There still seems to be a lot of confusion about what science can and 
cannot do. Asking it to investigate the metaphysical (unless claims are 
made about the nature of the physical universe, and then limited to 
those claims) is asking it to do something it's not equipped to do. It's 
a tool that only works with the physcial universe because of the very 
limitations that makes it very good in that role (one of these 
limitations being that it cannot invoke the supernatural).  Asking it to 
study the metaphysical is much the same as asking religion to explicate 
the physical world--something religion has failed in miserably because 
that's not something it's designed nor equipped to do.

If at some time ID delivers testible hypotheses, I can assure you that 
scientists will start taking it seriously as other than a way to sneak 
religion into schools under the disguise of science.

If indeed aliens were involved in constructing complex features of life, 
there still lies the question as to how do we recognize this. However, 
there are scientific possibilities here. If such aliens were present on 
earth, they may have left signs that someday may be uncovered. Perhaps 
aliens have left communications somewhere in the universe that someday 
we may encounter. If we eventually find other beings on other planets 
that share our DNA code, etc., this would indicate a common cause. There 
probably are other possibilities. But current evidence strongly 
indicates that natural processes are sufficient to explain life on earth 
as we know it. If, and only if, someone can come up with testible 
hypotheses to the contrary will ID be accepted as worthy of scientific 
investigation.

Cheers,

Art Harris

Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum
University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX  79968-0915
[log in to unmask]   http://museum.utep.edu/
http://museum.utep.edu/chih/chihdes.htm

Eric Johnson wrote:
..........
> 
> I'll go back to the question I posed above--is there room for a serious 
> scientific study of the possibility of intelligent design in nature?  
> What if it should turn out to be the aliens that Art referred to in 
> another message, and not God at all?
> 
> Peace,
> 
> --Eric

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