Exposing a Common Fallacy

Some very good information and analytical insight is found in the comment section of posts made at Telic Thoughts. A frequent complaint leveled at ID is that it is nothing more than a Trojan Horse for religious doctrine, particularly that of Christianity. A commenter known as Analyysi referred to the book 'Living with Darwin: Evolution, Design and the Future of Faith' which is authored by Philip Kitcher. Analyysi referred to this quote noting a logical point ot two.


"Advertising intelligent design as independent of religious doctrine is accurate in one important sense. To claim that some kind of organisms are products of intelligent design does not logically entail any conclusion about the existence of a deity, let alone any specific articles on Christian faith." (p. 6)

"Although there are grounds for suspicion, I shall treat intelligent design as its leaders characterize it, as a hypothesis put forward to identify and account for certain natural phenomena. The sociological fact that the hypothesis is welcomed by a significant number of Christians, and by some religious people of other faiths, does not make it an intrisically religious doctrine. A proposal about natural world need have no specifically religious content to be more combatible with particular religious ideas than its equally naturalistic rivals." (p. 7)

Source:
Philip Kitcher, Living with Darwin:
Evolution, Design and the Future of Faith
(Oxford University Press, 2007)

Well said Philip Kitcher. An excellent rebuttal to a common misconception.