The scientific method requires a hypothesis to be refutable. How is it possible to refute Intelligent Design?

Question

All scientific theories are subject to revision through the gathering of evidence. If Intelligent Design is inserted into science, it requires that science have the capacity of proving it right or wrong. How is this to be accomplished?

Answer 1

No one in Intelligent Design would like the answer. Intelligent design has implications on how things should be. For example, intelligently designed engineering projects have a very clear failure curve, unintelligently designed engineering projects have another, called the bathtub curve. Coincidently, all biological systems show the bathtub curve. When inexperienced students or incompetant engineers develop things, the bathtub curve inevitably describes the failure curves. Competant engineers have a very clear increasing failure structure as entropy takes its inevitable toll.

If God is an "Intelligent Designer," he needs to go back to school.

As a Christian, I find Intelligent Design a disturbing heresy.

Answer 2

The way "intelligent design" can be tested is to check if the "design" is truly "intelligent." In many cases, it isn't.

"What can we tell about the designer from the design? While there is much that is marvelous in nature, there is also much that is flawed, sloppy and downright bizarre. Some nonfunctional oddities, like the peacock's tail or the human male's nipples, might be attributed to a sense of whimsy on the part of the designer. Others just seem grossly inefficient. In mammals, for instance, the recurrent laryngeal nerve does not go directly from the cranium to the larynx, the way any competent engineer would have arranged it. Instead, it extends down the neck to the chest, loops around a lung ligament and then runs back up the neck to the larynx. In a giraffe, that means a 20-foot length of nerve where 1 foot would have done. If this is evidence of design, it would seem to be of the unintelligent variety."

Answer 3

A very thoughtful question.

Intelligent Design is not science. It is only conjecture, hypothesis and anecdotal.

Until factual evidence can be collected the theory of Intelligent Design remains in the realm of pseudo-science and urban legend!

Answer 4

Science cannot prove anything it is always tentative,a hypothesis is not reliable,a theory can be leaned on but not fully trusted.And yet a scientific Law is not proved yet is has experiments with mathematical equations predicting the results of every test.

Answer 5

When evolution was proved beyond all doubt intelligent design was obviously dis proved.A wise man has original thoughts that he has accumulated throughout his life. A fool can only parrot a five thousand year old fairy tale that was written before man worked his way up to the dark ages.
Tammi Dee

Answer 6

Scientific Method only applies when performing an experiment.

Answer 7

It can't be any more than creationism can be proven by reading the Bible or other religious texts. Agnostism is the only logical and spiritual way - recognizes that no one has a definite answer and that anything is possible.

Answer 8

That is an amazing point. I completely agree with you. I work in the medical field and just seeing how the body works together a nd how it all works is simply amazing!!!

Answer 9

... or theoretical physics, for that matter?

Theoretical physics employs mathematical models and abstractions, as opposed to experimental processes, in an attempt to understand Nature. Central to it is mathematical physics, though other conceptual techniques are also used.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theoretical_physics

Answer 10

It can’t be proven or disproved. It doesn’t belong in the science classroom.