ID and SETI: can intelligent design be considered scientific in the same way that SETI is?(Intelligent design and search for extraterrestrial intelligence)

From: Skeptic (Altadena, CA) | Date: June 22, 2005| Author: | Copyright information

"Some things have to believed to be seen."--Ralph Hodgson

ONE OF THE MOST UBIQUITOUS RHETORICAL devices used by "Intelligent Design" (ID) theorists in support of their ideas is the argument from analogy with human designs and endeavors. These analogies have been many and varied, ranging from the rather fanciful "bulldozer on Jupiter" metaphor to comparisons of ID with scientific disciplines such as SETI and criminological forensics. I recently ran across two instances of such a device, one in the first paragraph of William Dembski's testimony submitted to the recent Texas ...

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