36
votes
Is the surprising applicability of mathematics to the physical world a brute fact, or something crying out for a theistic explanation?
Reality existed.
Math was invented, partly to describe and predict reality, a useful tool.
Calculus specifically is an example...
Isaac Newton (1642–1727) is best known for having invented the
...
- 1,736
29
votes
How does the theory of evolution make it less likely that the world is designed?
When Laplace wrote his Newtonian, materialist explanation of the universe, Napoleon asked him where God fit into the scheme. "I have no need of that hypothesis, Sire," was Laplace's famous ...
- 13.7k
28
votes
Would seeing the stars spell out a sentence justify belief in a designer?
Ultimately, for a person of faith, what makes something a miracle isn't if it's rare, or inexplicable, or awe-inspiring, or impossible. It's that you see the hand of God in it, and that's more a ...
- 30.4k
24
votes
Accepted
Does Intelligent Design (ID) entail an infinite regress of designers, and if so, is that problematic?
Your question contains a couple of misconceptions about ID. First, it assumes that ID is an argument for God. This is not the case. ID can certainly be used in an argument for God, and most (but not ...
- 11k
24
votes
Accepted
Is the surprising applicability of mathematics to the physical world a brute fact, or something crying out for a theistic explanation?
The biggest issue seems to be that Craig implies that mathematics is entirely disconnected from the physical world. But maths emerged from our understanding of physical world. We saw that when you put ...
- 11.7k
23
votes
Does Intelligent Design fulfill the necessary criteria to be recognized as a scientific theory?
These two answers to prior questions spell out almost everything you have asked here:
Would a teleogenetic standpoint be more useful in discovering certain possibilities about life origins than the ...
- 15.1k
23
votes
Accepted
Is there a general theory of intelligence and design that would allow us to detect the presence of design in an object based solely on its properties?
The simple answer is, no there isn't.
We recognise certain features as indicating evolution, like vestigial remnant functions, such as the human appendix, or wisdom teeth, which can't be explained by ...
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18
votes
Would seeing the stars spell out a sentence justify belief in a designer?
I have good news. If you look at the Hubble deep field pictures here
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/universe-uncovered/hubble-deep-fields/
I am sure you can pick out come subset of ...
- 8,170
17
votes
How does the theory of evolution make it less likely that the world is designed?
It's not a strawman, it's arguing against specific god claims, or rebutting specific arguments for a god.
As such, it applies to some god beliefs, but may not apply to others.
You could make a few ...
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16
votes
Do the defenses that science has implemented against a political attack undercut the ability to evaluate teleological science questions?
Everything up to the last paragraph seems to be:
"Suppose that evidence exists and is being ignored. Does this mean that evidence exists and is being ignored?"
Yes, tautologies are ...
- 7,341
16
votes
What are philosophical arguments for the position that Intelligent Design is nothing but "Creationism in disguise"?
Did the court of the law that judged ID to be creationism in disguise employ philosophical arguments to come to that conclusion? ... More generally, are there philosophical arguments for the position ...
- 31.5k
15
votes
What are philosophical arguments for the position that Intelligent Design is nothing but "Creationism in disguise"?
Reasonnably, you can make a philosophical argument that creationism and intelligent design are close from each other and overlap, or point at the flaws of intelligent design that make it a ...
- 7,267
15
votes
Does Intelligent Design fulfill the necessary criteria to be recognized as a scientific theory?
Commonly "Intelligent Design" does not denote anything theoretic, but a political anti-scientific movement aiming to replace science teaching in schools by teaching of religion.
The ...
- 5,655
15
votes
Does the "Sniper Firing Squad" analogy undermine the anthropic principle’s objection to the fine-tuning argument for God's existence?
To me, a more accurate "sniper analogy" for fine-tuning would be:
You run between 2 points of cover in a heavy firefight. There was probably hundred bullets hitting somewhat near you without ...
- 11.7k
12
votes
Accepted
If we encounter what appears to be an advanced extraterrestrial technological device, would the claim that it was designed be falsifiable?
Scientific theories and falsification are not generally questions about specific instances, but applied to general processes and statements about nature. Theories make predictions, then you perform ...
- 2,059
10
votes
Accepted
Do the defenses that science has implemented against a political attack undercut the ability to evaluate teleological science questions?
There is enough substance to this question that it deserves serious discussion and response. I am not seeing the level of awareness of the actual science discussion on ID that I have dug into in ...
- 15.1k
10
votes
Does Intelligent Design fulfill the necessary criteria to be recognized as a scientific theory?
Allow me to get properly philosophical here and point out that the phrase 'scientific theory' is at best a red herring (and at worst a holdover from mid-20th century scientism). Theory is proposed ...
- 21.8k
10
votes
Does Intelligent Design fulfill the necessary criteria to be recognized as a scientific theory?
The elephant in the room is that ID apparently originated as pseudoscience:
Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an ...
- 7,258
10
votes
How does the theory of evolution make it less likely that the world is designed?
Evolution is not evidence against God.
Evolution is evidence that complex forms of matter and energy don't require a supernatural explanation. The Catholic Church, the largest Christian Church in the ...
- 31.5k
10
votes
Would seeing the stars spell out a sentence justify belief in a designer?
let’s assume that you could somehow know that a) this isn’t a hallucination and b) humans could not have designed this (after all, they’re stars) and c) no intelligent, physical life form that could ...
- 11.7k
9
votes
If we encounter what appears to be an advanced extraterrestrial technological device, would the claim that it was designed be falsifiable?
Yes; perhaps X was the result of random evolution of self-reproducing machines, like evolution on Earth but for machines. In that case, finding sufficient evidence of the evolution process (fossils/...
- 16.4k
9
votes
Does the "Sniper Firing Squad" analogy undermine the anthropic principle’s objection to the fine-tuning argument for God's existence?
The fact that the odds, P, of the criminal being missed was one preceded by 20,000 zeros does not make it more likely that some other cause was at play. In particular, it does not mean that the ...
- 24.8k
8
votes
Do the defenses that science has implemented against a political attack undercut the ability to evaluate teleological science questions?
You are right in one sense- the scientific community is riddled with all sorts of prejudices, so it is possible, generally, that there may be tendencies to prefer certain classes of ideas over others. ...
- 24.8k
8
votes
What are philosophical arguments for the position that Intelligent Design is nothing but "Creationism in disguise"?
In my view, this question is largely equivocation between a philosophical position that could be called "Intelligent Design" and the fake position advocated in the real world called "...
- 1,230
8
votes
Does Intelligent Design fulfill the necessary criteria to be recognized as a scientific theory?
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the Discovery Institute's Wedge Document, which is interesting reading for anyone who wants to know whether to take Intelligent Design seriously.
The social ...
- 846
8
votes
Does Intelligent Design fulfill the necessary criteria to be recognized as a scientific theory?
Before we can answer the question, we first need to understand what it means for theory to be scientific. In my view, your framing of this question in six questions is not helpful, and a distraction ...
- 1,230
8
votes
Is there a general theory of intelligence and design that would allow us to detect the presence of design in an object based solely on its properties?
Assembly theory is an approach that tries to quantify precisely how much “temporal depth” is encapsulated in a given structure by analyzing both its complexity and prevalence in a given environment. ...
- 9,670
8
votes
Is the surprising applicability of mathematics to the physical world a brute fact, or something crying out for a theistic explanation?
My three cents.
It has been claimed that the effectiveness of mathematics on physical reality is anything but unreasonable.
The reason is twofold. First many theories and areas of mathematics were ...
- 2,938
7
votes
Does Intelligent Design (ID) entail an infinite regress of designers, and if so, is that problematic?
if Complexity(ID1) < Complexity(X), we are admitting that complexity can increase over time, which would sound great to the ears of evolutionists, so let's just ignore this case for the purposes of ...
- 5,655
7
votes
Does Intelligent Design fulfill the necessary criteria to be recognized as a scientific theory?
(This answer was invited in chat by the question-asker.)
Your fourth point about consilience should be viewed in light of Quine (WP, SEP) and his view of science. Quine wrote a book The Web of Belief ...
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