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ISSR Statement on the Concept of Intelligent Design

Posted by Margaret on Friday, Mar 7, 2008

The International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR), many of whose members are Christian, has issued a statement saying that Intelligent Design “is not science”:

We believe that intelligent design is neither sound science nor good theology. Although the boundaries of science are open to change, allowing supernatural explanations to count as science undercuts the very purpose of science, which is to explain the workings of nature without recourse to religious language. Attributing complexity to the interruption of natural law by a divine designer is, as some critics have claimed, a science stopper. Besides, ID has not yet opened up a new research program. In the opinion of the overwhelming majority of research biologists, it has not provided examples of “irreducible complexity” in biological evolution that could not be explained as well by normal scientifically understood processes. Students of nature once considered the vertebrate eye to be too complex to explain naturally, but subsequent research has led to the conclusion that this remarkable structure can be readily understood as a product of natural selection. This shows that what may appear to be “irreducibly complex” today may be explained naturalistically tomorrow.

ISSR Statement on the Concept of ‘Intelligent Design’.

Thanks to the NSS for the link.

Tags: Intelligent+Design, Scientists, ISSR

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