Re: [asa] Innate design detector?

ID is basically useless yes or at least scientifically vacuous.
Is the paper useless? It proposes some very interesting hypotheses
and how to test them. That by itself places it outside the league of
ID which is based on our ignorance.
Hope this clarifies

On Nov 1, 2006, at 9:01 PM, David Opderbeck wrote:

> So the paper you cited, like ID in your estimation, is basically
> useless?
>
> On 11/1/06, Pim van Meurs <pimvanmeurs@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> Exactly why ID is flawed...
>
> On Nov 1, 2006, at 11:08 AM, David Opderbeck wrote:
>
>> It helps us understand why some detect 'design' in biology even
>> though there is a considerable risk of false positives.
>>
>> No it doesn't, because it gives us no criteria for sifting true
>> positives from false positives.
>>
>>
>> On 11/1/06, Pim van Meurs <pimvanmeurs@yahoo.com > wrote:
>> It helps us understand why some detect 'design' in biology even
>> though there is a considerable risk of false positives. The question
>> of purpose in biology may always remain an open question as it is
>> presently based on our ignorance and unless we manage to learn more,
>> there will always be issues where we lack knowledge and are quick to
>> jump to design conclusions, as this is our innate tendency.
>>
>> Remember that Dembski argued that the presence of false positives in
>> inferring design would render his approach useless.
>> Nevertheless, this innate tendency may help explain such things as
>> superstition, alien landings, etc. Who does not remember watching the
>> clouds pass by and seeing 'designs'.
>> So if we are hard wired to detect design, especially when we lack
>> additional explanations, then I see this as a very relevant issue
>> even to our so called design as some claim has been detected in for
>> instance biology.
>>
>>
>> On Nov 1, 2006, at 10:35 AM, David Opderbeck wrote:
>>
>> > The paper doesn't seem terribly interesting. We're hard-wired to
>> > infer purpose from certain perceptual patterns; sometimes our
>> > inferences are correct, sometimes they're not. Whether the
>> > perception of purpose in biology is a correct inference is an open
>> > question. So what?
>> >
>>
>>
>
>

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Received on Thu Nov 2 00:46:22 2006