Now and then I am assailed by people who insist that “intelligent design is not falsifiable.”
Well, put that way, it isn’t, right?
Politics, economics, and religion are not falsifiable either. Anything can escape falsification if it is put in broad enough terms. That’s because we all have overlapping – but not identical – definitions of what these abstractions mean.
However, specific ID hypotheses such as Mike Behe’s irreducible complexity, Bill Dembski’s specified complexity, and Guillermo Gonzalez’s privileged planet hypothesis can all be falsified by showing that the condition that cannot exist according to the theorist’s postulates does in fact exist.
So a specific hypothesis is – of course – falsifiable. That’s a key part of what a hypothesis is: A statement so specific that its contrary would falsify it.
But now here is something I would really like to know: Do people who claim to have falsified various intelligent design hypotheses ever get angry with the people who claim that intelligent design hypotheses are not falsifiable?
What I mean is, presumably, the “unfalsifiables” are depriving the “falsifieds” of a legitimate victory. But do we ever hear any complaints from the latter?
Or do both groups actually not care which claim is made because it doesn’t really matter to them, as long as one or the other – or, better still, both at the same time – is believed by nice people who want to be thought well of?
In that case, getting the nice people to believe both at the same time would be ideal because it shows trusting, unreasoning acceptance. No one need worry that those people will think for themselves any more. After a while, the cognitive effort would be just too great. And studies will show that they can’t actually do it.
Also, today at the Mindful Hack:
Is emotion really a better guide than reason in religious matters?
The Spiritual Brain reviewed in Jesuit thinkmag America
Is there a rock solid Religious Right vote in the United States?
Neuroscience and religion: Key medical journal prints thoughtful article