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What Is Intelligent Design?

What Is Intelligent Design?. Dr. Heinz Lycklama heinz@osta.com www.osta.com/messages www.osta.com/croatia-12/WhatIsID.ppt. All truth passes through three stages : 1. Ridicule 2. Violent opposition 3. Self-evident acceptance. Arthur Schopenhauer. Chance, Necessity or Design?.

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What Is Intelligent Design?

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  1. What Is Intelligent Design? Dr. Heinz Lycklama heinz@osta.com www.osta.com/messages www.osta.com/croatia-12/WhatIsID.ppt All truth passes through three stages: 1. Ridicule 2. Violent opposition 3. Self-evident acceptance. Arthur Schopenhauer @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  2. Chance, Necessity or Design? @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  3. What Is Intelligent Design (ID)? • Evolution, Creationism, ID • History of “Intelligent Design” • Key Movers and Shakers • Irreducible Complexity • Specified Complexity • Testing for Complexity • Dembski’s Explanatory Filter • Arguments for a Designer • More examples of Design • Intelligent Design v. Creationism Charles Darwin Henry Morris Phillip Johnson @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  4. The Meaning of Evolution Only 1, 2 and 3 have been observed 4 never observed! 5 is impossible! • Artificial Selection • Plant and animal breeding • Change • Evolution of a coastline (random) • Evolution of a car (designed) • Micro-Evolution • Small variation within prescribed limits of complexity • e.g., finch beaks by mutation and natural selection • Macro-Evolution • Particles -> people • Molecular Evolution • Origin of life – assumes a mutating replicator @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  5. Evolution Propositions • Claims about living organisms: • Related through common ancestry • Arose through mutations and natural selection • By means of random chance processes of nature @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  6. Scientific Creationism Propositions • A sudden creation of the universe, energy and life from nothing • Mutations and natural selection lack ability to develop all living kinds from a single organism • Changes of the originally created kinds of plants and animals occur only within fixed limits • There is a separate ancestry for humans and apes • Earth’s geology can be explained by catastrophism, primarily by the occurrence of a worldwide flood • Earth and living kinds had a relatively recent beginning (6000 -> 10,000 years ago) @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  7. Intelligent Design (ID) • "The theory of Intelligent Design holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." Source: The Discovery Institute The leaders in the ID movement purposely do not equate the intelligent cause with God; moreover, they are agnostic on the issue of the age of the earth and of the universe @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  8. Intelligent Design Propositions • Specified complexity and irreducible complexity are reliable indications of design • Biological systems exhibit specified complexity and use irreducibly complex subsystems • Naturalistic mechanisms or undirected causes do not suffice to explain origin of complexity • Intelligent Design constitutes the best explanation for the origin of specified complexity and irreducible complexity in biological systems @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  9. Evidence for Design • Cosmology: evidence suggests the universe--including all matter, space, time, and energy--came suddenly into existence a finite time ago, contradicting the picture of an eternal and self-existing material cosmos • Physics: evidence has shown that the universe is "finely-tuned" for the existence of life, suggesting the work, as Astrophysicist Fred Hoyle puts it, "of a super-intellect” @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  10. Harvard biologist Richard Lewontin urges scientists to embrace a "materialism [that] is absolute" and to stick with "material explanations, no matter how counter intuitive." More Evidence for Design • Biology: the presence of complex and functionally integrated machines has cast doubt on Darwinian mechanisms of self-assembly • Molecular biology: the presence of information encoded along the DNA molecule has suggested the activity of a prior designing intelligence @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  11. History of Intelligent Design • Greek philosophers a few100 years before Christ • Some early church fathersin 3rd/4th centuries • William Paley, Natural Theology (1802) • Watch is the product of intelligence (watchmaker), not the result of undirected natural processes • Organisms (e.g. the eye) are the product of intelligence • Purposeful design -> purposeful designer • Important sign of design is complexity @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  12. Modern Intelligent Design (ID) • Began with the work of Charles Thaxton, Walter Bradley, Michael Denton, Dean Kenyon and Phillip Johnson • Scientifically, Darwinism is an inadequate framework for biology • Philosophically, Darwinism is hopelesslyentangled with naturalism • Michael Behe, William Dembski, Stephen Meyer, Paul Nelson and Jonathan Wells • Proposed positive research program wherein intelligent causes become key for understanding the diversity and complexity of life @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  13. Some Influential ID Books • The Mystery of Life’s Origin, Charles Thaxton et. al. in 1984 • A Theory in Crisis, Michael Denton in 1986 • Darwin on Trial, Phillip Johnson in 1991 • Creation Hypothesis, Dean Kenyon in 1994 • Reason in the Balance, Phillip Johnson in 1995 • Darwin’s Black Box, Michael Behe in 1996 • The Design Inference, William Dembski in 1999 • Icons of Evolution, Jonathan Wells in 2000 • The Design Revolution, William Dembski in 2004 @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  14. Can Evolution be Proved in a Courtroom? A Lawyer’s Perspective Phillip E. Johnson Jefferson E. PeyserProfessor of LawSchool of LawUniversity of California, Berkeley http://www.arn.org/johnson/johome.htm Published in 1991 @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  15. Johnson’s Critique Spreads • This 1994 collection of philosophers, physicists, astronomers, chemists, biologists, and linguists critiqued Darwinism and promoted Intelligent Design @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  16. Johnson’s Influence Leads to 1996 Conference • This conference at Biola University brought scholars from around the world • The world learns of the Discovery Institute’s Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC). @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  17. Darwin’s Black Box • Lehigh U. biochemistry professor, Mike Behe’s1996 book was reviewed in mainline science journals. • For the first time Darwinists only argued with his conclusions, not his facts. • CT’s 1996 Book of the Year. @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  18. Irreducible Complexity • Mike Behe introduced the concept of irreducible complexity in his book, Darwin’s Black Box • Something is irreducibly complex if it is composed of two or more necessary parts • Remove one part and function is not just impaired but destroyed • A mousetrap is irreducibly complex @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  19. The Mousetrap • A mousetrap cannot be built by natural selection @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  20. “Irreducible Complexity” • “By irreducibly complex I mean a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning • An irreducibly complex system cannot be produced directly... by slight, successive modifications of a precursor system, because any precursor to an irreducibly complex system that is missing a part is by definition nonfunctional” Michael Behe, Darwin’s Black Box, p. 39. @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  21. William Dembski • Bill Dembski publishes The Design Inference in 1999 with the prestigious Cambridge University Press. • Bill has earned doctorates in philosophy and mathematics and an M.Div. from Princeton. @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  22. Year 2000 • Dembski publishes Intelligent Design • Major conferences at Baylor, Concordia College in Wisconsin, and Yale • Media and scientific community focus even more attention on Kansas @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  23. Year 2000 @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  24. Intelligent Design Theory • Living organisms are too complicated to be the result of natural processes working independently • Based largely on the theories underlying Information Theory • Concerned with measuring the complexity of structures/information contained in structures • Generally concerned with two main concepts: • Irreducible complexity • Specified complexity @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  25. Specified Complexity The following strings of characters illustrate the concept of Specified Complexity. Consider the following: Complexbut unspecified: • “fjbn ghtur ieiod ofjkgjbn mfkritj” Complexandspecified: • “The state of education in America” @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  26. Intelligent Design • “Intelligent Design” (ID) takes intelligence to be a separate principle, not reducible to chance and necessity • Targets evolution: life exhibits a special kind of order, not like that of a snowflake but like that of a meaningful message • Sophisticated anti-evolution • No Bible-thumping • Philosophical @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  27. ID: A Separate Principle Chance Design Necessity @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  28. “Irreducible Complexity” 1996: Michael Behe, Lehigh biochemist. Leading ID biologist. Catholic. Common descent OK––against Darwinian mechanism. Can’t get “irreducible complexity.” @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  29. “Specified Complexity” 1998-now: William Dembski, mathematician and philosopher. Leading theorist of ID. ID irreducible form of explanation, distinct from chance & necessity. ID is a revolution. @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  30. Books, Books, More Books • Dembski has 3 books, 4+ edited books on ID • Not just biology but physics, AI, theology, morality, law, … • Broad, “information-theoretic” objections to naturalistic evolution @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  31. Dembski’s claims • Both designed artifacts and organisms exhibit special order: specified complexity • Chance and necessitycannot generate Specified Complexity, or information • Intelligence is a separate principle • Blind mechanisms (like those of Darwinian evolution) cannot explain life • Artificial Intelligence is impossible @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  32. How To Detect Specified Complexity • Contingency: No physical constraint; all sorts of strings can appear on the paper • Complexity: Improbable to obtain by pure chance • Specification: Can’t read it, but fits properties of a language, priorly known • DNA also a code… @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  33. Testing for Design @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  34. Highly probable? Yes Law No Intermediate probability? Yes Chance No Specified/ Small probability? Design Yes No Chance Start William Dembski’sExplanatory Filter From Mere Creation: Science, Faith and Intelligent Design. William A. Dembski Ed. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1998. P99. @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  35. Is The Pattern Random Or Designed? Probability: =2-256 =8.6 x 10-78 =0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000086 @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  36. Is The Pattern Random Or Designed? Probability: =2-256 =8.6 x 10-78 =0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000086 @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  37. Arguments for a Designer Organisms look designed for at least three reasons: • Redundancy - A Designer can engineer redundancy into a system, but chance is unlikely to do this. An example of this is the presence of degeneracy in the genetic code and other features that minimize or negate the effects of many point mutations • Excess potential - Organisms have potential that may never be used. For example, Wallace, co-discoverer of natural selection, pointed out that primitive people have the capacity to do calculus when trained. Natural selection is unlikely to select for capacity that is not used • Complexity - Life exhibits a kind of complexity that it is hard to produce by processes involving chance @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  38. The Likely and the Unlikely • Arguments for a Designer frequently revolve around probability. Meaningful complexity is unlikely to result from random events. Organisms are meaningfully complex. Some claim that natural selection overcomes much of this problem as, while change may be random, selection is not • Science is about predicting whatis likely and what is unlikely. Everyone is in agreement that the events leading to production of living organisms are unlikely @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  39. In a Long Time and Big Universe • It has been argued that given massive lengths of time and a universe to work in, the unlikely becomes likely: • “Given infinite time, or infinite opportunities, anything is possible. The large numbers proverbially furnished by astronomy, and the large time spans characteristic of geology, combine to turn topsy-turvy our everyday estimates of what is expected and what is miraculous.” Richard Dawkins (1989) The Blind Watchmaker: Why the evidence of evolution reveals a universe without design. W. W. Norton and Co. New York. p139. • Dawkins says that while life looks designed, the designer was not God, but massive chance coupled with natural selection. Nature was the designer • In The Panda’s Thumb, Stephen J. Gould argues that life does not look designed @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  40. More Examples of Design • Necessity/law/order • Snowflake • Crystal • Design – irreducible/specified complexity • Animal cell • Molecular motors • Human eye • Bombardier beetle @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  41. Molecular Machines • Behe showed that the cell, Darwin’s Black Box, is filled with irreducibly complex molecular machines that could not be built by natural selection • David Hume criticized Paley’s watchmaker argument because it was not an exact enough analogy @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  42. Molecular Machines (cont’d) Over 100 molecular motors are now known to exist inside the cell with very specific analogies to human designed motors. @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  43. Board Trigger Staple Cheese Bait holder Hammer Spring Behe’s Insight • Michael Behe contends that when we look at the protein machines that run cells, there is a point at which no parts can be removed and still have a functioning machine. He called these machines “irreducibly complex” (IC) • We encounter irreducibly complex devices in everyday life. A simple mouse trap is an example of an irreducibly complex device: @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  44. Evolution of Complex Organs • The Origin of SpeciesChapter VI "Difficultiesof the Theory" • Organs of Extreme Perfectionand Complication • “To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correcting of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  45. Evolution of the Eye • To go from nothing to an eye would be a very big jump • Darwin proposed a series of what appeared to be relatively small steps (they are still gigantic leaps) that might be able to produce an eye @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  46. Intelligent Design (ID) • Uses an “explanatory filter” • Necessity – did it have to happen? • Chance – did it happen by accident? • Design – did an intelligent agent cause it to happen? • ID theory focuses on what is designed without answering the questions of who, when, why and how @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  47. Some ID Observations • ID confronts naturalistic philosophical underpinnings of evolutionary thinking • ID identifies presuppositions of naturalism • ID is supported by science • ID does not assume young universe • ID is not Creationism • ID does not mention the Fall @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  48. Issues with Intelligent Design • ID does not attempt to explain all designs • Only certain features are designed • Does not rule out evolutionary processes • ID does not oppose an old age for the earth • ID does not acknowledge God as redeemer • ID distances itself from the problem of evil • ID movement does not identify Designer/Creator • ID divorces the Creator from creation @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  49. Closing Thoughts on ID • Alternative theory to Darwinian Evolution? • Alternative to Creationism? • Should it be taught in public schools? • Critical thinking is needed • Presuppositions must be stated • Church-state issue? • Academic freedom is at stake @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

  50. @ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

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