Intelligent Design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as “an evidence-based scientific theory about life’s origins”. Proponents claim that “certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural...
Level Of Support For Evolution The level of support for evolution among scientists, the public, and other groups is a topic that frequently arises in the creation–evolution controversy, and touches on educational, religious, philosophical, scientific, and political issues. The subject is especially contentious in countries where significant levels of non-acceptance of evolution by...
Argument From Poor Design The argument from poor design, also known as the dysteleological argument, is an argument against the existence of a creator God, based on the reasoning that an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God would not create organisms with the perceived suboptimal designs that can be seen in nature. The argument is structured as a basic modus...
Objections To Evolution Objections to evolution have been raised since evolutionary ideas came to prominence in the 19th century. When Charles Darwin published his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, his theory of evolution (the idea that species arose through descent with modification from a single common ancestor in a process driven by natural selection)...
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 (M.D. Pa. 2005) was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design. In October 2004, the Dover Area School District of...
Discovery Institute Intelligent Design Campaigns The Discovery Institute has conducted a series of related public relations campaigns which seek to promote intelligent design while attempting to discredit evolutionary biology, which the Institute terms “Darwinism.“ The Discovery Institute promotes the pseudoscientific intelligent design movement and is represented by Creative Response Concepts, a public relations firm. Prominent Institute campaigns have been to ‘Teach...
Teach The Controversy “Teach the Controversy” is a campaign, conducted by the Discovery Institute, to promote the pseudoscientific principle of intelligent design, a variant of traditional creationism, while attempting to discredit the teaching of evolution in United States public high school science courses. The campaign claims that fairness and equal time require educating students with a ‘critical...
Creation And Evolution In Public Education The status of creation and evolution in public education has been the subject of substantial debate and conflict in legal, political, and religious circles. Globally, there is a wide variety of views on the topic. Most western countries have legislation that mandates only evolutionary biology...
Jewish Reactions To Intelligent Design This article covers Jewish reactions to Intelligent Design. The reaction of Jewish leaders and organizations to intelligent design has been primarily concerned with responding to proposals to include intelligent design in public school curricula as a rival scientific hypothesis to modern evolutionary theory. Intelligent design is an...
Irreducible Complexity Irreducible complexity (IC) involves the idea that certain biological systems cannot evolve by successive small modifications to pre-existing functional systems through natural selection. Irreducible complexity has become central to the creationist concept of intelligent design, but the scientific community, which regards intelligent design as pseudoscience, rejects the concept of irreducible complexity. Irreducible complexity is one of two...
Specified Complexity Specified complexity is a concept proposed by William Dembski and used by him and others to promote intelligent design. According to Dembski, the concept can formalize a property that singles out patterns that are both specified and complex, where in Dembski’s terminology, a specified pattern is one that admits short descriptions, whereas a complex pattern is one...
Intelligent Design Movement The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the pseudoscientific idea of intelligent design (ID), which asserts that “certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as...
Theistic Science Theistic science, also referred to as theistic realism, is the pseudoscientific proposal that the central scientific method of requiring testability, known as methodological naturalism, should be replaced by a philosophy of science that allows occasional supernatural explanations which are inherently untestable. Proponents propose supernatural explanations for topics raised by their theology, in particular evolution. Supporters of theistic...
Teleological Argument The teleological argument or physico-theological argument, also known as the argument from design, or intelligent design argument is an argument for the existence of God or, more generally, for an intelligent creator based on perceived evidence of “intelligent design” in the natural world. The earliest recorded versions of this argument are associated with Socrates in ancient...
Intelligent Design And Science The relationship between intelligent design and science has been a contentious one. Intelligent design (ID) is presented by its proponents as science and claims to offer an alternative to evolution. The Discovery Institute, a politically conservative think tank and the leading proponent of intelligent design, launched a campaign entitled...
Timeline Of Intelligent Design This timeline of intelligent design outlines the major events in the development of intelligent design as presented and promoted by the intelligent design movement. See also: Darwinism and Evolution Creationism Main article: Creationism 1920s: Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy – in an upsurge of fundamentalist religious fervor, anti-evolutionary sentiment stopped U.S. public schools from teaching evolution, through state laws such as...
Intelligent Designer An Intelligent designer also referred to as an intelligent agent, is the hypothetical willed and self-aware entity that the intelligent design movement argues had some role in the origin and/or development of life. The term “intelligent cause” is also used, implying their teleological supposition of direction and purpose in features of...
![In the 19th century, geology and paleontology were still connected to Old Earth creationism. The above depicts a brutal world of deep time, existing before Adam and Eve, from Thomas Hawkins' book on plesiosaurs.[19] Artist: John Martin, 1840](https://slife.org/wp-content/uploads/Great_Sea-Dragons-520x351.jpg)
What Is Theistic Evolution? Theistic evolution, theistic evolutionism, evolutionary creationism, divine direction, or God-guided evolution are views that regard religious teachings about God as compatible with modern scientific understanding of biological evolution. Theistic evolution is not in itself a scientific theory, but a range of views about how the science of general evolution relates to...
What Is Neo-Creationism? Neo-creationism is a pseudoscientific movement which aims to restate creationism in terms more likely to be well received by the public, policymakers, educators, and by the scientific community. It aims to re-frame the debate over the origins of life in non-religious terms and without appeals to scripture....