The musings of junior science students on life, the universe, and everything (i.e. science & ethics).
Friday, March 11, 2011
Is Intelligent Design real science?
Is Intelligent Design real science?
To answer this question, first of all, we need to understand the definition of Science. What is Science? According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary,the definition of science is "knowledge attained through study or practice," or "knowledge covering general truths of the operation of general laws, esp. as obtained and tested through scientific method [and] concerned with the physical world." Compare the definition of science to the concept of Intelligent design, we may have the answer for the question.
Appearing in "Judgement Day: Intelligent design on trial", Dr. Behe is a professor in the department of biological science at Lehigh university Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; he is best known as the author of "Darwin's black box", a senior fellow of the idea of Intelligent Design. He define the factor of science about Intelligent design as "observable, empirical, physical evidence from nature" and "logical inference". The two major differences between these two definitions are : Possibility of getting tested and concernation of topic. A topic that could be considered science must be tested by a scientific method. According to Dr. Hebe, Intelligent design have never been tested and could not be tested. This factor gives Dr. Hebe a big minus point. Concernation, a topic that could be considered science must be concerned with the physical world, "Intelligent Design" is based on the thinking of the creation of all living forms designed by an unknown "Designer", " Creator", or "Greater Being". This has nothing to do with the physical world.
In conclusion, the theory is not tested and not close to reality and physical world, but that does not mean the theory is not true, which is absolutely true; it can not be proved but it may still exists. But the question here is about is it possible to consider " Intelligent Design" science, the answer is no, at least, temporarily, it is not real science yet.