The Scientific Community
In this article, the term "scientific community" means the body of working scientists in the world who have published in peer-reviewed journals, utilize widely accepted scientific principles and are actively applying the scientific method in laboratory settings. Organizations comprising the "scientific community" include the National Academy of Sciences, the American Institute of Biological Sciences and the Sloan-Kettering Institute. Beliefs attributed to the scientific community in this article are beliefs held by the large majority of scientists today.
What is Intelligent Design?
Intelligent design (ID) states that the universe and its inhabitants could not have evolved by the "blind chance" set forth in Darwinism. Its arguments are mostly concerned with what it considers to be holes in the theory of evolution, and it claims that these holes scientifically prove the presence of an "intelligent designer" in nature.
Unlike creationism, ID does not state that God is the intelligent designer. It only says that there is clear evidence in nature of intelligent design. The designer in ID could be God, but it could also be an extraterrestrial race or some other supernatural force. Also, ID does not draw its arguments directly from the Christian Bible.
But while it does acknowledge the possibility of slight evolutionary changes within a species, it does not recognize the possibility of one species evolving from another nor the chance of highly complex biological systems resulting from natural selection. ID proponents have stated that they aim to debunk Darwinism as the dominant origin theory and to remove naturalism -- the belief that everything around us can be explained by natural causes -- from both science and culture.
