7/30/2019 Opinions on Intelligent Design

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Melissa Wilde

SCIE 2320

August 30th, 2013

Writing Assignment #1: Intelligent Design on Trial

In science, the terms law and theory can be used interchangeably; in fact,

in the scientific community today, there is not a discriminate ranking or difference

between the two. There is however, a strict guideline between what can be considered

a law or theory, as opposed to what is simply regarded as conjecture or even

pseudoscience.

In order to be considered by scientists to be a law or theory, a hypothesis must

be fully exploredthat is, taken beyond simple conjecture or observationwith an

idea of how it can be tested. Often scientific laws have been tested against nature over

and over again, whereas theories can go untested but are generally accepted due to

their thorough investigation by various members of the greater scientific community.

A scientific law must be able to be tested using concrete methods, even if the test is

not actually conducted. In pseudoscience and religious practices, ideas about the

occurrences in our world and universe are primarily faith-based, meaning no tests are

required for these truths. In this way, religious beliefs and scientific laws and

theories frequently conflict.

Intelligent Design is a concept that seeks to present an alternative to evolution,

stating that the life on earth is far too complex in our present day to have reached this

current state through solely evolution, and that an unknown intelligent designer

created advanced forms of organisms, who then evolved slightly from that state to

their current one. The intelligent designers are not named, and those who formally

investigate this so-called doctrine are frequently unable to obtain straightforward

answers as to who designed the designers, or if the intelligent designer is simply

another disguise for a god or deity.

7/30/2019 Opinions on Intelligent Design

2/2

Melissa Wilde

SCIE 2320

August 30th, 2013

When Intelligent Design came under scrutiny for its use in the public

school system of Dover, Pennsylvania, skeptics immediately suspected ID as

being a ruse for integrating creationism into public schools under a slightly more

compromising presentation. A legitimate theory must be able to be measured or

tested, and while ID builds off of an actual theory (evolution), the core difference

lies in the designers, which cannot be tested or explainedneither their origins

nor their existence in our universe period. This element of the doctrine is flawed

in that it is faith-based, making it at least partially pseudoscience.

From an educational perspective, the object of instructional science in

schools is to present an unbiased and for the most part proven account of what

occurs in the natural world. In fairness to the distinct separation between

science and pseudoscience, any form of doctrine based in faith and not concrete

evidence should not be presented to a student still learning about the

occurrences in our universe. Creationism, Intelligent Design and other forms of

pseudoscience can later be explored as such in later years, but should be avoided

in the key developmental years.