Saturday 23 April 2011

ID will be accepted as valid science when it comes up with peer-reviewed scientific research

Chapter 12 of Dembski & Licona's Evidence for God is an accommodationist's dream. In "What Every High School Student Should Know about Science" Michael Newton Keas puts the case for "teaching the controversy" about evolution and the science of origins. It's a polemic aimed at presenting evolution and intelligent design creationism as equivalent scientific principles. But we know from the preceding chapter that intelligent design is a religious idea, and therefore has no place in school science lessons. Case closed, I think.

I'll readily grant that intelligent design is a valid philosophical idea, but as philosophy it doesn't belong in a science class. Science teaching for schoolchildren should comprise only accepted science, and until ID is accepted by the vast majority of the scientific community it will remain philosophy, not science. If ID proponents want their philosophy taught as science they need to carry out and publish peer-reviewed research to show that it actually is science. They don't get to change the rules by dint of special pleading.

Finally, I note that this chapter provides no evidence whatever for God.


4truth.net:
http://www.4truth.net/fourtruthpbscience.aspx?pageid=8589952925