Dembski on ID Vindication:
AiG Creationists nailed this a long time ago:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v14/i2/junk_dna.asp
I don’t follow this stuff closely, but I must say, the concept of “junk” DNA, just because we couldn’t immediately figure out its function, seriously flunked the smell test.
From the getgo, I had problems with so-called scientists researching DNA biology and announcing that there were so many "useless" segments of DNA:
Translation - if I can't understand it, it must serve no positive dunction.
What sort of science is that?
Even the popular name, 'junk DNA' gives the game away.
Didn’t pass the smell test indeed!
More from National Geographic:
First Decoded Marsupial Genome Reveals “Junk DNA” Surprise (but not for ID/Creation scientists!):
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/070510-opossum-dna.html
Wrong. While some non-coding DNA is functional -- and this has been known by evolutionary biologists for many many years now -- there is very strong evidence (based on, among other things, exactly the same kind of analysis as the current study which you're jumping all over) that the bulk if it is, indeed, non-functional and superfluous. "Junk" if you will.
And this hardly "vindicates 'ID'" in the least, because a) it's perfectly consistent with standard evolutionary biology, b) what is already known about such DNA strongly falsifies a number of clueless "ID" claims, and c) the fact that some non-coding DNA is functional in no way helps support the unsupported "ID" dogma that it was therefore "designed" by some unnamed "designer(s)". Sorry, but epistemology just doesn't work that way.
The "ID" folks keep doing silly stuff like this -- they engage in circular reasoning, which of course is a major fallacy and "proves" nothing. In this case, their "successful predictions" are vacuous because they boil down to, "if life was designed, then it will have functional elements, and this study found functional elements, therefore we were right when we say that life was designed!" Excuse me while I roll my eyes. What they overlook, of course, is the obvious -- evolutionary origins predict functional elements as well. Therefore it's idiotic to claim that finding functional elements "vindicates" ID over evolution. It's nonsense. This is how children "reason". It's like, "physics is all wrong, because my Pink Unicorn theory predicts that the Earth will have gravity, and by gosh it does!"
Please try to learn some actual science before you attempt to critique it.
Both of your links in post #2 make the same elementary fallacies you do. They, too, need to learn how science actually works, and stop misrepresenting results in order to flog their favorite religious beliefs. That's not science, that's apologetics, and it's dishonest to try to disguise it as an actual scientific validation when it's not.
In order to have a *useful* prediction, which actually helps "validate" ID in some way, they would have to make their predictions much more specific, and predict in advance what *kind* of functional elements will be found in the genome, in what *amounts*, what *properties* those functional elements will have (in both a qualitative and quantitative way), wha *kinds* and *amounts* of similarities will be found among similar species, *and* what *kinds* and *amounts* of differences will be found among similar and not-so-similar species. *This* is the kind of scientific prediction (based rigorously on actual features of the specific theory) which allow a scientific theory to be validated or falsified by subsequent findings. EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY MAKES THOUSANDS OF SUCH DETAILED PREDICTIONS, and HAS SUCCESSFULLY PASSED THEM ALL. This is why evolutionary biology is real science, and accepted by the vast overwhelming majority of biological scientists and educators. "ID" does *not* make even a single testable quantitative prediction, much less the vast number that evolutionary biology does, which is why "ID" is *not* science, it's a crank hypothesis in search of suckers to buy books and pay for lecture fees.
Do feel free to notify me whenever the "ID" folks get off their butts and make an attempt at doing science as it actually needs to be done, instead of just declaring victory any time they think they can spin some real scientists' findings in a way that the "ID fans" will be gullible enough to swallow.
What's *really* hilarious is that you folks don't even realize that by accepting the results of this latest scientific study, you're *accepting* the common descent of all mammals (including man) that many of you strive mightily to try to deny. Because the study's findings stem from a comparison of how much different sections of DNA have changed SINCE THE LAST COMMON ANCESTOR, and the conclusions of the study only hold if indeed all mammal species are descended from a common ancestor. Thanks for admitting evolutionary common descent, we appreciate it.
YEC INTREP
God doesn’t make junk.
For anyone who didn't actually read the article, it does NOT suggest, or infer, or justify, or provide any evidence regarding any claim that "junk" DNA is functional in general. Or even that MOST of it is functional. Or even that a significant percentage of it is functional. Or even that 10 or 5 or 2 percent of it is functional.
The study discussed found around 10,000 short DNA sequences in the approximately 95 percent of "non-coding" mammalian DNA that were found to be "conserved" across mammalian lineages generally. Conserved means they varied little among diverse mammalian groups. The logic is that if the sequences were preserved by evolution, then they must have some function. If they didn't have a function then evolution wouldn't be able to prevent them changing randomly over time, LIKE MOST OF THE "JUNK" DNA INDEED DOES.
IOW the whole logic of this result ASSUMES evolution. So why would you -- an antievolutionist -- be justified in drawing any conclusion (even a false and misleading one) from it?