quote:
Originally posted by John Paul:
In a couple of threads I used Stonehenge as an example of deducing design. The point of that example is to show that design can be deduced without knowledge of the designer.
Of course this ignores other strong indications that Stonehenge was designed:
1. we have pre-existing knowledge that the designers (humans) lived there before, during and after the construction of Stonehenge
2. we have pre-existing knowledge that (some) humans have the ability of abstract thought - allowing them to ponder great problems and terrestrial solutions
3. we have pre-existing knowledge that humans design and build stone structures
...so, having all this pre-existing knowledge with which to work, determining Stonehenge was an object of obvious design is no problem.
Otherwise, we would have to consider a myriad of natural causes and mechanisms and refute them.
The trick was, knowing a designer existed FIRST - so that we could attribute THEM as designers.
IDers didn't even bother to falsify natural mechanisms, before they abandoned science and began rubbing their Crystal balls for a pseudo-explanation.
So how do you detect whether a naturally occurring phenomena had a designer ?
By giving up the investigation and opting for supernaturalism.
(Sometimes known as 'magic', 'voodoo', 'miracles', 'bullscorch' )
Yours WAS a poor analogy.
regards,
[This message has been edited by Jeff, 01-09-2002]
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