[Pharmboy]

Actually the argument is that "this exhibits qualities of designed things. Therefore, it is a reasonable inference that it was designed."

Well, that's weak too. Anything that works would appear to be designed. Ultimately, it still ascribes "design" and "outside intelligence" to things we cannot as yet understand.

[johnnyb_61820]

"Well, that's weak too. Anything that works would appear to be designed. Ultimately, it still ascribes "design" and "outside intelligence" to things we cannot as yet understand"

Actually it looks for specific earmarks of design, namely specified complexity. Specified complexity is defined as an object/system that exhibits the following properties:

a) not a product of necessity
b) extremely low probability from a statistical standpoint (uses a universal probability bound to measure against) -- know as a high probabilistic complexity
c) a specification that is not complex (low kalmorogov complexity)

When these three are found, then design is a valid inference.