"Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as 'an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins'."
The belief that certain features of the universe and living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, rather than an undirected process such as natural selection.
Intelligent Design Theory: The concept that a higher power or an intelligent entity has designed the universe and all its components.
Evolution and Natural Selection: The scientific theory of life’s diversity and complexity caused by natural selection over thousands of years.
Creationism: The religious idea that the universe and living things were created entirely by a divine creator according to the stories in religious texts such as the Bible or Quran.
Theology: The study of religion and the development of faith and belief systems.
Biology: The scientific study of living organisms and their processes.
Physics: The scientific study of matter and energy and their interactions.
Philosophy of Science: The study of the conceptual and methodological aspects of science and its relationship to society, cultural beliefs, and values.
Paleontology: The study of fossils and the history of life on earth.
Dualism: The philosophical idea of the separation of mind and body.
Ethics: The study of moral principles and values and how they relate to behavior and decision-making.
Irreducible complexity: This argument suggests that some biological systems are too complex to have arisen through evolution, as they consist of multiple parts that all need to be present and functioning in order for the system to work. Therefore, an intelligent designer must have created these systems.
Fine-tuning: This argument suggests that the constants and laws of the universe are perfectly balanced in order to allow life to exist, and that this fine-tuning is evidence of an intelligent designer.
Information theory: This argument suggests that the complexity and specificity of genetic information suggests that it could not have arisen through natural processes, but rather was created by an intelligent designer.
Biology as evidence of design: This argument looks at the complexity and diversity of life on Earth, and argues that it is evidence of an intelligent designer.
The anthropic principle: This argument suggests that the fact that humans exist and are able to contemplate the universe is evidence that the universe was designed specifically to allow for our existence.
"Proponents claim that 'certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection.'"
"ID is a form of creationism that lacks empirical support and offers no testable or tenable hypotheses, and is therefore not science."
"The leading proponents of ID are associated with the Discovery Institute, a Christian, politically conservative think tank based in the United States."
"The 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."
"The term was substituted into drafts of the book, directly replacing references to creation science and creationism, after the 1987 Supreme Court's Edwards v. Aguillard decision barred the teaching of creation science in public schools on constitutional grounds."
"This led to the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial, which found that intelligent design was not science, that it 'cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents', and that the public school district's promotion of it therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution."
"ID presents two main arguments against evolutionary explanations: irreducible complexity and specified complexity, asserting that certain biological and informational features of living things are too complex to be the result of natural selection."
"Detailed scientific examination has rebutted several examples for which evolutionary explanations are claimed to be impossible."
"ID seeks to challenge the methodological naturalism inherent in modern science, though proponents concede that they have yet to produce a scientific theory."
"ID proposes an analogy between natural systems and human artifacts, a version of the theological argument from design for the existence of God."
"ID proponents then conclude by analogy that the complex features, as defined by ID, are evidence of design."
"Critics of ID find a false dichotomy in the premise that evidence against evolution constitutes evidence for design."