Sunday, January 22, 2006

One of the principal tests of what is a "good" hypothesis is, is it falsifiable? That is, is there a test for which some set of results would result in the hypothesis being disproven? If not, then it's not good science.

Intelligent design is, of course, unfalsifiable. There is no set of results that could prove intelligent design to be false, as it relies on the intervention of a magical fairy. If we show the i.d.-creationists one set of results, they'll nod their heads and say that's how the fairy did it; if we show them a completely opposite set of results, they'll nod their heads and say that's how the fairy did it.

There are some who believe that the current "debate" going on is proof that this is nonsense; since scientists are showing i.d. ideas to be false, that shows i.d. to be falsifiable.

Here is an excellent rejoinder to that idea.

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