Verified Document

Intelligent Design When Charles Darwin Term Paper

That is especially true of the living world. The more that geneticists and biologists study, the more it is seen that the living world exists with amazing complexity and sophistication. The cell is a perfect example. In Darwin's time, scientists thought cells were quite simple -- only blobs of protoplasm. In fact, it has only been a few decades since biologists have recognized just how complex these small entities are. Bruce Alberts of the National Academy of Sciences, has said: "We have always underestimated cells. Undoubtedly we still do today. But at least we are no longer as naive as we were when I was a graduate student in the 1960s.... The entire cell can be viewed as a factory that contains an elaborate network of interlocking assembly lines, each of which is composed of a set of large protein machines."

According to Darwinism, undirected natural causes are solely responsible for the origin and development of life. In particular, Darwinism rules out the possibility of any guiding intelligence playing a role in life's origin and development. The very existence of the unexplained and the complex intelligibility on Earth raises questions that science cannot address and that point beyond the world. Intelligent Design shows there are indeed reasons for not believing that natural selection has all the answers.

THE CASE for NATURAL SELECTION

Intelligent Design theory, although around for thousands of years, offers no more concrete answers today than in the past. and, this is exactly what natural selection does offer -- as a science, it provides a method of learning about the physical universe by applying the principles of the scientific method, which includes making empirical observations, proposing hypotheses to explain those observations, and testing those hypotheses in valid and reliable and repeatable ways.

The major arguments of Intelligent Design theorists are neither new...

In fact, these individuals are just an updated version of creationists. It is simply not true that science does not address all Aristotelian causes, whenever design needs to be explained. Further, while irreducible complexity is indeed a valid criterion to distinguish between intelligent and non-intelligent design, there exist other possibilities, and living organisms are not irreducibly complex. The complexity-specification criterion is actually met by natural selection and thus cannot offer a means to distinguish intelligent from non-intelligent design.
In addition, if supernatural design exists at all, and where is the logical evidence, it is certainly not of the kind to which most religionists would likely subscribe, and it cannot be distinguished from the technology of a very advanced civilization. Therefore, the suggestions by ID supporters such as Behe and Dembski that science should be opened to supernatural explanations and that these should be allowed in public school curricula are not relevant. It has already been clearly decided that only theories based on scientific fact and not belief in a supernatural being can be taught in schools. Anything else would be a complete throwback in modern-day advances and intellect.

References

Dembski, William. The Design Inference. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge

University Press, 1998.

Edis, Taner. "Intelligent Design Meets Artificial Intelligence." Skeptical Inquirer. 25.2 (March/April 2001). 56.

Mayr, Ernst. What Evolution Is. New York: Basic Books, 2001.

Orr, H. Allen. "Darwin v. Intelligent Design (again)." Boston Review 21.6 (December/January). 35.

Pennock, Robert. Tower of Babel. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000.

Wells, Jonathan. Icons of Evolution. New York: Regnery Publishing, 2000.

Zimmer, Carl. Evolution. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.

Sources used in this document:
References

Dembski, William. The Design Inference. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge

University Press, 1998.

Edis, Taner. "Intelligent Design Meets Artificial Intelligence." Skeptical Inquirer. 25.2 (March/April 2001). 56.

Mayr, Ernst. What Evolution Is. New York: Basic Books, 2001.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Intelligent Design Man Has Always Asked Questions
Words: 1783 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

Intelligent Design Man has always asked questions about how the world began. All cultures in the ancient world had origin myths. People looked to higher powers, or deities, or life forces, to explain what they could not understand. Researchers do not know where humankind's need for spirituality comes from, but it is clear, looking at history, that faith and the need to believe in something greater than ourselves are part of

Intelligent Design, Evolution Intelligent Design
Words: 2283 Length: 6 Document Type: Term Paper

But science is about stepping stones: the creation of theories and hypothesis, and the testing of these hypotheses with empiricism. If these theories fail, then additional hypotheses have to be proposed. During the process of the testing these hypothesis, experimentalists will find evidence based that will enable to fine tuning of the hypothesis, and the process carries on. Indeed, most of quantum theory is hinged on the Uncertainty principle

Charles Darwin This Year Marked
Words: 1320 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

" The article also discusses the scientist John Tyndall, who with others in the British Advancement for the Society of Scientists, strongly supported Darwin. If it is admitted that matter has power attributed to it, where did it get that power? There can only be one answer, or the existence of a Devine Being. Similarly, if it is assumed that matter has developed into form and life, it regulates its procedure

Intelligent Design. Intelligent Design Is
Words: 2525 Length: 7 Document Type: Term Paper

10)?" Indicating that there is no intellectual discourse on the subject, and, because they have already indicated that they perceive creationists as backward, asocial, and people essentially not capable of intellectual discourse on the subject; this book is done. However, and to the mystery of anyone who reads as far as the first ten pages of the book, the book lingers for more than 200 pages. Young and Edis begin

Faith After Darwin in Kenneth
Words: 1321 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

If there is evolution, then God does not exist. If God exists, then scientific theories such as evolution are immaterial or even nonexistent. However, there is a way to understand God even in a world where Darwin's theory of evolution is correct. In his book, Miller quotes the National Academy of Sciences. They stated: At the root of the apparent conflict between some religious and evolution is a misunderstanding of

Lessons in Theory Building
Words: 1784 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

Darwin's Theory Of Evolution The construct of irreducible complexity is a pivotal aspect of genetic theory and of Darwinian theory. Irreducible complexity is a nexus of the older science of biology from which Darwin built his theory and modern genetic engineering. Darwin's words for irreducible complexity, most commonly associated with his argument about the construction of the eye, were "Organs of extreme perfection and complication," and Darwin further explicates, "Reason tells me,

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now