Claim CI190:

SETI researchers expect that they can recognize artificial signals, proving that there is an objective criterion for recognizing intelligent design.

Source:

Dembski, William A., 1998. Science and Design. First Things 86 (Oct.): 21-27. http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9810/dembski.html

Response:

  1. SETI researchers do not expect to find recognizably designed messages in the signals they are looking for; in fact, they expect that the signal modulation would be smeared out and lost. They are looking for narrow-band signals, which are what people build and are not found in known natural radio signals (SETI Instutute n.d., Shostak 2005). The objective criterion for recognizing intelligent design is to look for things that look like what people build.

  2. The SETI Institute itself recognizes "Intelligent Design" as creationism with no scientific value (DeVore 2005).

Links:

Shostak, Seth. 2005. SETI and Intelligent Design. http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_intelligentdesign_051201.html

Petrich, Loren. 2003. Animal and extraterrestrial artifacts: Intelligently designed? http://www.secweb.org/asset.asp?AssetID=283

References:

  1. DeVore, Edna. 2005. Intelligent Design and evolution at the White House. http://www.seti.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=ktJ2J9MMIsE&b=194993&ct=1324903
  2. SETI Institute. n.d. Frequently asked questions. http://www.seti.org/site/pp.asp?c=ktJ2J9MMIsE&b=178905#anchor318103
  3. Shostak, Seth. 2005. (see above)
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created 2001-2-18, modified 2005-12-1