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Article Title:	Intelligent Design Versus Evolution
Author of reported comment:	Richard Forrest
Comment Date:	11:10 on Nov 7 2010
Comment:	Let's put some of the misinformation in this article to rest here, shall we? ID is not a scientific theory. In science, theories need to set constraints on possible outcomes. This is what makes them testable, and it is by testing theories that theya re developed or rejected. The assertion that something must be designed because it looks designed is not testable. It is an argument from incredulity. Such arguments have not place in science. Contrary to Noble's assertion, it is not a "clear inferrence from nature". It is an assertion which cannot be tested using the tools of science. Evolution is not an "inferrence from nature". It is a phenomenon of nature we can observe in action in the natural world and replicate in the laboratory. Evolutionary theory is a model of how evolution happens, and one which can and has been exhaustively tested. Noble refers to a "grand theory of evolution". There is no such "grand theory". There is evolutionary theory, which has several components including natural selection, genetic mutation, genetic drift, "evo-devo", epigenetic factors and so on. Scientists may argue over the significance of each of these elements to the observed phenomenon of evolution, but no scientist not blinded by religious dogma doubts that the theory is robust. ID proponents fail even to define what they mean by "design". It's a useful word to them because it can carry so many meanings, which means that it can be used to create confusion and obfustication. No ID proponent has ever done any research into the nature of objects and systems which are known to be designed, and identified characteristics which separate them from objects and systems known not to be designed. Handwaving assertions are not science, and it's worth noting that "irreducible complexity" - which Michael Behe asserts is a characteristic unique to "designed" systems - was actually predicted by evolutionary theory in 1918.

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