EVOLUTION: was Re: Salt

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

> My (best albeit rudimentary) understanding of the theory is it

> posits that (1) Involvement of a supernatural Intelligence in the

> formation of life and the universe is a real and reasonable

> possibility; (2) We can observe evidence supporting this possibility

> by analyzing scientific knowledge of the natural world; (3) If such

> Intelligence exists, our understanding of science would be

> incomplete without acknowledging it.

>

I am going to reply in more depth to this post, but it may take me a

few days. I have many items on my plate now, and also I must change

my settings to write from email and not on the web (which has only

been intermittently available). I just wanted to let you know that I

haven't and won't forget it.

But in the meantime, let me give you these tidbits to chew on. First

off, your number 1 above is incorrect. IDers do NOT suggest just who

(or Who) is behind the design. Dembski goes into the

" embodied " or " unembodied " designer in his book, _No Free Lunch_, and

has said: " It could be space aliens. There are many possibilities. "

(San Francisco Chronicle, March 17, 2002). Behe has made

similar " it could be aliens " comments. Supernatural is not part of

their game plan, nor is God necessarily. So many problems exist with

ID that I have to ask: What are they to teach the public school

children, Raelian philosophies?

Seriously, Intelligent Design is no more than philosophy, and it can

and should be taught in philosophy class. Dembski uses

Paley's philosophical material quite a bit in his book, btw,

but tries to elevate it to a science. He fails miserably. The fact

that no field of science is moved by the arguments coming from the

Intelligent Design community comes as no surprise.

You suggested something about inorganic molecules, which I will

address fully later. But for now, just let me state that there is

ample evidence of organic molecules all over interstellar space,

including methane in our own neighborhood on Saturn's moon Titan

(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6876518/), amino acids inside

meterorites, and all sorts of fun compounds in space including

ethanol, propenal and propanal

(http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2004/GBTMolecules/) The stars fuse together

the heavy elements, that's how the universe works. We see complex

compounds in space. Therefore, it is not as improbable that chemicals

evolve as the ID camp proclaims. We astronomers (I am an amateur)

speak of the life and death of stars all the time

Anyway, I will address your post piece by piece later on. Thank you

for your understanding and patience.

Deanna