ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************
From National Center for Science Education.
http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/news/2007/US/21_sober_explains_what_is_wrong_w_2_14_2007.asp
Sober explains what is wrong with "intelligent design"
Writing in the Quarterly Review of Biology (March 2007, vol. 82, no.
1, pp. 3-8), Elliott Sober answers the question, "What is wrong with
intelligent design?" in a particularly clear and informative way.
Sober focuses on what he calls "mini-ID": the claim "that the complex
adaptations that organisms display (e.g., the vertebrate eye) were
crafted by an intelligent designer." After discussing problems with
two standard criticisms -- that it is unfalsifiable and that it is
refuted by the many imperfect adaptations found in nature -- Sober
argues that mini-ID cannot be tested against evolutionary
explanations of adaptations, writing, "When scientific theories
compete with each other, the usual pattern is that independently
attested auxiliary propositions allow the theories to make
predictions that disagree with each other. No such auxiliary
propositions allow mini-ID to do this." Sober concludes, "It is easy
enough to construct a version of ID that accommodates a set of
observations already known, but it also is easy to construct a
version of ID that conflicts with what we have already observed.
Neither undertaking results in substantive science, nor is there any
point in constructing a version of ID that is so minimalistic that it
fails to say much of anything about what we observe. In all its
forms, ID fails to constitute a serious alternative to evolutionary
theory." A Supporter of NCSE, Sober is Hans Reichenbach Professor and
Henry Vilas Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Wisconsin, Madison.
Perhaps we can discuss this on the list.
Martin
--
Martin Weiss, Ph.D
Vice President, Science
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111 th Street
Corona, New York 11368
718 699 0005 x 356
***********************************************************************
More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http://www.astc.org.
To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]
|