Re: [asa] STATEMENT ON INTELLIGENT DESIGN BY IOWA STATE

Hi Randy,

you wrote,

> How would you recognize the language, or coding, unless you had prior knowledge
> of the designer and his codebook?

But to the contrary, how can you say that we cannot recognize the language, or coding, unless you have prior knowledge of the designer and his codebook?  Understanding him is always a possibility.

One obvious fact is that we wouldn't need to understand a designer's native language or coding as long as he understands ours and intends to communicate with us.  In fact, a lack of a priori knowledge should actually lead us to the opposite conclusion:  if we lack a priori knowledge about him then that alone prohibits us from saying what he can or cannot do.  Thus it is logically impossible to say that he cannot make his designs recognizable to us when we lack a priori knowledge.  So this particular argument against ID is a self-defeating argument.

Furthermore, the DNA thing was just a silly example intended to illustrate the point.  It's easy to think of many other examples that involve smaller levels of "coding" (or none at all) and yet clearly point to the action of an intelligence without any a priori knowledge of the being's motives or abilities.  I stand by this because it is easy to think of examples.  

To balance what I am saying, I want to agree with what Wayne has just posted:  it makes no sense for God to put His messages where only the wise can see them (as in DNA codes), well hidden from the babes, because in the Bible God has promised exactly the opposite.  Hence, I see the IDM as being contrary to the Bible.

Again, I'm not saying that ID has found proof of intelligence via their methods, only that our argument amounts to limiting the abilities of an unknown intelligence and therefore it is we, not the IDers, who are being illogical.

Phil

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Received on Fri Jun 8 22:29:01 2007