Douglas Kern over at Tech Central Station has a fun article entitled Why Intelligent Design Is Going to Win. You might think that such a title would be anti-evolutionist, but you would be wrong. It is his alarm message going out to his fellow evolutionists. He has some nice points, while others are just a little patronizing. Here are his points, with selected excerpts and/or my commentary:
1. ID will win because it’s a religion-friendly, conservative-friendly, red-state kind of theory, and no one will lose money betting on the success of red-state theories in the next fifty to one hundred years.
Kern’s insinuation is that, like it or not, the "delightfully fertile" religious right will overtake atheists and other heathen by sheer birth rates alone. What he doesn’t mention is that the force of conservative logic and argumentation is what is making conservatism grow – not population growth.
2. ID will win because the pro-Darwin crowd is acting like a bunch of losers.
"Ewww…intelligent design people! They’re just buck-toothed Bible-pushing nincompoops with community-college degrees who’re trying to sell a gussied-up creationism to a cretinous public! No need to address their concerns or respond to their arguments. They are Not Science. They are poopy-heads." There. I just saved you the trouble of reading 90% of the responses to the ID position. Vitriol, condescension, and endless accusations of bad faith all characterize far too much of the standard pro-Darwinian response to criticism. A reasonable observer might note that many ID advocates appear exceptionally well-educated, reasonable, and articulate; they might also note that ID advocates have pointed out many problems with the Darwinist catechism that even pro-Darwin scientists have been known to concede, when they think the Jesus-kissing crowd isn’t listening.
Well, Kern’s backhanded slights amount to the same behavior he is berating, and he can’t conceal his disgust for ID supporters. Nevertheless, he is right in his criticism of the left :D
3. ID will win because it can be reconciled with any advance that takes place in biology, whereas Darwinism cannot yield even an inch of ground to ID.
Interestingly, this same accusation is made against evolutionists. His real problem is that he is ignoring the questions ID asks. Rather, he is attacking a bit of a straw man, and this entire paragraph stinks of straw. But the thinking populace will see through this, and continue to ignore such accusations.
4. ID will win because ID assumes that man will find design in life — and, as the mind of man is hard-wired to detect design, man will likely find what he seeks.
Actually, this is a good point. Are we merely seeing order where there is none? If we organize information into systems, does that mean an intrinsic design was there, or are we being fanciful?
5. ID will win because it can piggyback on the growth of information theory, which will attract the best minds in the world over the next fifty years.
Very interesting claim. Worth considering – ID may piggyback on the information-science wave across the globe.
He is right about one thing – evolutionary theory will bow one day, but not just because of ID – but because of better systems of inquiry, and better scientific and philosophical models.