'"
"It's the political battle, of course, that causes the problems. Creationism, as a scientific theory, ..."
"I would like to address two specific statements by Mr. Putnam and a general idea. The first specific statement is: ..."
"I agree about the inference of 'design.' However, let me add..."
"In regard to response #289, the point was that IDers consider only the properties of the artifact, not the environment..."
"Professor Swan writes 'The important thing about Behe's definition..."
"Per Abrahmson wants us to consider the possibility that God isn't the designer..."
"My submission of January 10, 2002 (#292) requires some more comment..."
"Science standards in Ohio are under attack under the name of ID..."
"I have no quarrel with those who believe it is a good idea to try to establish some sort of "unity" between fields of knowledge..."
"Imagine for a moment a world 30 years from now where human are capable of creating life..."
"Professor Moody: You must know by now that I have considerable respect for your thinking and obvious abilities..."
"Mr. Thurman's response offered nothing specific for me to reply to..."
"Melburn Thurman writes..."
"One small point (in terms of time given to it) which has been touched upon in this discussion is peer review in science..."
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Copyright © 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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