Friday, October 14, 2005

Putting my foot in it again ...

A couple of weeks ago, my colleague Carlin Romano wrote an excellent review of Michael Ruse's The Evolution-Creation Struggle.
In the meantime, in the hinterlands of Pennsylvania, a court case is proceeding having to do with whether or not it is permissible to teach intelligent-design theory in public schools. There has been much in The Inquirer about this case, though I confess to having read very little of it. But a thought occurred to me yesterday that may be pertinent (then again, it may be impertinent): The subtitle of Richard Dawkins's The Blind Watchmaker is "Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design." Dawkins's book, presumably, is meant as a work of science. It is therefore advancing as a scientific notion the thesis that evolution (at least in its neo-Darwinian version) is proof that the universe has not been designed. How widely is this thesis accepted among scientists, I wonder. And whether widely accepted or not, could such a book be taught in a public school? It is, after all, advancing a thesis regarding nature and design.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Chronofish:
    I will try the experiment as soon as I get a jar of pennies (which should be soon). But my point had nothing to do with taking sides in this debate. My point is that Dawkins would seem to be making a statement objecting to the notion of design in the universe, a statement that purports to be scientific. To permit him to do that is to concede that the question of design in the universe is a scientific one -- precisely what opponents of the intelligent-design theory deny. You can't have it both ways, however. My point, in other words, has strictly to do with formal logic.

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