[..Throwing the question back to Howard Van Till...]
>In brief, please fill in Y and Z in
>
>For X to be "intelligently designed" is to be Y'ed by a Z
>
>where X is respectively: (1) a pocket watch; (2) an extraterrestrially
>generated sequence of prime numbers sent as a radio transmission;
>(3) the world; (4) an irreducibly complex biochemical system.
For (4): an irreducibly complex biological system, I'd say:
Y = generated
Z = non-natural mechanism*
The problem is that there are examples of (4) generated by
natural mechanisms so IC doesn't exactly work as a reliable
criterion for intelligent design.
Regards,
Tim Ikeda
tikeda@sprintmail.hormel.com (despam address before use)
* There will be some debate about whether biological systems
(such as humans) should be considered natural or non-natural
mechanisms of "intelligent" change, or whether biological
organisms, being physical entities, can design "intelligently"
at all. I suppose that debate centers on what components are
necessary to generate "intelligence".