I propose a new term to help clarify issues in the current intelligent design/evolution debate. Recognizing that many things observed in nature appear to be designed and true design necessarily requires intelligence, the question is simply whether or not such observed things are true, intelligent designs, or apparently-designed- yet-actually-unintelligently-caused occurrences. Because there is no English word for “apparently- designed-yet-actually-unintelligently-caused” with respect to observed events and objects, I propose the term adesign. Adesign is the absence of design. Adesign leads to adesignism, which, like its linguistic counterparts atheism and agnosticism, is a belief system defined by what it denies. By creating a clear contrast between design and adesign, the new terminology precisely captures the heart of the origins inquiry: nature exhibits either some design requiring intelligence, or all adesign requiring no intelligence. There is no other logical choice.
|