Word: argumentative
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Intelligent design is the trendy re-interpretation of an ages-old philosophical idea known as the teleological argument for the existence of God, better known as the “argument by design.” Simply put, the theory posits that the complex architecture of, say, a watch proves that an intelligent “designer” created it rather than a cocktail of random natural processes. According to the theory, the same should then apply to the natural world and specifically to life, which contains an abundance of seemingly “designed” complexities...
...problem is that this argument was demonstrated to be philosophically unsound long before Darwin ever came around. (There are many good objections, but here’s an especially juicy one: if the premise that all complexities were designed is accepted, then what could account for the complexities of the designer itself?) And then, like the second blow in a one-two punch, came Darwin, who spared us forever from having to use bad philosophy to fill in the holes that science could not yet address...
...feature separates Darwin’s theory from the teleological argument: Darwin’s theory is backed by mountains of empirical and verifiable evidence. The teleological argument is backed by, well, a sort of musing that resembles a frustrated second-grade test-taker more than it does any real scientific process: I don’t know the answer, but there must be an answer, so I’d better guess something instead of leaving the line blank...
...hope to show that there are two sides to this argument,” said HRC spokesman Joshua M. Reilly ’08. “There are so many people walking through here and we don’t want people just to think that this is the only side of the issue that’s being held on campus...
...kind of Supreme Court justice would Harriet Miers be? For anyone trying to assess her qualifications, analyze her philosophy and predict her behavior, Miers would seem to present a fairly blank slate. She has no judicial resume and hasn't left a long trail of noteworthy memos, briefs, oral argument transcripts or law journal articles...