Re: Book-able view of ID as speculative science

On 4 Dec 2005 00:38:22 -0800, in talk.origins , "topmind"
<topmind@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in
<1133685502.190746.327310@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



[snip]

>ID explains anything evo can, by the way. The issue is the evidence,
>not the mere ability to explain. "Because the creator wanted it that
>way" can do it, and many complain that open-endedness makes ID
>untestable. You cannot have it both ways. If it cannot explain
>something, then we have found a way to falsify it, busting your "too
>wide open" claim.

This is 180, no 540 degrees wrong. You have it so backwards you have
done it twice. Yes, ID explains everything we see, it "explains"
everything we don't see. It would "explain" equally well any possible
set of observations. *That* is exactly why it is not testable. Testing
consists of some way to potential observations. If the world were X we
would/would not see Y and if we do/don't see Y, then the world is not
X. But that does not work for ID. There is no way to test ID because
no matter what we see we can apply the same explanation. And so,
really, that explanation does not actually explain.

What you have forgotten, as all creationists have forgotten, is that
there did used to be an action "Designer" based explanation. People
got sick because they were bad. Earthquakes and hurricanes happened
because societies were bad. That does explain and is even testable to
some extent. We could take a set of moral rules, judge people, and see
what happens. Unfortunately for those who held or hold such a Design
based view it failed all of the tests. Meteorology, not theology, was
able to predict and, so, explain, hurricanes. Biologists, and not
theologians, were able to predict, and so explain, disease. So most of
use have given up that older Design explanation. Without that,
unfortunately, Design is left with nothing. It asserts some capricious
entities whose only qualities are that they did whatever we see.

[snip]

--
Matt Silberstein

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