Changes

In the book by Carl Sagan, '''Contact''', a sequence of prime numbers received by a radio telescope from outer space was deemed to be a possible design or message.  In the first step of the filter, the peculiar pattern of beeps and pauses could not be explained by any physical or chemical necessity.  Further, its length of over 1000 symbols ruled out chance in the second part of the analysis. The investigation then turned to a search for a “specification,” a meaning or significance for the sequence of prime numbers that was independent of the symbols them selves.  They were looking for something that would tie the over 1000 stopping points to an integrated whole.  They asked, what meaning lies in a series of prime numbers?  Jody Foster, remarked, “Maybe it is an attention getter!”  Sure enough the message alerted the SETI researchers to a subsequent message containing the blue prints for building an extraordinary machine that ultimately transported Ms Foster into another world.  

In the book by Carl Sagan, '''Contact''', a sequence of prime numbers received by a radio telescope from outer space was deemed to be a possible design or message.  In the first step of the filter, the peculiar pattern of beeps and pauses could not be explained by any physical or chemical necessity.  Further, its length of over 1000 symbols ruled out chance in the second part of the analysis. The investigation then turned to a search for a “specification,” a meaning or significance for the sequence of prime numbers that was independent of the symbols them selves.  They were looking for something that would tie the over 1000 stopping points to an integrated whole.  They asked, what meaning lies in a series of prime numbers?  Jody Foster, remarked, “Maybe it is an attention getter!”  Sure enough the message alerted the SETI researchers to a subsequent message containing the blue prints for building an extraordinary machine that ultimately transported Ms Foster into another world.  

Finding a specification or purpose in living systems is not really an issue.  Like the SETI researchers in '''Contact''', modern day biologists are trying to find the function or meaning of long sequences of DNA previously thought to be evolutionary “junk.”  Parts of DNA clearly code for function or purpose, but what is the meaning of the rest of it?  Hence, most biologists concede that living systems give the appearance of design.  Indeed, Richard Dawkins describes biology as “the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.”  More recently prominent evolutionary biologists in papers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science acknowledged that the “the challenge for evolutionary biologists is to explain how seemingly well designed features of organism, where the fit of function to biological structure and organization often seems superb, is achieved without a sentient Designer.’”   

Finding a specification or purpose in living systems is not really an issue.  Like the SETI researchers in '''Contact''', modern day biologists are trying to find the function or meaning of long sequences of DNA previously thought to be evolutionary “junk.”  Parts of DNA clearly code for function or purpose, but what is the meaning of the rest of it?  Hence, most biologists concede that living systems give the appearance of design.  Recently prominent evolutionary biologists in papers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science acknowledged that the “the challenge for evolutionary biologists is to explain how seemingly well designed features of organism, where the fit of function to biological structure and organization often seems superb, is achieved without a sentient Designer.’”   

DNA consists of coded “messages” that are copied by “messenger RNA.”  The copy is taken to a processing plant called a ribosome, which then “translates” the message into a functional three-dimensional part or genetic word called a protein. Thus, like the recipes in cook books, sequences of nucleotide bases in DNA carry meaning that is independent of the significance of each of the symbols that make the “message.”  They not only look like specifications, they function as specifications.

DNA consists of coded “messages” that are copied by “messenger RNA.”  The copy is taken to a processing plant called a ribosome, which then “translates” the message into a functional three-dimensional part or genetic word called a protein. Thus, like the recipes in cook books, sequences of nucleotide bases in DNA carry meaning that is independent of the significance of each of the symbols that make the “message.”  They not only look like specifications, they function as specifications.

Intelligent design, therefore, is not only science, but as a competing historical narrative, it is a valuable scientific challenge to the naturalistic historical narrative of Darwinism. Without it, Darwinism ceases being science, and becomes an unchallengeable dogma.

Intelligent design, therefore, is not only science, but as a competing historical narrative, it is a valuable scientific challenge to the naturalistic historical narrative of Darwinism. Without it, Darwinism ceases being science, and becomes an unchallengeable dogma.

== History of Intelligent Design ==

== History of Intelligent Design ==