Sunday, April 22, 2007

Why infer ID?

I was catching up on some reading at Uncommon Descent, and I came across a comment from gpuccio. I like it, so I'm going to post it here.

1) We have, everywhere, myriads of living organisms. We know something (probably a small part) of the almost infinite complexity and function in these organisms.

2) We assume, reasonably, according to what science knows, that these organisms came into being at a certain time. They have not always been here, at least on this planet.

3) No known physical law can explain how living beings came into being at first (OOL), or how new, more complex species came into being afterwards. In particular, the generation of the necessary amount of information has, at present, no reasonable explanation according to known physical laws.

4) “Science” has provided a dogmatic explanation of the appearance of new, more complex species, that is darwinian evolution (including all variations of the theory); and many fantasy-driven explanations of OOL, including the RNA world scenario. All these theories are evidently false, unsubstantiated by facts, logically impossible.

5) Whatever explanation one can suggest, there is a theory which can easily explain the information problem in living beings (although, obviously, many implementation problems stay open). That theory is ID. The information is there because a designer is responsible for it. That approach is perfectly satisfying, because we have every day examples of designed structures exhibiting (although at a lower level) the kind of complexity and function we see in living beings.

6) So, at present, design paradigm should naturally be the main interpretative approach to research about living beings, and should stimulate a corresponding and appropriate volume of thinking and analyzing at the scientific level.

7) If that is not happening, the only reason is a dogmatic defense against ID and its implications, based only on irrational faith in a specific, and very unsatisfying, interpretation of reality: reductive, deterministic materialism.