Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 65 (9162 total)
4 online now:
Newest Member: popoi
Post Volume: Total: 915,806 Year: 3,063/9,624 Month: 908/1,588 Week: 91/223 Day: 2/17 Hour: 0/0


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   is there any case for Intelligent design in man made products
Percy
Member
Posts: 22388
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.2


Message 23 of 72 (653895)
02-25-2012 9:58 AM
Reply to: Message 19 by lbm111
02-25-2012 5:21 AM


Hi Lbm111,
Some of what you say is resonating with me. One of my primary objections to intelligent design is our inability to quantify or even define intelligence.
A common argument of IDists is that they're not doing anything different from what archaeologists do, which is to search for signs of intelligence. But of course that's not what archaeologists do. What archaeologists actually do is seek signs of human presence and activity. Archaeologists no more have a method for identifying intelligence than any other branch of science. No such method exists.
I think many would concede there is no scientifically precise definition of intelligence, but I also think many believe intelligence can be recognized when encountered, say in themselves or others they meet or in the things people make. I'm not so sure, but in any case it can certainly be said that this view lacks rigor, and it actually sounds a lot like IDists who claim to see evidence of the results of intelligence at work all around us.
--Percy

This message is a reply to:
 Message 19 by lbm111, posted 02-25-2012 5:21 AM lbm111 has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 24 by lbm111, posted 02-25-2012 2:34 PM Percy has seen this message but not replied

  
Percy
Member
Posts: 22388
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.2


Message 43 of 72 (654718)
03-03-2012 8:19 AM
Reply to: Message 41 by Portillo
03-03-2012 3:18 AM


I can go part of the way with Meyer. It makes sense to investigate whether life was designed, but to just look at it and say it has "the distinctive hallmarks of intelligently designed systems" is an opinion. Cells certainly look like nothing man has ever designed. The best ID can seem to do is to draw analogies between cells with their structures and man made systems with their components.
One of the hallmarks of human design is hard edges and corners. Here's an image of something we design that is very small, even smaller than a cell:
Now if I saw edges and corners like this in a cell, that's when I would start thinking, "By God, this was designed!"
--Percy

This message is a reply to:
 Message 41 by Portillo, posted 03-03-2012 3:18 AM Portillo has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 45 by Tangle, posted 03-03-2012 10:04 AM Percy has seen this message but not replied

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024