Our first iDesign meeting went well today. Thanks to all who showed up. Here are the presentation slides in htm format. A bio student made a good point in the meeting: that a distinction should be made between abiogenesis and Darwinian evolution. Darwin's theory, which assumes that a reproductive organism already exists, mainly attempts to account for the diversity in life. So instead of dichotomizing the different explanatory modes into Darwinian evolution/intelligent design/creationism, perhaps it is better to have the classification of naturalism/intelligent design/creationism. However, I think that it is still okay to label the naturalistic explanation as Darwinism, because most people use these terms interchangeably.



We also had an interesting discussion regarding the nature and very definition of science. Does science == naturalism (or physicalism)? Science is the study of the natural world, but that doesn't mean that we have to automatically reject design as an explanation for the origin of natural structures. Also, another thing we discussed was whether or not ID is testable (or falsifiable).

You can watch a web clip of the Privileged Planet documentary, which makes the case for cosmological ID. Unlocking the Mystery of Life makes the case for biological ID.

If you missed this meeting but are still interested in joining the club, please contact us. We will be planning events for the 2005 fall quarter.