Posted on 11/10/2005 4:43:24 AM PST by Nicholas Conradin
"we shouldn't allow it into our science classrooms. At least that's what the Constitution says" AFAIK there are no statements in the US Constitution speaking to scientific theory. Maybe the author means some other constitution.
Have you read Popper? Have you read on his 'falsifiability'? How would you falsify creation theory, ID theory or evolution? This is just what the age-old argument is on; those that understand enough philosophy of science to make the decision aren't closely involved, those that are closely involved are not familiar with falsifiability, e. g.
PH's posse will be thrilled w/ this article.
But be sure of one thing: 'falsifyability' must be philosophically accepted a priori as being 'true' for 'science'.
Popper's argument, though it can be argued is logical, is nonetheless a starting point that must be accepted by faith. You have to trust that 'science' MUST be defined this way, in order for it to 'be' science.
The problem is this: ID searches for causes. Evolution, good for explaining certain things that appear to be 'caused' does not sufficiently grapple with other things that are 'caused.
ID provides an alternate cause ... and an argument presenting that it is not falsifyable is not really an argument.
For Marx attracted followers and his 'theories' were tested ... and proven false. Freud has been utterly deligitimized ... because much of what he wrote proved to be, in practice, false.
But both of them got an audience.
Funny ... ID is the only non religious body of thought I have ever seen which is been so vociferously attacked and being denied an audience.
How can it be any more robust that Marxism and Freudism ... what is being risked by letting it be falsified, like they were?
Is Intelligent Design a Bad Scientific Theory or a Non-Scientific Theory?
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Wow, just from reading the headline I could tell that this article is a slanted, biased, puff piece of propaganda.
It reminds me of the loaded question, "Have you stopped beating your wife?"
The real debate is not over science, which is concerned with the observable, but over whose underlying metaphysical view one accepts: materialism vs. some form of theism. The problem is that those on the Darwinism side of the debate refuse to see or studiously ignore the fact that the natural sciences do not contain all possible knowledge.
One of the problems with the Origins of the Species, is biologists hava a CRAPPY definintion of what a species is.
Then the theory is elevated to a fact, shutting down all rational discussion.
ToEs like Natural Selection have not shown much utility up to this point in time. Definitions are changed, exaggerated claims are made, without any real utility, it is strictly not very useful.
It is not a very important theory.
It certainly hasn't been in history.
DK
Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano
Blood of St. Januarius
The Tilma of Guadalupe
Incorrupt bodies of the saints
Fatima
Shroud of Turin
Sudarium of Oviedo
Theory - not theory, call it what you want, it deserves the same amount of teaching in the classroom as the Darwin Theory.
I'm getting so tired of seeing people making statements like this. ID is not getting attacked in order to deny it an audience. It's getting attacked because its proponents want it taught as science, when it is not science. I personally would have no problem if the ID'rs were trying to have ID added to social studies or philosophy curriculums, where it belongs. ID's own proponents are the ones denying ID its proper audience.
Science is based on observations (facts). For a hypothesis to become a scientific theory, one needs to find a way to test the theory in the laboratory/field. And then the test must be repeated over and over and peer reviewed. If the test agrees with the hypothesis it can become a scientific theory.
Scientists then continue more experiments to either prove or enhance the scientific theory or falsify the theory. They realize a scientific theory is not absolutely unlike the way you and a lot of your friends on this db have to believe (at all cost) in that literal reading of the Book of Genesis. Thus, scientists never shut down all rational discussion as you have suggested. If they did we never would have got where we have in all sorts of scientific fields including inventing this computer.
Is this what the argument is reduced to now? "It may be completely incorrect and/or intensely stupid, but hey - it's legal!" LOL.
Who died and made Popper the god of science? He is just one among many who wrestled with what constitutes the same. "Intelligent design is not science" is a mantra for those who would stifle free inquiry. Neither science nor education nor mankind in general are bound to burden themselves with this constraint.
Well, no.
First of all, the concepts of evolutionary theory can be observed in the fossil record. It can be argued that the fossil record is showing us something other than evolutionary change. But it is not arguable that what the fossil record shows can be interpreted as evolutionary change. ID has nothing at all, period, nada, even remotely as demonstrative.
Second, evolutionary theory does not postulate a cause. It postulates the "how". Big, big difference.
So, where does String Theory belong?
Irreducible complexity could be falsified by demonstrating reducible complexity for the biochemical reactions cited in ID.
That is the sticking point. One side says "we don't know how they got that way...but we will someday", and the other side says "it could have been an act of creation".
It is nothing to get bothered about, both sides react to the facts but it isn't so much intelligent design that is the problem as it is the idea of irreducible complexity on a molecular level.
It doesn't. :) Next question?
You know, the letter M is where they are now regarding that theory. Funny, that theory, with its 11 dimensions, is not falsifyable; dimension 8 or so simply is not available to be falsified.
... but it is still treated as a theory, and scientific.
Dgray ... I'm sorry to hear you so tired of statements. But, hey, look at the bright side. You woke up on the right side of the turf today, and can actually feel tired!!
Possible Darwin Central ping.
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