[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

Wolfstar: Such cases are not just tragic, but extremely cruel. They not only argue against "intelligent design," but also are capable of shaking one's faith in religion.

xzins: Why does it shake your faith?

It certainly doesn't shake my faith. Furthermore, there is no relationship between religious faith and the intelligent design hypothesis.

The intelligent design hypothesis has no doctrine, no articles of faith, no Holy writ.

Nor does it specify the "intelligent cause" - which could be either a phenomenon or an agent. Phenomena include intelligence as an emergent property of self-organizing complexity and fractal intelligence. Agents could be God, collective consciousness, aliens, Gaia, etc.

Nor does it address "all features" of the universe and life. Nor is it a theory of origins.

The hypothesis says that "certain features of the universe and life are best explained by intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection."

Some people label intelligent design supporters as theists. And some people label supporters of the theory of evolution as atheists.

But neither is a valid because correlation is not causation.

For instance, that a bunch of storks appear at the same time a bunch of babies are born does not establish a cause/effect relationship between the two.

[xzins]

Absolutely true, AG.

ID makes no statement about "who" or "what" the designer is. The best one can say about the designer is that it is an organizing principle which could be phenomenological or personal. Perhaps it is no longer even in existence.

[Liberty Wins]

My daughter is taking a number of science courses on her way to becoming a nurse, and she reports her instructors are continually frustrated because everytime they bring up the subject of evolution, the students snicker.

[From many - one.]

"...a bunch of babies are born does not establish a cause/effect relationship between the two. "

Are you calling my mother a liar? ;)