Sunday, September 16, 2007

The "Theory" of Intelligent Design

fails to meet the test of being a theory.

To proponents of intelligent design, saying that evolution alone accounts for the wonders of biology is like proposing that sandstorms created the pyramids of Egypt. An intricate organ like the eye relies on specialized parts, none of which work without the others. It's hard to imagine, they say, such a system evolving by natural selection (although the work of scientists like Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins provides some ideas on how it might happen). Their preferred explanation: an "intelligent designer" who drafted the blueprint for life. Naysayers, including most of the scientific community, say the term — popularized by the 1989 school textbook Of Pandas and People — is just a way of dressing up religion in the argot of science. And since it can't be tested, they add, it's not a theory at all.

- Wired Magazine / Geekipedia

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