Earlier in this thread Ipetrich and Holmes mentioned multi-design questions. Not to be immodest, but I developed a fairly detailed version of Multiple Designers Theory over on ISCID. It wasn't well-received.
IF I figure out how to post a URL on this board I'll edit to reference it appropriately. For now I'll just post the URL:
http://www.iscid.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=6...
For those who don't want to wade through all of it, here's the conclusion of the posting:
V. Conclusions
A. Multiple Designers Theory is a logical and empirical superset of Intelligent Design. Anyone who is an adherent of current mainstream ID is perforce an adherent of MDT, subject only to the former's arbitrary and ad hoc restriction to a single designer.
B. MDT provides a coherent theoretical structure for understanding a wide range of phenomena that are not easily or plausibly accounted for by a single-designer ID model.
C. MDT insulates ID from the claim of anti-ID critics to the effect that ID pays no attention to the nature of the designers. Empirical research on the nature and features of the designers is a central focus of MDT.
D. MDT provides rich research opportunities and offers the prospect of allowing one to make empirically supportable inferences about the designers themselves. MDT does not merely offer a list of general questions that 'might' be addressed by a research program, it offers specific research proposals and provides concrete methodological guidance for attacking the questions it raises.
On every criterion one might use to judge a scientific theory of intelligent design, Multiple Designers Theory is superior to current thinking in ID.
RBH
[This message has been edited by RBH, 04-21-2003]
[This message has been edited by RBH, 04-21-2003]