From ResearchID.org

Is intelligent design destined to be here today and gone tomorrow?

If one listens to countless media reports on intelligent design, and hears what many critics of ID have to say, one will note a myriad of claims that ID is pseudoscientific and philosophical nonsense. One gets the distinct impression that ID is not a productive approach to studying nature and we can expect ID to decline and fade as science trudges its relentless path of collecting new knowledge. Some would say that, in the end, ID will come to nothing at all. Many who take this tact are missing, or deliberately ignoring, the core issues involved with intelligent design.

Despite the prophesies and jinxes cast against it, ID is not going away, and cannot. Even if the concepts being explored by William Dembski, Michael Behe, Albert de Roos, and Mike Gene come to nothing, the foundational scientific questions of ID will remain:

• Do effects of intelligence lie at the core of life or the universe?
• Can we reliably detect intelligent activity through its physical effects, even if we do not have precise knowledge of the objects origin?
• Can scientists use the concept of design to bring greater understanding of nature and help advance empirical research?

These core questions are exactly what critics do not want to discuss, because it then becomes clear to anyone that ID (and questions proceeding directly from its premises) are legitimate questions investigable by current and/or potential empirical methods of inquiry. Despite the claims of critics, the principle scientific questions of ID will remain, and these puzzles will drive the curiosity of scholars into an ever deeper study of nature.

Paradigm Dawning This article is part of Paradigm Dawning, a collection of essays about intelligent design research.