| ||||||||||||||
REPLY:'Intelligent Design' Is a Placeholder for any Religion
"Intelligent Design does not postulate a God and is not about religion."But in reality, by leaving the name and identity of the designer unknown, ID becomes a placeholder for any religion while narrowly escaping the definition of a religion itself. But it can still not pose for science because it starts with the premise that a supernatural force had to be involved in the creation of life from inorganic matter. In order to prove this premise it then invents the non-empirical device of irreducible complexity which is just a typical God-Of-The-Gaps and cannot explain anything by itself. The resulting negative inference of a supernatural force from empirical ignorance is, by definition, neither a scientific subject nor consistent with the scientific method. Thus ID is not science. The only scientific version of ID possible would involve a natural designer, but such a space alien hypothesis fails to have any attributes that could be of interest for anyone but members of the Raelian sect. After having set up such a transparent deception, he continues with with an obvious lie: "Darwinism begins with a premise of atheism....Darwin began his concept of naturalistic explanations in order to refute religion with atheism."There is absolutely no hint of a proof in Darwin's work or biography for the idea that Darwin used an atheist premise. Maybe Mr. Plyler could point us to his historical evidence? And even if he had such proof, it would not make the least of a difference for the modern theory of evolution, which is a perfectly scientific theory supported by overwhelming evidence. But he conveniently fails to mention that. To him, an invented historical lie extinguishes any trace of physical evidence. Darwin, in his work as a scientist, was a naturalist. At the heart of Mr. Plyler's split tongue argument is the notion of many religious people that naturalism, simply because it fails to mention God, is an atheist construct. But this is absolutely incorrect. Naturalism is the belief that nature is completely self-contained and self-consistent. Where atheism makes an explicit statement about gods, naturalism does not. If one logically negates any possible statement of naturalism, it will still not contain anything about super-natural beings. But if one negates atheism, one has to end up with the basic tenet of any religion that there are supernatural beings, thus where atheism is essentially anti-religion, naturalism is simply logically disjoint. Ultimately, the inconsistency in his argument lies in the belief of ID not being religious because it does not mention ANY PARTICULAR supernatural being, while he accuses Darwinism, which does not mention God at all, of being atheist.
His other musings about micro- vs. macro- evolution and the missing fossil record are desperate fantasies to keep his belief in his own inconsistent premises alive. They are hardly worthy of a reply.
Copyright © 2005 The Baltimore Chronicle.
All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent. This story was published on August 30, 2005. |
Local News & Opinion
Ref. : Civic Events Ref. : Arts & Education Events Ref. : Public Service Notices Travel
Books, Films, Arts & Education
05.17 Why American Colleges Are Becoming a Force for Inequality 05.17 Why Private Schools Are Dying Out Letters
Ref. : Letters to the editor Health Care & Environment
05.21 Ellen Page [6:49 video] 05.20 Lisa P. Jackson [6:19 video] 05.20 Climate Change Denial is Costing us Trillions, Threatening Farming, Fishing, Animals (Video) 05.20 Blinding Us From Science 05.20 The Baltimore Lead Study [3:17 video] 05.19 A Black Mound of Canadian Oil Waste Is Rising Over Detroit 05.18 Four Examples from the Last Week Prove Obama Is Full of Hot Air on Climate Protection 05.17 The Murky World of Hospital Prices 05.17 New Jersey Hospital Is the Costliest in the Nation 05.17 Angelina Jolie has done something extraordinary 05.17 Obama must Make Fighting Climate Change National Project, or Die the death of a thousand Scandals 05.17 Study: Why Pot Smokers Are Skinnier 05.16 What Will It Take for Us to Recognize That the Way We Live Could Be Destroying Life as We Know It? 05.16 How Drug Companies Keep Medicine Out of Reach Video Health Care Systems in Less Corrupt Countries News Media
Daily FAIR Blog Justice Matters
05.21 Guatemala annuls Rios Montt's genocide conviction 05.21 Obama DOJ formally accuses journalist in leak case of committing crimes 05.21 The Criminal Case Against the Tea Party Cabal and Why the Justice Department Won’t Pursue It 05.21 Carl Hiaasen: IRS went after small fry, but let the big ones get away 05.18 Senator wants U.S. in oil price-fixing probe 05.18 Timothy Geithner Is Key To IRS Scandal 05.16 Why Won't the SEC Rein In the Firms That Tanked America's Economy? 05.16 Elizabeth Warren to Obama Administration: Take the Banks to Court, Already! US Politics, Policy & Culture
05.17 The Great American Descent into Plutocracy 05.17 The Real Benghazi Scandal 05.16 Take Politics Away From the I.R.S. 05.16 Should 501(c)(4)’s Be Eliminated? 05.16 What We Mean When We Say 'Race Is a Social Construct' High Crimes?
Economics, Crony Capitalism
05.20 Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills 05.20 Is EVERY Market Rigged? 05.19 Can two senators end ‘too big to fail’? 05.18 Pope blames tyranny of capitalism for making people miserable[1:00 video] 05.18 A Simple Graph That Should Silence Austerians and Gold Bugs Forever [graph] 05.18 The Savings Heist 05.18 Sheila Krumholz and Danielle Brian on How Money Rules Washington [20:31 video] Ref. : Susan Crawford on Why U.S. Internet Access is Slow, Costly and Unfair [25:35 video] Ref. : Nurses vs. High-Speed Traders Ref. : We’re More Unequal Than You Think – Graphic: Unequal rise in income International
05.21 Jobless Youth: Europe's Hollow Efforts to Save a Lost Generation 05.21 The Job Market of 2045 [14:32 podcast] 05.19 Italy coalition: Thousands rally in Rome against cuts [graphic] 05.18 Hans Rosling: the man who's making data cool [3:19 video] 05.18 Washington gets explicit: its 'war on terror' is permanent 05.17 Egypt 'suffering worst economic crisis since 1930s' 05.16 Catholic Church Finally Decides That Austerity is Bad We are a non-profit Internet-only newspaper publication founded in 1973. Your donation is essential to our survival.
You can also mail a check to: Baltimore News Network, Inc. P.O. Box 42581 Baltimore, MD 21284-2581 |
| ||||||||||||