Scientific Method

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Is Methodological Naturalism Necessary for Science?

In this bonus interview footage from Science Uprising, philosopher of science Stephen Meyer explains why methodological naturalism (aka methodological materialism) isn’t necessary for the practice of science. Visit the Science Uprising website at to find more videos and explore related articles and books.

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Both can fly
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An Introduction to Intelligent Design

Click here for a reproducible PDF of this article.PDF En Español Intelligent design — often called “ID” — is a scientific theory that holds that the emergence of some features of the universe and living things is best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection. ID theorists argue that design can be inferred Read More ›

Chemist or scientist in rubber gloves changing a column on high performance liquid chromatography HPLC for separation organic compounds. Analytical chemistry laboratory. Analyzing process.
Chemist or scientist in rubber gloves changing a column on high performance liquid chromatography HPLC for separation organic compounds. Analytical chemistry laboratory. Analyzing process.
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Intelligent Design (ID) Has Scientific Merit Because it Uses the Scientific Method to Make its Claims and Infers Design by Testing its Positive Predictions

“In all irreducibly complex systems in which the cause of the system is known by experience or observation, intelligent design or engineering played a role [in] the origin of the system.”1 Stephen C. Meyer (Ph.D. Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University) & Scott Minnich (Professor of Microbiology, University of Idaho). Intelligent design (ID) has scientific merit because it uses the scientific Read More ›

Methodology on Business Folder in Catalog.
Methodology on Business Folder in Multicolor Card Index. Closeup View. Blurred Image. 3D Render.

The Scientific Status of Design Inferences

Scientific practice assumes that the universe, in both its origin and function, is a closed system of undirected physical processes. While many scientists reject this assumption as the ultimate truth, they still think that it is essential for science to function as if it were true. This means that they have accepted methodological naturalism as a necessary constraint on their practice as scientists. Methodological naturalism is the doctrine that in order to be scientific, an explanation must be naturalistic, that is, it must only appeal to entities, causes, events, and processes contained within the material universe. Even if we grant that this restriction on permissible explanations has been a fruitful strategy for science, we must still ask whether it is methodologically required by science. Read More ›
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Digital illustration of  DNA

Sean Carroll Fails to Scale The Edge of Evolution: A Rebuttal to Sean Carroll’s Anti-ID Book Review in Science

[Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared as a four-part series on Evolution News and Views, as Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.] Introduction A few months ago I posted a review of Sean B. Carroll’s book The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution, the book in which biologist Sean B. Carroll intimates Read More ›

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Science & Christianity

At the beginning of the 21st century, Christians continue to wonder whether faith and science are partners or opponents. In this book, six scholars sort through the issues as they present four views on the relationship of science and Christianity. These views include creationism, independence, qualified agreement, and partnership. Contributor Jean Pond is a proponent of the “independence” model. She Read More ›

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cross spider on a web with dew drops
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The Scientific Status of Intelligent Design

Underlying Darwin's repudiation of creationist legitimacy lay an entirely different conception of science than had prevailed among earlier naturalists. Darwin's attacks on his creationist and idealist opponents in part expressed and in part established an emerging positivistic "episteme" in which the mere mention of unverifiable "acts of Divine will" or "the plan of creation" would increasingly serve to disqualify theories from consideration as science qua science. Read More ›