The Third Mode of Explanation
Detecting Evidence of Intelligent Design in the Sciences Download PDFI. Introduction
In our workaday lives we find it important to distinguish between three modes of explanation: necessity, change, and design. Did she fall, or was she pushed? And if she fell, was her fall accidental or unavoidable? to say she was pushed is to attribute her plunge to design. To say her fall was accidental or unavoidable is to attribute her plunge respectively to chance or necessity. More generally, given an event, object, or structure, we want to know: Did it have to happen? Did it happen by accident? Did an intelligent agent cause it to happen? In other words, did it happen by necessity, chance, or design?