User:BTfromLA/IDdrafts

Proposed lead paragraph for ID article

Intelligent design is the proposition that life was caused by a guiding intelligence and that empirical evidence supports this conclusion. The term is closely associated with the Discovery Institute, an organization that has, since 1996, promoted the intelligent design hypothesis to the general public. Stephen Meyer, a leader of the Discovery Institute who describes himself as “one of the architects of the theory of intelligent design,” states that “intelligent design is not a religious-based idea, but instead an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins—one that challenges strictly materialistic views of evolution.” Despite such claims, the unequivocal consensus in the scientific community is that intelligent design is not science at all; scholars, journalists and jurists have concluded that intelligent design masquerades as a scientific controversy in order to promote religious or political beliefs.

--below are notes, not a draft of any kind.

The principal advocates for intelligent design argue on three fronts: they claim to offer a scientifically legitimate approach to researching the origins of life or the universe, a critique of the standard scientific theory of evolution, and a broader critique of the philosophical underpinnings of modern science and secular culture.

A small group of scientists and philosophers of science—virtually all of them associated with the Discovery Institute—assert that evidence of deliberate design in natural forms can be detected scientifically through such notions as "irreducible complexity," proposed by biochemist Michael Behe, and "specified complexity," the idea of William Dembski, a professor of Christian apologetics with a background in mathematics and philosophy.

While their claims to have developed a valid scientific approach have been rejected overwhelmingly by professional scientists, the belief that intelligent design offers an intellectually legitimate approach to discussing human origins has found considerable favor among the public at large, primarily in the United States.