FreeStyle:Are Intelligent Design formulations scientific?

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  • Consistent (internally and externally)
  • Parsimonious (sparing in proposed entities or explanations, see Occam's Razor)
  • Useful (describes and explains observed phenomena)
  • Empirically testable & falsifiable (see Falsifiability)
  • Based upon multiple observations, often in the form of controlled, repeated experiments
  • Correctable & dynamic (changes are made as new data are discovered)
  • Progressive (achieves all that previous theories have and more)
  • Provisional or tentative (admits that it might not be correct rather than asserting certainty)

Scholarly research is searching out information from previous sources of knowledge, and possibly the formation of new knowledge that may or may not be based on previous knowledge. All scientific and scholary research should be permeated with these four criteria:

  • Mastery of Subject
  • Evidence
  • Logic
  • Insight

Science is a branch of scholarship which uses certain methods and approaches. Epistemological assumptions of science:

  • The universe can be understood - the human mind can gain understanding about natural phenomena
  • Things are as they appear - the senses are a locus of knowledge about the universe
  • What is meant today by the term “scientific”
  • Science is empirical - most fundamentally this means that science proceeds from a collection of data into:
  • Induction and Deduction
  • Explanation
  • Science is self-correcting, which means falsifiability is very important.
  • Science is mostly probabilistic
  • Scientific conclusions are contingent on the state of knowledge
  • Every generalization has an exception
  • Science is parsimonious, having Occam’s Razor as a “rule of thumb”
  • Scientific study can be undertaken in several forms, including synchronic and diachronic.

Synchronic (single event study) is typified by: Observation/Experimentation

  • Replication
  • Generalization
  • Prediction

Diachronic (progressive event study) is typified by:

  • Inference - to reach a logical conclusion based upon the observation of facts and application of reason
  • Explanation

Scientific methods and research design… …are needed in order to know what to expect upon beginning a project. …are sources of questions to investigate. …make research predictions possible.

Depending on the field, these maybe a necessary part of research design:

  • Fieldwork
  • Data generation in the lab
  • Testing hypothesis with statistics
  • Explanation


1) Methods of experimentation,

2) Data,

3) Bridging hypotheses,

4) Laws,

5) Models,

6) Cognitive hypotheses,

7) Theories.


“scientific tractability.”

A “tractable” theory connects with other good science, forming larger structures of evidentiary support and allowing novel predictions and retrodictions of phenomena.

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