Talk:Intelligent design

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Shorten the SD

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The definition of Intelligent Design should be as follows: is a philosophical/theological movement and subsequent teleologically scientific movement which seeks to reinvigorate and expand scientific language concerning the Aristotelian category of telos and thus expand the parameters of modern science and its tendency towards positivistic emphasis in the natural sciences.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Mountbrocken (talkcontribs)

I'll bite: what has ID to do with Aristotle? I followed many arguments, by proponents and opponents of ID, and Aristotle wasn't mentioned even once. tgeorgescu (talk) 18:28, 16 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 16 April 2025

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The definition of Intelligent Design should EXCLUDE the term pseudoscience and the definition should be this: is a philosophical/theological movement and subsequent teleologically scientific movement which seeks to reinvigorate and expand scientific language concerning the Aristotelian category of telos and thus expand the parameters of modern science and its tendency towards positivistic emphasis in the natural sciences. Mountbrocken (talk) 18:28, 16 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Replied above: it is not clear what Aristotle has to do with ID.
The only mention of telistic science was Thomas Nagel's paper on ID. For the rest, neither proponents, nor opponents made a connection between ID and Aristotle. tgeorgescu (talk) 19:23, 16 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Aristotlelian philosophy held that truth was established by quality of rhetoric and appeal to authority. For Aristoteleans, heavy objects fall faster than light ones, and both fall at constant speed. This was replaced in the 17th Century by the concept of fact, a loanword from law. Where truth was established by authority, fact was established by weight of empirical evidence.
Anybody who has been paying attention will realise that there has been a concerted effort over more than half a century to roll back the scientific revolution and go back to Truth as the arbiter of reality. This has been led by two particularly powerful lobbies: cdesign proponentsists and climate change deniers.
Wikipedia still runs on facts. Try Conservapedia. Guy (help! - typo?) 20:19, 16 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The connection with creationism should be removed

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The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.


Although ID points to a designer, it has little connection with creationism. Creationism wants to prove Genesis 1 fully, while ID only says there was a designer (like the Big Bang theory says there was a beginning) regardless of whether that was an alien, a supercreature or whatever. Of course speculation about the designer is common, but it does not necessarily have anything to do with the bible (how many other religions have a story about how life began?)

There are creationists who try to make use of the success of Intelligent Design, of course. But their opinions are not central or influential in the movement. It's like atheïsts making use of the success of pychoanalysis, and then considering the entire field of psychoanalysis to be motivated by atheïsm. Maarten Havinga (talk) 19:35, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Have you read and understood the article? N.B. the hatnote and the second paragraph of the lead section. Just plain Bill (talk) 19:46, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Judging what is science or not is not something to be left to judges and courts. It should be the task of philosophy of science. Making it judged by a judge or court will not change the opinion of the scientists. Maarten Havinga (talk) 19:58, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
unless a motivation from philosophy of science is given by the judge or court, of course. Maarten Havinga (talk) 20:11, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Nice deflection. The Kitzmiller case came after the Discovery Institute's framing of creationism in "intelligent design" terms. The core thesis of the article may be found in the second paragraph's first sentence:
Although the phrase intelligent design had featured previously in theological discussions of the argument from design, its first publication in its present use as an alternative term for creationism was in Of Pandas and People, a 1989 creationist textbook intended for high school biology classes.
N.B. the first sentence of the hatnote:
This article is about a specific pseudoscientific form of creationism.
I am finished with this thread. regards, Just plain Bill (talk) 21:03, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
ID and creationism are thoroughly linked together through the proponents at the Discovery Institute. Other, similar, propositions are covered at Teleological argument. Black Kite (talk) 20:15, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
From their website:
The two most prominent creationist groups, Answers in Genesis Ministries (AIG) and Institute for Creation Research (ICR) have criticized the intelligent design movement (IDM) because design theory, unlike creationism, does not seek to defend the Biblical account of creation. AIG specifically complained about IDM's “refusal to identify the Designer with the Biblical God” and noted that “philosophically and theologically the leading lights of the ID movement form an eclectic group.” Indeed, according to AIG, “many prominent figures in the IDM reject or are hostile to Biblical creation, especially the notion of recent creation'.” Likewise, ICR has criticized ID for not employing “the Biblical method,” concluding that “Design is not enough!” Creationist groups like AIG and ICR clearly understand that intelligent design is not the same thing as creationism. Maarten Havinga (talk) 20:27, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
(ec) Yep, exactly. Maarten Havinga, you should read the article more carefully. I specifically direct you to the section mentioning "cdesign proponentsists", showing how they screwed up doing a basic search and replace while simply rebranding creationist books to ID books. --McSly (talk) 20:30, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I wouldn't advise reading the article with anything but extreme caution indeed! Maarten Havinga (talk) 20:46, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
after all, my advisors at the UvA when I completed my master thesis did not consider wikipedia to be a reliable source. I'm pretty sure they back me up to read cautiously and check all the references. Maarten Havinga (talk) 20:49, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Wikipedia agrees with your advisors at the UvA, so that's good. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 06:29, 9 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
This is also covered by the FAQ at the top of this page. So we should probably stop wasting too much time here. --McSly (talk) 20:32, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Black Kite you forgot to mention Isaac Newton in Teleological argument. See [1] bottom of page 35:
Moreover, the second edition contains the theologically charged and methodologically significant General Scholium, in which Newton, amongst other things, urged that the system of the world is dependent on “the design and dominion of an intel ligent and powerful being,” Maarten Havinga (talk) 20:42, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
This isn't intended as a forum to discuss ID, it's only for making changes to the article. To do that, you'd need to show that you read and *understood* the FAQ and not claim that it's just 'a judge'.
Furthermore, the science vs pseudoscience question is separate from whether ID is linked with creationism.
If you have specific changes you'd like to make, you can suggest them. MilesVorkosigan (talk) 20:54, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I would suggest to link the term to Isaac Newton as one of the first people using it as the underlying belief under his scientific works, and note that the opinions on ID being creationism or serious science differ among scientists. Maarten Havinga (talk) 10:39, 16 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Ok, so what specific wording are you proposing? and what are the sources you want to use to back up those changes? With that, we will be able to discuss. --McSly (talk) 13:19, 16 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I noticed that my opinion is not really liked here, therefore I'd rather not grind you on specific wordings and position. As source the pdf I gave is fine. For the rest, I leave it up to you guys, if or what you'll do with this talk - if you have questions for clarification, in case I wasn't clear earlier, I'll happily answer those. My wish is only the suggestion just above this comment. Maarten Havinga (talk) 16:54, 26 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Should be mentioned as Creationism

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in the lede, preferably even in the first 10 words. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.10.72.161 (talk) 22:23, 24 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Such impatience! It's in the third sentence of the lede, as well as in the hatnore. . . dave souza, talk 23:46, 24 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]