Is intelligent design a plausible theory?

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It’s obviously the motive of Richard Dawkins, Bertrand Russell and an army of atheists from time immemorial.
Their personal views about organized religion don’t change the fact that Intelligent Design is not science.
Yes, but he was a vocal proponent of the thing you seem to despise … intelligent design. So have other scientists like Newton and Darwin.
Again, their personal views about the existence of God don’t change the fact that Intelligent Design isn’t science.
 
The Miller-Urey experiment of 56 years ago proved nothing regarding abiogenesis.
Abiogenesis is the process of forming the first living organisms from raw simple chemicals. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Miller-Urey was a first step, showing how we can get from raw simple chemicals to more complex chemicals, and moreover that those more complex chemicals were amino acids that are used inside all living organisms to this day.
All it proved was that amino acids could be formed.
Precisely, you have contradicted yourself. Science is a process of “standing on the shoulders of giants”. We work on what has been done previously, correcting and extending it. Miller-Urey gave us a first step to start building on.
Amino acids are hugless less complex than a one-celled creature capable of reproduction coming into existence by accident.
Agreed. No scientist has ever claimed that Miller-Urey was the complete story. It is merely the start of the story.

I note that you do not have any experiment to refer us to that shows the designer forming amino acids from simple raw chemicals. Abiogenesis 1 - 0 Intelligent Design. ID loses yet again. Don’t you get tired of trying to scientifically support something that has zero scientific evidence to support it?
What has the Powner paper proven?
Did you read it?Here we show that activated pyrimidine ribonucleotides can be formed in a short sequence that bypasses free ribose and the nucleobases, and instead proceeds through arabinose amino-oxazoline and anhydronucleoside intermediates.

Source: (2009)et al
Previous experiments had encountered difficulties making RNA from its constituent parts. The Powner paper showed that by assembling the parts in a different order, some of the previous difficulties could be overcome. It takes us another step further down the road.

I suggest that your read the full abstract, it tells you something of the level of detail in the work that scientists are doing in this area. Also note the number of references; each of them refers to another paper giving previous work in this area. If ID wants to be science then it is going to have to do work at a comparable level of detail.
You are still reaching for the stars and coming up with a handful of cloud dust.
At least we have some dust, and are working to get more. ID has absolutely nothing, and does not even appear to be working on rectifying the defecit. ID is not a plausible scientific theory.

rossum
 
Anthropomorphizing God is an even more speculative method of explaining natural phenomena. What scientifically positive evidence allows you to assume that God employs an equivalent mechanism for generating complexity?
Don’t you believe you have the power to design something? If so how do you explain the origin of that power?
 
We are discussing abiogenesis which you suppose to be produced solely by physical laws - the existence of which you have not explained.
I have pointed out that the most adequate explanation of intelligent designers is an Intelligent Designer. Your explanation is that there is no Intelligent Designer and you are obliged to fall back on inexplicable physical laws, the origin of which you refuse to discuss.
“Part of an answer” is not an answer. There is no need to show that the designer is making one chemical if we already know the most adequate explanation of intelligent Design.
Do you accept the principles of liberty, equality, fraternity?
Yes. If so how do you explain them?
Not through evolution. Evolution explains the origin of species, nothing more.
If evolution does not explain the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity what does? If you cannot answer, your belief in non-Design is clearly inferior to Design which does explain the inestimable value of human life.
Which complex machines?
The complex machines produced by human beings - which are evidence of intelligent design.
Where is the scientific evidence for Intelligent Design?
The scientific evidence for Intelligent Design is the existence of intelligent designers. Evolution by Chance has produced no evidence for the origin of intelligent designers.
How does the designer act?
The Designer acts as you act: by intelligent activity.
When did the designer act?
The Designer acted when the universe was designed.
Is the designer acting now?
The Designer acts whenever He chooses.
What experiments can I do to show the designer acting?
You can pretend that the Designer does not exist and try to explain the origin of intelligent designers.🙂
What experiment can you show that shows the designer making even one chemical?
It is not necessary when we have constant evidence of intelligent design in our own activity. Until you produce an alternative explanation an Intelligent Designer is the best explanation. How has intelligent, purposeful activity emerged from purposeless, irrational activity? That is the fundamental question you cannot answer. All the rest is evasion of the issue. It also reveals why you have not answered and cannot answer:
  1. Why are animals not regarded as morally responsible?
  2. Why don’t they have the same rights as human beings?
  3. How can free will exist in a physical system which functions according to the laws of science?
  4. How are personality, consciousness and karma produced by random combinations of molecules, random mutations of genes and natural selection?
[/QUOTE]
 
Don’t you believe you have the power to design something? If so how do you explain the origin of that power?
Your questions are irrelevant. Why do you assume that God uses the same method that humans do (intelligent design) to generate complexity?
 
rossum

Don’t you get tired of trying to scientifically support something that has zero scientific evidence to support it?

And don’t you get tired of waiting for evidence that’s never conclusive, even though when it hints at something, the something it hints at was always intelligently designed by the experimenters?

Thought experiment: suppose in the laboratory it was possible to create life. Would you still be arguing that the conditions for creating life were not intelligently designed?

In other words, would none of those scientists qualify for the Nobel because they had not intelligently designed those conditions that led to the eruption of the first single-celled creature able to reproduce?
 
Michaelo

*Why do you assume that God uses the same method that humans do (intelligent design) to generate complexity? *

Because God made us in his image and likeness?

“I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist.” from *The Autobiography of Charles Darwin. *
 
EmperorNapoleon

*Again, their personal views about the existence of God don’t change the fact that Intelligent Design isn’t science. *

Abiogensis by accident is not science. If so, prove it. And don’t just talk about experiments that don’t prove it!!!
 
Yes, but how is this proven by the process of Evolution?

Well, i have great difficulty classing him among the great intellectuals of our time; considering that thinks a fundamentalist is just somebody that believes in a holy book. (He said this in an interview).

Yep. But i can’t help thinking that the promotion of poor theories like ID, as representing the be all and end all of intellectual theism, has inadvertently help in their promotion. It seems evident to me that ID supporters have built a rift between science and religion that didn’t have to exist. Now we are paying the price.

Its obvious that atheism takes on new disguises. But it lends atheism as a world view more credibility when Christians get needlessly defensive about scientific theories. Christians falling in to despair; that is what gives strength to atheism.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that God is shoved out of the picture. It just means that God isn’t needed in order to explain biological processes.

There has always been evil in the world since the time of Adam & Eve.

I agree. But it is not a plausible scientific theory.

So do i. Evolution is sufficient only as an organizing principle. I don’t see how that defeats design. I guess it depends on what kind of design you are talking about.

Well, evolution doesn’t necessarily present a problem for Christianity. Thats why the pope supported it and said that it is more then a hypothesis. Am i correct?
You are not correct. The Pope does not support purely materialist evolution. Pope John Paul II has said that there is actual design in nature. The kind of evolution promoted here is the purely materialist kind. The great fear is that some intelligent agent will be referred to and that it might make people consider God. That is the whole point of most of these “debates.” Not science. Not the truth. But to make certain that Intelligence (any identifiable or even hinted at) does not enter the public consciousness.

To say God isn’t needed to explain biological processes does not square with Church teaching which clearly tells us that a mechanistic evolution could not exist without God.

So, the Church recognizes actual design in nature but you appear to be using the insistence argument.

I am unaware of a Christian despair index.

Peace,
Ed
 
Because God made us in his image and likeness?
Then shouldn’t you be able to provide scientifically positive evidence that supports your conclusion that God also shares our method of generating complexity? Truth cannot contradict truth.
“I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist.” from *The Autobiography of Charles Darwin. *
Quote mining has really gotten you nowhere in this discussion.
 
Your words:

Don’t lie; are you Catholic?
Per definitionem, an accusation takes the form of, “you are a liar,” or, “why did you lie?”

Per definitionem, a request takes the form of, “don’t go there.” or, “don’t lie to me.”
Does it matter? Pele and I have held our own in this discussion regardless of our age.
Yes you have, up to this point. 😃

jd
 
Per definitionem, an accusation takes the form of, “you are a liar,” or, “why did you lie?”

Per definitionem, a request takes the form of, “don’t go there.” or, “don’t lie to me.”
Clearly the implication of your post was inflammatory, and it would be nice if you could simply acknowledge this without delving into semantics in an attempt to defend yourself.
 
Michaelo

*Quote mining has really gotten you nowhere in this discussion. *

Very likely nowhere so far as you are concerned. You are for any interpretation of Darwin but the one he expressly announced. Likewise, you must think that on this subject of intelligent design Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein were dunces. A good thing they did not have to depend on the advice of you and Richard Dawkins to draw their conclusions.

I’ll ask you the same question I asked rossum:

Thought experiment: suppose in the laboratory it was possible to create life. Would you still be arguing that the conditions for creating life were not intelligently designed?

Can you answer it? 😉
 
Michaelo

I’ll ask you the same question I asked rossum:

Thought experiment: suppose in the laboratory it was possible to create life. Would you still be arguing that the conditions for creating life were not intelligently designed?

Can you answer it? 😉
What’s more important is whether life can be created in a lab while replicating the conditions present around the time when life arose. This would involve intelligently designing an experiment that replicates an event originally absent of intelligent design. Hopefully that makes sense 😛

I’ll quote rossum for clarification:

The experiment models the conditions on the early earth. The model is intelligently designed, the original has not yet been shown to be so. A meteorologist can build a model of a hurricane, does that mean that all hurricanes are intelligently designed?
 
Very likely nowhere so far as you are concerned. You are for any interpretation of Darwin but the one he expressly announced. Likewise, you must think that on this subject of intelligent design Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein were dunces. A good thing they did not have to depend on the advice of you and Richard Dawkins to draw their conclusions.
I am more concerned with the actual theory of evolution and the science behind it than with potentially misrepresented quotes from Darwin.
 
Michaelo

What’s more important is whether life can be created in a lab while replicating the conditions present around the time when life arose.

How on earth would you or anyone else know those conditions were replicated in the laboratory? That’s science? :rotfl:
 
How on earth would you or anyone else know those conditions were replicated in the laboratory? That’s science? :rotfl:
Rossum has repeatedly indulged your digressions, so I’m not going to beat that dead horse.

Back to the actual topic, can you provide scientifically positive evidence supporting your claim that God uses the same mechanism as humans for creating complexity?
 
I have pointed out that the most adequate explanation of intelligent designers is an Intelligent Designer. Your explanation is that there is no Intelligent Designer and you are obliged to fall back on inexplicable physical laws, the origin of which you refuse to discuss.
I am prepared to discuss the origin of physical laws on a cosmology thread. Different parts of science explain different things. Plumbing explains how to connect up your taps correctly, not how clouds form. Meteorology explains how clouds form, not the hydrogen fusion inside stars. Astrophysics explains hydrogen fusion in stars, not how to connect up your taps correctly.

Evolution explains the orign of species, not the origin of life or the origin of physical laws. Abiogenesis is working to explain the origin of life, not the origin of species or the origin of physical laws. Cosmology explains the origin of physical laws.

We only have 1,000 posts in this thread so we need to limit the area of discussion.
“Part of an answer” is not an answer.
It is more of the answer than “none of the answer”. You have no experiments and no results to show. At least I have part of the answer and scientists are working to find more parts. Whatever else ID is, it is not currently science.
There is no need to show that the designer is making one chemical if we already know the most adequate explanation of intelligent Design.
Until you can show the designer making one chemical you have no evidence to support your hypothesis. Unsupported hypotheses do not fare well in science.
If evolution does not explain the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity what does?
At what level are you asking your question? Either the history of the French Revolution or human psychology might be an answer.
The complex machines produced by human beings - which are evidence of intelligent design.
They are not evidence that life was designed, only that automobiles and planes were intelligently designed. Science has no problems with automobiles and planes being intelligently designed.
The scientific evidence for Intelligent Design is the existence of intelligent designers.
Science has no problem with human design, we have evidence for the existence of human designers. Where is your evidence for the existence of any of the pre-human designers who are alleged to have designed life?
Evolution by Chance has produced no evidence for the origin of intelligent designers.
You are being lied to by your creationist websites. Why do you continue to read websites that disregard one of the Ten Commandments? Go to Google scholar, scholar.google.com/. Search on “evolution”. I get about 3,000,000 hits. That is a long way from being “no evidence”.
The Designer acts as you act: by intelligent activity.
Insufficient. I can think about moving DNA around, but that does not actually move any DNA molecules. If I think of a design then I need to physically do something to make that design actual, rather than just a mental image. I am asking about the process by which the designer rearranges DNA to get it into the designed shape. You need to show me actual evidence of molecules moving around.
The Designer acted when the universe was designed.
See below.
The Designer acts whenever He chooses.
This is not consistent with your previous answer. How could I decide between your two answers by experiment?
You can pretend that the Designer does not exist and try to explain the origin of intelligent designers.
That does not answer my question.

Thank you for attempting to answer my questions; many ID supporters do not even get that far. From my point of view, all that you have is a slightly more elaborate versions of “it sure looks designed to me”. That is subjective opinion, not scientific evidence. What looks designed to you looks evolved to me. However, as well as my personal opinion, I also have those 3,000,000 scientific papers to support me. IIRC, ID has about a dozen or so scientific papers most of which are attacks on evolution rather than positive evidence for ID.
  1. Why are animals not regarded as morally responsible?
I am Buddhist so I say that they are morally responsible. Christians generally disagree with this position.
  1. Why don’t they have the same rights as human beings?
Because they are not the same as human beings. A parasitic wasp has the moral right to eat its prey alive from the inside - if it did not do so it would die. We do not have that moral right because doing so is not required for us to stay alive.
  1. How can free will exist in a physical system which functions according to the laws of science?
How many thousand years do you have to discuss that question? 🙂 How can free will exist if there is an omniscient God who knows exactly what you are going to do before you do it?
  1. How are personality, consciousness and karma produced by random combinations of molecules, random mutations of genes and natural selection?
They are not, I am a Buddhist so only one of the five constituent parts of a human being is produced by evolution. Karma is the moral law, it is not a part of a human being.

rossum
 
And don’t you get tired of waiting for evidence that’s never conclusive, even though when it hints at something, the something it hints at was always intelligently designed by the experimenters?
Every Christmas one of my local churches has a crib outside. In that crib is an intelligently designed model of God. By your argument God is also intelligently designed.

A model is always intelligently designed. The object that is being modelled may or may not be intelligently designed.
Thought experiment: suppose in the laboratory it was possible to create life. Would you still be arguing that the conditions for creating life were not intelligently designed?
Yes. The experiment would be designed to model conditions on an early earth. That would say nothing about how the conditions on the early earth actually arose.

rossum
 
I am prepared to discuss the origin of physical laws on a cosmology thread.
We would be wasting our time because cosmology does not explain the origin of matter nor does it explain any aspect of immaterial reality to which you are committed as a Buddhist. Matter is the lynchpin of abiogenesis and hence Chance evolution. If you evade the question of its origin it is another nail in the coffin of Non-Design.
Whatever else ID is, it is not currently science.
If ID is not science then neither is Non-Design.
Until you can show the designer making one chemical you have no evidence to support your hypothesis. Unsupported hypotheses do not fare well in science.
Until you can show how matter is either eternal or emerged from the void the Chance evolution hypothesis is unsupported. Buddhism is an unsupported hypothesis from the scientific point of view. Where is the scientific evidence for reincarnation?
If evolution does not explain the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity what does? Either the history of the French Revolution or human psychology might be an answer.
Why don’t you admit that science cannot explain the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. The only adequate explanation is that human beings are designed.
Science has no problem with human design, we have evidence for the existence of human designers. Where is your evidence for the existence of any of the pre-human designers who are alleged to have designed life?
Science has no problems with automobiles and planes being intelligently designed because they presuppose the existence of intelligent designers. It has not explained how intelligent designers have emerged and evolved from inanimate matter, let alone a void.
I can think about moving DNA around, but that does not actually move any DNA molecules. If I think of a design then I need to physically do something to make that design actual, rather than just a mental image.
Your analogy is unsound. The Designer not only designed but also created the universe.
*The Designer acts whenever He chooses. *This is not consistent with your previous answer.
It is perfectly consistent. The fact that you choose to act on one occasion does not entail inability to choose to act on other occasions.
  • Why are animals not regarded as morally responsible?*.
    I am Buddhist so I say that they are morally responsible.
Do you believe animals have free will? If not they cannot be morally responsible. If they have free will their free will is not explained by “evolution”, i.e. evolution by Chance.
A parasitic wasp has the moral right to eat its prey alive from the inside - if it did not do so it would die. We do not have that moral right because doing so is not required for us to stay alive.
Your view of morality is mere expediency. It is geared simply to physical survival.
*How can free will exist in a physical system which functions according to the laws of science? *How many thousand years do you have to discuss that question?
You are evading the question. You know perfectly well that free will cannot exist in a physical system. Either you have to deny free will or admit that it has a non-physical explanation.
How are personality, consciousness and karma produced by random combinations of molecules, random mutations of genes and natural selection?
They are not, I am a Buddhist so only one of the five constituent parts of a human being is produced by evolution.
In other words “evolution”, (evolution by Chance) does not explain at least one aspect of human beings whereas Design does. Nor is Buddhism explained by Chance evolution, i.e. Non-Design, whereas Buddhism is explained by Design!
 
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