>Let me therefore turn the problem around. Howard, presumably you agree
that
>a pocket watch is designed? How would you fill in the blanks in your
scheme
>in the case of a pocket watch:
>To be (or have been) 'intelligently designed' is to be (or have been)
>_______________________________ [decribe the category of action here]
>by ____________________________________ [identify type of agent here].
My response:
1. I would, of course, not use the term "intelligently designed."
2. I would say instead that a pocket watch can be recognized as something
that has been BOTH *designed* AND *crafted* by a human artisan. By
*designed* I mean (as in common usage today) *thoughtfully conceptualized
in the mind of the artisan for the accomplishment of a purpose.* By
*crafted* I mean *assembled by the artisan from parts shaped from raw
materials at hand, raw materials that were neither given being by the
artisan nor capable of self-shaping or self-assembly*.
The particular mode of the 'crafting' operation could vary
considerably--from the hand-work of an individual artisan in the sort of
watchmaker's shop that William Paley may have had in mind a couple of
centuries ago, to the modern assembly line operation more common today. In
either case, however, the common theme is that *a novel form has been
imposed* on materials whose existence and capabilities were independently
established by means beyond the control of the artisan.
Respectfully,
Howard Van Till