Is Intelligent Design 'Scientific'?
Loren Haarsma, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy
Minds in the Making

Editor's Note: This talk was delivered to "Models for Creation: Intelligent Design and Evolution," the annual conference of the American Scientific Affiliation, at Messiah College in Grantham, Penn., in August 2005. For more about the author, see www.calvin.edu/~lhaarsma.

Abstract

A central activity of science is construction and testing of empirical models, utilizing known natural mechanisms, of parts of the natural world. Occasionally, some scientists tentatively conclude that some particular phenomenon is unexplainable in terms of any known natural mechanisms. I will discuss some historical examples which have been resolved (e.g. the energy source of the sun) and some modern examples still under discussion (e.g. the Big Bang, first life) where at least some scientists have concluded that a phenomenon is unexplainable in terms of known natural mechanisms. In such circumstances, individual scientists have advocated a range of scientific and philosophical conclusions (e.g. unknown natural mechanisms, multiple universes, divine intervention). The modern Intelligent Design (ID) movement can be understood as one particular instance of this.   Some activities of ID are clearly "scientific," even under narrow definitions of that term, including: modeling of evolutionary population dynamics, investigating the adequacy of known evolutionary mechanisms to account for specific instances of biological complexity, and investigating the general conditions under which self-organized complexity is possible. Other activities of ID clearly go beyond science into philosophy and theology; however, this fact does not render the scientific activities of ID any less scientific. Rather than debating the demarcation of science, the real questions we should be asking are: Are the scientific arguments of ID good science? Are the philosophical arguments of ID good philosophy? Are the theological arguments of ID good theology?

Two-page handout

Full text of talk

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'Some Assembly Required' or 'Designed for Self-Assembly'? (PowerPoint presentation)

Additional writings by the author on science and religion