Intelligent Design
As part of defining ID, one organization, The Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness (IDEA) Center stated:
Intelligent design is thus heavily dependent upon "information theory." One of its fundamental premises is that "information" which is complex (highly ordered) and specified (fits a pre-existing pattern) is not produced by naturally occurring events (chance or law-governed processes), but rather this sort of observable information and complexity is best explained as the product of intelligent action.
Additionally, IDEA stated:
Intelligent design implies that life is here as a result of the purposeful action of an intelligent designer, standing in contrast to Darwinian evolution [underlined link added], which postulates that life exists due to the chance, purposeless, blind forces of nature.
Attention is drawn to the words "purposeless" and "blind." Science does not claim to study, for example, the purpose/purposelessness of a mutation. This type of question is appropriately debated in philosophy or religion, not science. Among the fields that study the tangible (e.g. biology, geology), scientists have not found data to support the idea that there is a detectable pattern to such things as mutation, for example. By definition, mutations are random or a chance events, lacking a noticeable pattern. Although some proponents of evolution may not agree, the fact that there are noticeable or unnoticeable patterns does not prove, support or suggest that God did or did not create the pattern, let alone that God exists or does not exist.
Note: Mutations can create new genetic information. Gradual genetic changes (detected or not) can result in noticeable changes and consequently different forms.
Good free online dictionaries include www.thefreedictionary.com, www.yourdictionary.com, www.dictionary.com and Wikipedia (encyclopedia).
A Fundamental Falsifier of Darwinism Falsified?
As part of the FAQ: Is intelligent design merely an "argument from ignorance?", IDEA also claims that
Darwinists haven't figured out how to evolve irreducible complexity because irreducible complexity is in principle impossible to evolve. Irreducible complexity is a fundamental falsifier of Darwinism.
However, looking at the work of Kauffman one can see that the evolution of complex systems is not impossible to understand. See the seminar notes (Network theory and the origin of life, slides 27 - 20) and the papers below. Additionally, see the reviews by Gert Korthof: 1) On the origin of information by means of intelligent design - a review of William Dembski's "Intelligent Design" 2) Kauffman at home in the Universe. The secret of life is auto-catalysis.
Seminar Notes:
Papers:
Intelligent Design: Related Ideas
Note: Science addresses the testable and philosophy (i.e. religion, etc.) should not be confused with this field. Amalgamating religious beliefs with scientific phenomena can be a fulfilling endeavor; however, this is not within the realm of science.