Talk:Intelligent design

	Please read before starting
This article represents the work of many contributors and much negotiation to find consensus for an accurate and complete representation of the topic. Newcomers to Wikipedia and this article may find that it's easy to commit a faux pas. That's OK — everybody does it! You'll find a list of a few common ones you might try to avoid here. Wikipedia policy notes for new editors: A common objection made often by new arrivals is that the article presents ID in an unsympathetic light and that criticism of ID is too extensive or violates Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View policy (WP:NPOV). The sections of the WP:NPOV that apply directly to this article are: NPOV: Fringe theories and pseudoscience (WP:PSCI) NPOV: Undue weight (WP:UNDUE) NPOV: Making necessary assumptions (WP:MNA) NPOV: Giving "equal validity" (WP:GEVAL). The contributors to the article continually strive to adhere to these to the letter. Also, splitting the article into sub-articles is governed by the content forking guidelines. These policies have guided the shape and content of the article, and new arrivals are strongly encouraged to become familiar with them prior to raising objections on this page or adding content to the article. Other important policies guiding the article's content are No Original Research (WP:NOR) and Cite Your Sources (WP:CITE). Tempers can and have flared here. All contributors are asked to please respect Wikipedia's policy No Personal Attacks (WP:NPA) and to abide by consensus (WP:CON). This talk page is to discuss the text, photographs, format, grammar, etc of the article itself and not the inherent worth of Intelligent Design. See WP:NOT. If you wish to discuss or debate the validity of intelligent design or promote intelligent design please do so at talk.origins or other fora. This "Discussion" page is only for discussion on how to improve the Wikipedia article. Any attempts at trolling, using this page as a soapbox, or making personal attacks may be deleted at any time.
Important pointers for new editors: This article uses scientific terminology, and as such, the use of the word 'theory' to refer to anything outside of a recognised scientific theory is ambiguous. Please use words such as 'concept', 'notion', 'idea', 'assertion'; see Wikipedia:Words to avoid#Theories and hypotheses. Although at times heated, the debates contained here are meant to improve the Intelligent Design article. Reasoned, civil discourse is the best means to make an opinion heard. Rude behavior not only distracts from the subject(s) at hand, but tends to make people deride or ignore what was said. Please use edit summaries. Challenges and proposals to this article's content must be in alignment with Wikipedia's core content policies: WP:NPOV, WP:V and WP:NOR. If you make a suggestion that does not align with them, you can expect a pointer to the appropriate policies; giving such a pointer is not a form of rudeness, but meant to help smooth the process of building the encyclopedia. To respect your own time and that of others editors, if you receive such a pointer to policy, you should take the time to read and understand the policies before re-raising the issue. If you have been pointed to policy, but continue to argue the matter ad nauseam without the benefit of being supported by policy, you should not expect a full response, but rather that your discussions will be archived or userfied. Again, this is not rudeness or incivility; it is out of respect for the time and patience of all the editors participating and in the interest of maintaining a smooth-running encyclopedia:Wikipedia talkpage guidelines do not allow for raising and re-raising objections to content that is well-aligned with content policy, and there is a specific policy against doing that: WP:IDIDNTHEARTHAT (which classifies it as disruptive editing). It's better for everybody if we don't allow things to get to that point. Please peruse the FAQ and the partial index of points that have already been discussed, and use the search box below, to ensure that you are not rehashing old topics. Old topics resurrected without new evidence are likely to be ignored and archived quickly.

Clean up Discovery Institute description at beginning of article

This article says that the Discovery Institute SUPPORTS teaching Intelligent Design in the class room. I do not see ANY reference in citation 15 about the Discovery Institute explicitly saying they support teaching ID in the class room. They very well could have, but there is nothing that shows that from this particular reference. It either needs to be removed or you need to find the actual reference that says this. For the time being the DI's education policy suggests otherwise. Discovery Institute's Science Education Policy Pkl728 (talk) 19:46, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Why would anyone who believes anything to be true not want that to be taught? The entire Kitzmiller trial was about ID being taught in schools and DI was heavily involved in that. If the trial isn't already being used as a reference then I'm sure it would work. By the way, their policy on the matter does not say they don't support ID being taught in the class room, it says they don't think it should be required. Of course this is irrelevant since the supreme court has ruled that it can't be taught. N^oformation ^Talk 20:05, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Pkl728, in addition to Noformation's comments, the lead actually doesn't need any references whatsoever, and should stand as a summary for the entire article. The reference you pointed out supports the direct quote in the same sentence, not the claim that the DI advocates teaching ID in schools. Furthermore, if you read the first sentence of the Teach the Controversy article, you'll see more or less the same claim, supported by six different references. I think we can leave this alone. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 20:08, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

I didn't even realize it was the lede he was talking about otherwise I would have just said that. So yeah, what Misterdub said. N^oformation ^Talk 20:10, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict × 2) AFAICT, the lead doesn't say the DI supports teaching ID. It says the DI supported its teaching during the Kitzmiller trail. See the conclusion of the trail for sourcing. See also the Wedge Document. Given especially their history, we can't use a primary source like the DI to combat reliable ones.   — Jess· Δ♥ 20:12, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Well that's what I'm saying. Where does the source that is attributed to that line say that DI supported teaching that? All I see is that the school board consulted with them but it doesn't even say about what? I might just be ignorant here, but your sourcing is making it hard to follow where your accusations are coming from. Pkl728 (talk) 22:32, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

See the first 6 refs in Teach the Controversy. The main point of the DI is to promulgate the lie that ID is science and that it should be taught alongside evolution in schools. Again, why would anyone who believes anything to be true not want that to be taught? N^oformation ^Talk 22:39, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

@Pk1728, see page 28, 68, and 100, among others. The quotes there are clear and direct. I'm happy to answer legitimate questions, but you've now been provided with 8 sources (2 from me, 6 from Noformation) which were readily available in the article. Please read those sources carefully. Thank you.   — Jess· Δ♥ 22:51, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

@Mann_jess Thank you for attempting to provide me with sources to look at! I followed up and clicked on the links and read through the pages, and none of those say that the Discovery Institute is trying to get ID as a school curriculum. It looks like, as mentioned above, they are saying that the flaws of the Evolution Theory should be taught. Is that a bad thing? I still don't see any source material for this quote that is on the main page. Pkl728 (talk) 19:24, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

@ Pkl728, is teaching fake "flaws" to promote a particular religious view a "bad thing"? It's specifically found to be unconstitutional in the Kitzmiller judgement, read through the whole document. Note that they shifted their position during the trialc from teaching explicit ID to teach the controversy, hence the past tense, but as ID is essentially a negative argument against evolutionary science with a false duality (science hasn't an answer for this specific problem, therefore The Designer, hallowed be his unnamed name, is The Answer) it's still promoting ID. . . dave souza, talk 19:50, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

@Dave souza Well that's a highly deceptive question. If you focus, like they are suggesting, on problems with the theory, how does that promote a particular religious view? If Evolution is false... Supernatural is true? Is that what you are saying? I hope you aren't admitting that if the theory of Evolution has potential flaws that if those flaws are proven to be true then you should accept Jesus Christ as your savior? That is quite the leap. There truly are many things about the theory of Evolution (in terms of abiogenesis and macroevolution) that are highly questionable. Perhaps science will figure something out, but at this point I'm doubting it with all the time that has been available thus far. But once again you are getting off track and making an inference that I don't think is true. Once again I will ask... Do any of these pages explicitly say that the DI thinks that ID should be taught in the class room? The only thing I've seen is that the school board consulted with the DI at one point, but it didn't say in regards to what. You are making a statement of fact with no evidence to support what you are saying. Here is your argument....

1. The DI believes in Intelligent Design.

2. The DI advocates teaching flaws with the Theory of Evolution.

3. Therefore, the DI advocates teaching Intelligent Design in the classroom.

This does not look like a sound argument to me. What do you think? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pkl728 (talk • contribs) 18:24, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Pkl728, the dichotomy is not dave souza's, but the DI's. They have a campaign called "Teach the Controversy" which has the purpose of discrediting evolution and promoting ID:

“ Forget intelligent design, [leaders of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture] argued, with its theological implications. Just require teachers to discuss evidence that refutes Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, as well as what supports it. [...] But what the center calls a compromise, most scientists call a creationist agenda that's couched in the language of science. ”

Source

The DI may not explicitly state they want ID taught in schools, but they are certainly presenting it as the only alternative to biological evolution. This is clear from our secondary sources. Furthermore, the DI is known to misrepresent their intentions in order to push their agenda. Hell! The whole concept of ID is really just a ruse to teach Christianity's special creation in US public school science classes. These facts are also clear from our secondary sources. It doesn't matter what you or I think about ID or evolution--and abiogenesis is not within evolution's scope, by the way--the only thing that matters is what the sources state. The sources are very clear that ID is intentionally disingenuous as to their stated goals and are pretending a controversy over evolution exists for the express purpose of teaching ID/creationism. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 18:45, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Also, this source shows how teaching the controversy using the Critical Analysis of Evolution model lesson plan is a means of teaching all the intelligent design arguments without using the intelligent design label. The "controversy" is ID, therefore teaching the controversy is teaching ID. This is what the sources say and what must be represented in this article. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 18:51, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

@MisterDub This is starting to get ridiculous. If I'm supposed to swallow that many peer-reviewed papers (from the other section [design and science]) that are pro-ID don't count as peer-reviewed papers for ID because they don't explicitly say "Intelligent Design" in the article then you can't make the argument that this statement is valid because you've still shown me no source of where the DI said that they support teaching ID in the class room. You just said it yourself... "The DI may not explicitly state they want ID taught in schools..." but by golly, I'm going to imply that they do. You can't have it both ways I'm afraid. You are still making the same flawed argument with no actual support. You are inferring things based on a bias against the DI. I'm still of the opinion that this needs to be removed.Pkl728 (talk) 21:54, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

And you're still wrong. Secondary sources are preferred over primary ones, so we don't need the DI's explicit endorsement of it. Please see below for dave souza's excellent comment containing even more sources. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 22:02, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Page 69 :-) . . dave souza, talk 22:14, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

@Dave souza Once again not a source for what you are explaining. The page you have linked basically states that the DI believes that ID is a better explanation and that they would like to have it supplant Evolution Theory at some point. This still doesn't mean that they are for teaching ID in the classroom as the section in question suggests. Pkl728 (talk) 18:29, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

See below, as you don't seem to have noticed phase III: pursuing possible legal assistance “in response to resistance to the integration of design theory into public school science curricula.” . . dave souza, talk 19:21, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

They advocated inclusion of intelligent design in public school curricula

The above section discusses the lead statement that the DI and its CSC "advocated inclusion of intelligent design in public school curricula" which they did. They also began denying that, and claiming they just wanted to teach the Controversy by introducing ID anti-evolution texts in schools, an argument that caused some amusement when they repeated this denial, and were shown a copy of Intelligent Design in Public School Science Curricula: A Legal Guidebook by DI Fellow Dewolf, and CSC Director Meyer.

That book is dated 1999, during a 2003–2004 attempt to include "intelligent design" in the science curriculum it emerged that the the Discovery Institute was increasingly disavowing any desire to have "intelligent design" taught in the public schools and concentrating instead on "teaching the controversy". However, Dewolf told the board, "I believe that a careful review of the legal implications of this policy would reveal that it is fully consistent with state educational requirements, and that there is no reason to fear that it would violate any constitutional restrictions." He added that even if a lawsuit were to be filed, "there are a variety of organizations who are committed to open discussion in this area and who I believe would agree to defend the board's position if it were to adopt this policy. I personally would volunteer to assist the board in identifying such counsel."

By an odd coincidence, early in 2004 Seth Cooper, an attorney with the Discovery Institute contacted Buckingham of Dover School Board and they "discussed the legality of teaching ID and gaps in Darwin’s theory. Late in the 2003-04 school year, Baksa arranged for the science teachers to watch a video from the Discovery Institute entitled “Icons of Evolution” and at a subsequent point, two lawyers from the Discovery Institute made a legal presentation to the Board in executive session." At some point before late July 2004, Buckingham contacted the Thomas More Law Center for legal advice, accepted their offer of legal representation and first learned of the creationist textbook Pandas. Which was long associated with the DI's leading lights, inc. Behe. However in December 2004 the DI's CSC announced "When we first read about the Dover policy, we publicly criticized it because according to published reports the intent was to mandate the teaching of intelligent design. Although we think discussion of intelligent design should not be prohibited, we don't think intelligent design should be required in public schools. What should be required is full disclosure of the scientific evidence for and against Darwin's theory", a quick backpedal to strengths and weaknesses which despite bravado from DI fellows did not stand up in court.

By 2007 Meyer and another DI fellow were at it again: "A US Supreme Court decision allows teachers to teach biology in a way that incorporates 'a variety of scientific theories…with the clear secular intent of enhancing the effectiveness of science instruction.' The new supplemental textbook Explore Evolution, when coordinated with other materials, empowers teachers and students to better fulfill these public educational goals." Once again, a supplemental textbook promoted to schools but oh no we don't want it taught in school. Anyway, the lead statement correctly uses the past tense, detail of their obfuscation can go in the body text. . dave souza, talk 20:42, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

The "keep it" arguments I see above seem to be "no source says that they advocate teaching ID, but such can be deduced from what is in the sources" . That is synthesis/OR and not allowed in Wikipedia. Second, if it is glaringly obvious from the sources, then shouldn't be glaringly obvious from the sourced material in the article without editors having to synthesize and state it? Or am I missing something? Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 20:48, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Only a moron could look at the DI's Intelligent Design in Public School Science Curricula: A Legal Guidebook and not conclude, from the title alone, that they want it taught in public schools. I must have missed the part where we are required to put on our moron hats before we edit this article. Raul654 (talk) 20:57, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

@ North8000, you don't seem to have read the above sources very thoroughly. For example, from a DI fellow and the CSC director, "teachers should be reassured that they have the right to expose their students to the problems as well as the appeal of Darwinian theory. Moreover... school boards have the authority to permit, and even encourage, teaching about design theory as an alternative to Darwinian evolution-and this includes the use of textbooks such as Of Pandas and People that present evidence for the theory of intelligent design.
The controlling legal authority, the Supreme Court's decision in Edwards v. Aguillard, explicitly permits the inclusion of alternatives to Darwinian evolution so long as those alternatives are based on scientific evidence and not motivated by strictly religious concerns. Since design theory is based on scientific evidence rather than religious assumptions, it clearly meets this test. Including discussions of design in the science curriculum thus serves an important goal of making education inclusive, rather than exclusionary. In addition, it provides students with an important demonstration of the best way for them as future scientists and citizens to resolve scientific controversies-by a careful and fair-minded examination of the evidence." . . dave souza, talk 21:03, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Furthermore, the supposed OR is not mine. I gave the source equating "Teach the Controversy" and ID, the author of which is Nick Matzke. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 21:07, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

To Dave Souza. You are right I didn't read them thoroughly. What I DID look at is that, until your last post, nobody pointed out where any source said that they advocated teaching ID. Now you have done that. Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 21:15, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

@ North8000, as Raul654 pointed out; Intelligent Design in Public School Science Curricula: A Legal Guidebook does rather imply that they advocated teaching ID, sorry you missed the connection and weren't inspired to click the link before commenting. .dave souza, talk 21:43, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

No, but superficial me did thoroughly read the 1,000 words of the talk section, which was the subject of my comment.  :-) North8000 (talk) 21:51, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Always glad to assist. As a quick and simple source, have added Page 69 which notes how the Wedge Strategy Phase III includes pursuing possible legal assistance “in response to resistance to the integration of design theory into public school science curricula.” . . dave souza, talk 22:17, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Denialism category

While the pseudoscience does seem to fit here (widely-used descriptor that is used neutrally), the "denialism" category seems inappropriate and POV. As ID rests on a religious belief to say it is "denialism" in effect says the underlying belief is denialism. The pseudoscience category is more than sufficient. I see no need to pile on with any debunking category editors can come up with.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 19:56, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

If independent reliable sources describe it as such, why shouldn't we? Yobol (talk) 19:59, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Yobol, do we have sources that call it denialism? I can understand how ID can be said to be a denial of evolution and it certainly seems to fit the definition of denialism from the Wiki page, but do we have sources for this? I've read Richard Dawkin's The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, which, to the best of my knowledge, was the first and only time such a charge has been issued against ID, but are there secondary sources mentioning this claim? I wouldn't think this one, primary source would be enough to justify inclusion to the category. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 20:32, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Just C&Ping explanation from creationism talk page. Change terms as appropriate.

This isn't an article about theism. It's about creationism, a belief that runs directly opposed to evolution. It is, essentially, denial of scientific evidence of evolution. Regardless, categories are there because the article might be of interest to people who are interested in that category. The LGBT category would be appropriate on, for example, the article about Benedict XVI, not because he's gay, but because he has teachings directly related to the LGBT community. By putting this article in the denialism category, we are not saying that creationism IS denialism. Rather it saying that creationism may be a subject of interest to those interested in denialism. Farsight001 (talk) 20:33, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

I follow your logic, but it doesn't seem compatible with policy. Categorization is so byzantine, however, I may be mistaken. Yopienso (talk) 20:40, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Also, the Pope is not in the LGBT category, and I guess that wouldn't fly. Yopienso (talk) 20:44, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes, and also "Categorization must be verifiable: it should be clear from verifiable information in the article why it was placed in each of its categories" (source). So, do we have sources verifying this? -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 20:46, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Source 140 notes the Council of Europe report that notes "denial of evolution of species"; other sources that explicitly link ID and denialism include the NCSE, book about HIV denialism, book about general denialism, book about climage change denialism...Yobol (talk) 20:57, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Sources aren't the end-all be-all of a discussion. You can find sources to justify pretty much any position you want an article to state. Sometimes material can be verified, but is still not worthy of inclusion because it is not neutral. Categories don't have caveats about what you mean or where it applies. They are essentially labels for a subject in the editorial voice. As such, care should be taken when using them to avoid NPOV issues. As ID is tied up in the religious belief about a god creating life as we know it, the article is skewed towards a certain point of view when it is categorized as denialism.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 21:07, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for the sources, Yobol. It sounds like the category is fitting to me.

The Devil's Advocate, if reliable sources aren't "the end-all be-all of a discussion," then how else do we decide into which categories to place articles? What other criteria ought we to consider? -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 21:11, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

How about WP:NPOV? I mean, that's a pretty important aspect of Wikipedia. That is provided separately from WP:V for a reason. Neutrality and verifiability are not interchangeable. Being able to verify it as a notable claim is not the same as proving it worthy of inclusion.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 23:27, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Ignoring what independent reliable sources say about a subject to satisfy preconceived editorial biases seems to me to be the very essence of a NPOV violation. Yobol (talk) 21:14, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Of course RSs end debate; Yobol's NCSE document is definitive. Yopienso (talk) 21:16, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

@Devil's Advocate: The NCSE is a mainstream source that is considered neutral. Since it is an advocacy organization, I realize that could make a reasonable person call it biased, but for WP purposes, it is neutral because it reflects--and, yes, advocates--the mainstream scientific thought.

Also, please post comments in chronological order. If you are responding to a specific editor, you may do so as I just did. Cheers! Yopienso (talk) 23:48, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

I was not saying anything about the source being neutral or not. The category is not neutral. Neutrality isn't something that has to be verified since we usually understand what it means. Simply think about what the term suggests. If the suggestion is more of an argument than a statement of fact, it is not neutral. Here it suggests that people who believe the world is too complicated to have been the result of anything but divine intervention are not rational. Maybe you feel that to be the case, but it is no different than saying people who believe in God are crazy. Whether it is what you intend to suggest is not relevant either. The reader is not going to know what you intend to say.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 00:40, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

The article is not about "people who believe the world is too complicated to have been the result of anything but divine intervention". It is about the deliberate attempt to teach religion as science in US public schools. The sources are pretty clear. —ArtifexMayhem (talk) 00:51, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Denialism is a WP category that has already passed muster; neutrality questions do not apply. Creationism and intelligent design do deny that evolution--the mainstream scientific theory of the origin of species--is true. This fact implies nothing about how rational their proponents may or may not be, but merely identifies their denial of the most widely accepted explanation of the diversity of life. (Some individuals may believe deniers are irrational, but that opinion is not intrinsic to the term.) Yopienso (talk) 01:37, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Like I said, what you intend the category to mean is quite irrelevant. Categories do not come with caveats. It does not say "denialism (with respect to evolution)" but instead says "denialism" and nothing more. ID is first and foremost a claim that a divine being created the universe and life as we know it. So, one could easily interpret the denialism category as saying anyone who believes in some form of divine creation is denying reality. You can say "that's not what it is saying" but you really are only arguing that is not what you intend for it to say. Whether you intend to say it or not, that it can be easily taken as saying that means the category should not be included.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 05:18, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

@TDA, Intelligent design is not "believing in divine creation"; intelligent design is the denial of Evolution. That's it. Full stop. We have a plethora of sources indicating this, including proponents of ID themselves, who vehemently deny any attachment to anything "divine". The category fits because sources say it fits, that's the best we can do.   — Jess· Δ♥ 05:43, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Verifiability is not the only consideration. I don't know why I have to keep repeating myself. Something can be perfectly verifiable but still unacceptable because of NPOV considerations. You ask any regular person what Intelligent Design is about they will probably respond that it claims the universe/life must have had a divine creator (the lede says this outright). If you then tell them that ID is denialism, do you think they will perceive your remark as meaning it denies evolution? No, they will perceive the denialism label as suggesting that the idea of God creating life and/or the universe is false.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 14:17, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

The Devil's Advocate, the lead takes the definition of ID directly from the Discovery Institute: "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection" (emphasis added). It is therefore, by definition, a denial of the modern evolutionary synthesis over which there is no controversy in the mainstream scientific community. There is nothing NPOV about this; it's a fact. If readers don't understand why this is a fact because they have a different perception about ID, they should read the article and find out what ID actually is. We cannot cover all of people's (mis)perceptions here, let alone with the inclusion/exclusion of a single category... nor must we. Our duty as editors is to represent the sources accurately, not to hold the hands of readers. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 15:21, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Look at that quote more carefully. It says "certain features of the universe" and a process "such as" evolution by natural selection. It was clearly not limiting the definition to evolution, but including other aspects of the universe and science. Also, this wording does not say evolution is wrong, only that it does not believe this was the result of an "undirected process" as opposed to a process directed by a divine being.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 18:14, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Those "certain features of the universe" are biological, and evolution by natural selection is one of the two undirected processes with which the DI takes issue (the other being abiogenesis). That definition, taken in the utmost strictest sense, doesn't limit their scope to evolution, but their modus operandi, as recorded by many secondary sources, is attacking evolution. Just look at their public campaign to "Teach the Controversy," which wrongfully claims that a scientific controversy exists over whether or not evolution is true. Also, ID is not theistic evolution, which views evolution as a guided process; ID proponents are expressly evolution-deniers. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 18:37, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

The material regarding the "fine-tuned universe" claim strongly demonstrates it is not just about biology.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 16:03, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Let me get this straight. You're saying they're not denialist because their denial has fuzzy boundaries? So it denies physics, geology, astronomy, chemistry, etc. in addition to refuting evolution. Big surprise. The disciplines of science are interconnected. The most compelling evidence of evolution itself are from interdisciplinary or completely unrelated fields altogether which themselves have to be refuted in turn. For example, C-14 dating, stratigraphy, plate tectonics, animal husbandry, artificial life simulation programs, astronomy, population genetics, etc. If anything else it only strengthens their being denialist - "various forms of denialism have the common feature of the rejection of overwhelming evidence".

That in addition to all the hallmarks of denialism:

• Conspiracy theories - Mainstream science and the government are silencing ID proponents by not allowing Christian creationism to be taught at schools! Think of the children!
• Cherry picking - Oh the coelacanth is alive despite its entire group being presumed to be extinct! That single error naturally proves that the fossil record is false. Or does it? Or how about the Cambrian explosion. Nobody knows what caused it, therefore it must be divine! Proof at last! Completely ignoring the pretty clear evidence of succession in the rest of the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic and Cenozoic besides of course.
• False experts - Thaxton is a physical chemist, Dembski is a mathematician, Snoke is a physicist, etc. the closest thing to an actual biologist is Behe, and he's a biochemist. And not particularly brilliant at that.
• Moving the goalpost - Show me the transitional groups between tetrapods and fish. Oh you've found Tiktaalik? Show me the transitional groups between Tiktaalik and tetrapods then!

And no. WP:NPOV relies on WP:V I'm afraid. It's how you determine due weight in the first place. It's mentioned right in the lead of WP:NPOV: "These three core policies (including WP:OR) jointly determine the type and quality of material that is acceptable in Wikipedia articles. Because these policies work in harmony, they should not be interpreted in isolation from one another"

Oh, and like what everyone else have been saying, ID is not theistic evolution. -- OBSIDIAN†SOUL 18:09, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, but WP:NPOV is not dependent on WP:V. The policies aren't isolated (I wasn't suggesting they were), but they don't have a tiered relationship either. WP:V does not trump WP:NPOV. Just because you can "prove" something does not mean you can include it if the effect skews the page towards a certain POV, intentionally or unintentionally. Pseudoscience is a perfectly suitable category that already covers all the issues you mention above. Denialism just has the effect of implying the core belief of ID is false, that a divine entity created all we know.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 17:01, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

@TDA, you're not presenting any new arguments, and your past arguments have not gained traction to form consensus. "The category causes offense": WP:NOTCENSORED; "The category isn't representative of ID": WP:V; "The category isn't neutral": WP:RNPOV, WP:DUE. You need to present new sources, otherwise this boils down to WP:IDHT, which is tendentious. It's time to move on. (Unless high quality secondary reliable sources are presented, I probably won't be back)   — Jess· Δ♥ 21:37, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

I see you're one of those people who always confuse WP:NPOV with equal validity. Please read the entire policy again. Do not merely assume that because "NPOV" begins with "neutral", that we automatically give equal weight to every mutually contradictory idea. Skewing is not forbidden nor is it a bad thing. NPOV is actually a policy that dictates how to skew articles in the right way, a way that coincides with weight given to the topic in reliable sources. And reliable sources is WP:V. If the most reliable sources view it as denialist, it is denialist.

And how many times must you be told that ID is not theistic evolution? Its "core beliefs" are irrelevant, what matters is its goals and its tactics. One of the most vocal opponents of ID is the Catholic Church, which does believe that a divine entity created all we know, but also does not deny verifiable empirical findings on specious grounds as ID does. The latter is not denialist, the former is. See the difference now? -- OBSIDIAN†SOUL 21:46, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

No, I am not confusing anything. You all are apparently thinking that satisfying WP:V means WP:NPOV no longer applies, but that is not how it works. You can have hundreds of reliable sources saying one thing, but still violate policy by stating it in the editorial voice. "Denialism" provided as a category does not clarify that it is denialism for denying evolution or whatever else you say it is denying. You are expecting readers to make that connection for you, which is the problem. Readers will make their own connections and some of those connections will be that this category is saying people who believe God created everything are in denial. Saying "well that's not the correct connection to make and surely every reader will know what we are talking about" is not a valid argument. I am not saying that the term denialism should be "censored" from the article, just that the category is inappropriate because it doesn't describe what aspects of the subject constitute denialism.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 15:29, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Advocate, you are talking to a wall. What these people don't at all care about is the tone of the article. It is not an article about ID, it is an article against ID and it makes no attempt to gloss over that. Specifically adding denialism to the tone of the article is just more of the same: Denialism is choosing to deny reality as a way to avoid an uncomfortable truth.

These editors that own the article deny that some authors outside of the Discovery Institute, who might count themselves as theistic evolutionists, have referred to the term and some concepts of ID as teleology. These authors would include John Polkinghorne, Freeman Dyson, Owen Gingerich. But these editors insist that only Discovery Institute defines what the term means and they deny that these other authors are significant. And then since the DI is in denial about what they are doing, they use that to color the entire term and everyone who ascribes to teleology. It's sorta like racism where some people have witnessed, or been victimized, or have watched on television that some people of a particular race have committed acts of violence, even directed to persons of other races. Then they conclude that all people of that race must be violent or criminal.

Not all people who are theists, not all people who believe in teleological explanations of reality, are in denial of reality, but the editors that own this article want to make sure that the reader understands that these people are in denial. They want to leave no doubt.

Even though many people at many times have pointed out the non-neutral tone and some non-neutral content of the article, these editors continue to deny it. They reinforce their denialism by awarding themselves featured article status, thus lifting this article above reproach. They also get rid of any editor that steadfastly stands up to them and the obvious bias in the article. 71.169.183.160 (talk) 16:34, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for that wonderful WP:SOAPBOX, IP. Are we done now?

The Devil's Advocate, it is clear where consensus lies. If you don't like the result, you can seek an outside opinion. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 16:45, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

To The DA and the IP: some of your comments are factual, and I'm thinking particularly of the reference to Polkinghorne, et al, but they don't apply to this article. I had the same misunderstanding when I first here, thinking it was about a broad concept, whereas it is of an extremely narrow subject: This article is about intelligent design as promulgated by the Discovery Institute. That's right at the top of the article. So, even though other individuals use the term "ID," that's not what this article is about. The DI does deny that evolution, as taught by mainstream science, is correct: Judged by the normal criteria of empirical science, Darwinism is false. In context:

The actual evidence shows that major features of the fossil record are an embarrassment to Darwinian evolution; that early development in vertebrate embryos is more consistent with separate origins than with common ancestry; that non-coding DNA is fully functional, contrary to neo-Darwinian predictions; and that natural selection can accomplish nothing more than artificial selection—which is to say, minor changes within existing species.

Faced with such evidence, any other scientific theory would probably have been abandoned long ago. Judged by the normal criteria of empirical science, Darwinism is false. Its persists in spite of the evidence, and the eagerness of Darwin and his followers to defend it with theological arguments about creation and design suggests that its persistence has nothing to do with science at all. Yopienso (talk) 17:17, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

These guys are shameless. It's "we like POV very much, thank you." They say what they say, that DI solely defines what the philosophical content of what ID is, and since DI is so dishonest (which they are) then the teleological concept of what can naturally be labeled "Intelligent Design" is stained by association. What these other well-known physicists and astronomers say about "intelligent design" is simply doesn't count and these editors that own the article are the sole authority of what counts and what does not. They just don't get it. DI and ID are not the same thing. Behe and Dembski are not the only people who get to define or comment on ID. And the fact that this fact (that other authors have referred to the term independently) is censored from the article is evidence of POV, not NPOV.

They're just shameless. Nakedly biased article in tone and in selection of facts. And has been so for at least 5 years. 71.169.183.160 (talk) 23:21, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

IP, see Obsidian Soul's comment immediately below this one: "'Intelligent Design' is not the same as 'the belief that an intelligent being designed life'." The article you want this to be already exists... it's called the teleological argument. The article titled Intelligent design is about the supposedly scientific "theory" that a designer created life, not the general, philosophical idea that apparent design implies God's existence. This is why the hatnote at the beginning of the article points you to the teleological argument. Please, feel free to add your sources to that article, where they are appropriate. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 16:37, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

To restate what Yopienso said, "Intelligent Design" is not the same as "the belief that an intelligent being designed life". That is stated right at the top of the article: "For the philosophical "argument from design", see Teleological argument."

The fact that it is teleological has nothing to do with it being denialist. The fact that they believe in a divine designer has nothing to do with being denialist either. The fact, however, that ID continues to oppose mainstream scholarship no matter what evidence comes their way is the relevant criteria.

71.169, that misunderstanding is obvious in what you just wrote. People who believe in theistic teleological explanations are not Intelligent Design proponents. A cat is a mammal, but not all mammals are cats. Is that clear enough? ID proponents are specifically about the people involved in the Discovery Institute and the Center for Science and Culture. Both are not religions nor philosophies nor the science they claim to be, they are political organizations.-- OBSIDIAN†SOUL 00:50, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

The category "Denialism" is pejorative, and it does give a pejorative POV to certain topics, like this one. "Denialism", however, is a phrase used in reliable sources to refer to certain ideas and philosophies, ID being one of them, so the category is probably accurate and appropriate for this article. That being said, the comment above by the IP that this article is written in a way to discredit ID is true. If this article could be written in a more NPOV way, the amount of objections and arguments on this talk page should decrease. Something to keep in mind. Cla68 (talk) 00:57, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Denialism category

Should the article on intelligent design be categorized under denialism?--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 01:01, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Comments

• Oppose While some editors have argued that this refers to ID's alleged denial of evolution or other scientific questions, the category does not come with such caveats. The subject as defined in the lede is clearly indicating the view is claiming a divine entity created life and the universe in some manner. By categorizing this article under denialism it implies the latter view is denial. I recognize that may not be the intent of including it here, but it is the effect of including it here. This does not preclude the term denialism from being mentioned in the article, even in the lede if it is clearly of merit, but that should be done with the appropriate caveats not in a way that implies all belief in a creator is denial as this category does.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 01:01, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
• Support Although in some cases I'd prefer a category-like designation be used to point to a more general "See also" group of related articles and thus narrow the scope for sets labeled "category" (and help minimize any tendency to overuse it, as a "Badge of Shame" for instance), per the current guidelines this article clearly qualifies. It may be unfortunate that the term is used in two senses--one of them being the conjectured psychological motivation underlying the "denial" rather than its immutability against all evidence. Professor marginalia (talk) 03:23, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

This article is one in a series; for "See also," the infobox has a number of articles that can be accessed with a click of the mouse. Please see Denialism, which isn't in the infobox :-) for more about how the word is used at Wikipedia, and presumably in academia and by the informed public. Here's one sentence: In science, denialism has been defined as the rejection of basic concepts that are undisputed and well-supported parts of the scientific consensus on a topic in favor of ideas that are both radical and controversial. Evolution is a basic concept that is an undisputed and well-supported part of the scientific consensus; ergo, to call it false is denialism. Wells not only calls it false, he titles a whole essay "Why Darwinism is False," defining Darwinism as "the modern theory of evolution." Yopienso (talk) 04:02, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

As defined as in science denialism, ID obviously qualifies. Let's label it "Denialism A". "Denialism B" as defined as some kind of psychological pathology...as a "why?" diagnosis for the "denial", well, that's best reserved for categorizing the "why" theories rather than naming and shaming the "why's" by example. I don't think the "why" business is well enough understood yet to justify taking that angle, even when isolated sources are offered as backup. So to me, ID qualifies as defined, "Denialism A", and WP needs to be careful not to insinuate ID qualifies as defined "Denialism B". imho. Professor marginalia (talk)

• Support: this is an typical example of denialism. Actually, I see no reason for RfC here, as I can't think of any valid arguments against such categorization. And as I se from the discussion, nobody can. — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk) 11:37, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose Per my comments below. Briefly, the common meaning of the word is POV pejorative. The noted guideline even explicitly lists it as a POV word to avoid. Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 13:26, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose North8000 makes a good point, it does seem a bit of witch hunt. I'm no fan of ID but feel inclusion in 'denialism' for only a subset of believes categorized in ID is a bit much. Pseudoscience sounds like a better option.Gsonnenf (talk) 23:18, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
• Support, based on these reliable sources Denying AIDS: conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and human tragedy science Denialism: evolution and climate change which clearly label ID as a denialist philosophy. Again, it doesn't mean that ID or its proponents are really denialists, as far as Wikipedia is concerned, it just means that this article is grouped with other topics which have also been labeled as such in reliable sources. Cla68 (talk) 04:31, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose: while there are RS that suggest ID is denialism, I do not think the threshold of WP:CAT has been met. I do not see reliable sources commonly and consistently defining ID as denialism. – Lionel ^(talk) 09:31, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
• Support ID is denialism at its very core: it is entirely about the denial of science and then denying that it is itself a religious argument. Both propositions have been roundly rejected by any number of RSs. Even the arguments presented here against including the ID article in the category are themselves a form of denialism. Finally, this is not the place to argue whether the category itself should exist. It does, and thus this article sits fairly and squarly within the ambit of the category. - Nick Thorne ^talk 13:46, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
• Support - If you look around at how ID is used in the context of discussions of denialism, you'll often see it used as a illustrative example of denialism - like Kalichman does in the source cited below. In trying to explain to his readers what AIDS denialism is, he quotes (better known) examples...like ID. If you do some digging for sources, you'll find several cases of this kind of usage. The idea that intelligent design is evolution denial is fairly standard. Guettarda (talk) 14:21, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
• Support - per my arguments in section above, which I don't feel the need to repeat ad nauseum here. Yobol (talk) 14:23, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
• Support per Guettarda (especially below). Since ID is the illustrative example used in the literature, it would be a large omission to exclude it from the category. Many arguments to omit it are actually votes against the category existing at all, and if so, this isn't the right venue.   — Jess· Δ♥ 18:37, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose - not encyclopedic. Just ensure NPOV article and let the reader form their own conclusions. Nobody Ent 21:26, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
• Support ID is just a reformulation of creationism. It is an attempt to circumvent laws preventing the teaching of a purely doctrinal statement. As ID is co-equal wit creationism it is denialism and should be categorized as such.--Adam in MO Talk 06:31, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Adamfinmo, I think you probably meant to put "oppose" - the proposal is to remove the article from the denialism category. - Nick Thorne ^talk 07:37, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

No it's not. The RfC reads "Should the article on intelligent design be categorized under denialism?"   — Jess· Δ♥ 08:04, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

You're right. Must have had a brain explosion or something! - Nick Thorne ^talk 13:57, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

• Support This seems like a no-brainer to me. Not only is ID clearly within the category as defined, but it is also widely and strongly labelled as denialism by RSs. Several objectors seem to think that we shouldn't label ID as denialism because we'd be implying that proponents of ID are dense or dishonest. This argument doesn't wash with me for two reasons. Firstly, causing offense shouldn't trump facts. Secondly, and more importantly, it's a non-argument because proponents of ID are either dense or dishonest.Dr Marcus Hill (talk) 10:58, 2 March 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose Inherently POV, implies the premise is false. Categorization is intended to be neutral and uncontroversial, something that does not require discussion, partly since the application of a Cat is not in and of itself cited. Should not be categorized, should be discussed and cited in the article as Denialism. Should the category even exist under these standards of uncontroversial? Bakkster Man (talk) 19:46, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
• Support. I hear the opposes based on it being POV, but please think about it for a second. What's the neutral position for WP to take? That intelligent design is supported by science? FormerIP (talk) 01:39, 13 March 2012 (UTC)
  • No, the neutral position is simply to take no position at all, and instead, let the facts speak for themselves, and let the reader decide how to interpret those facts. Bwrs (talk) 05:47, 20 March 2012 (UTC)
    • Actually, on articles about pseudoscience and/or fringe theories, the neutral position is the scientific one. Please see WP:PSCI, WP:FRINGE, WP:GEVAL, and WP:DUE. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 16:11, 20 March 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose - The basic property of denialism (" the refusal to accept an empirically verifiable reality.") is simply not present in Intelligent Design. They accept all empirically verifiable reality, they just think that there is a plan behind it. (Full disclosure: I don't underwrite any of the ID thoughts.) _W^\|/_haledad (Talk to me) 02:56, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
  • You're confusing ID with theistic evolution. Guettarda (talk) 03:22, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose - I don't see the point of diluting the meaning of denialism by applying it to every bit of pseudoscience. Keep it for straight well documented denialism like the tobacco companies did or those nazis denying the holocaust. The pseudoscience category describes intelligent design well and accurately. Dmcq (talk) 13:36, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
• Support. It's patently denialism. They deny the scientific consensus regarding the origins of life, the species, and the universe. That's a textbook definition of it. Mkemper331 (talk) 14:39, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose per User:Nobody Ent. Bwrs (talk) 05:44, 20 March 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose as violating neutral POV... It would follow that all of the Evolutionary Theory articles would also be placed under the category "denialism". That's the faulty logic being applied here. Just because the article quotes someone who describes it, in their opinion, as "denialist", it does not follow that the editorial judgement of the editors should fall into line with that person's quoted opinion and categorize it as verifiable fact. Pick any topic on any subject, you can probably find a quotable source that will label it as "denialism" -- global warming? Global cooling? Do we put everything with a contentious debate connected with it under the category "denialism"? Opinions are like belly buttons, everybody has one. LOL. OttawaAC (talk) 22:28, 26 March 2012 (UTC)
• Support inclusion of the article in the Category:Denialism. However, it might, maybe, be more appropriate to include either the Category:Intelligent design or some other related category, as there seem to be multiple articles relating to the subject. John Carter (talk) 23:42, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Threaded Discussion

Comment: This was already discussed, above, with a large number of editors weighing in. The overwhelming consensus (every editor except the proposer) supported the category. Unless there are other considerations which haven't been addressed, it seems to me this is pretty much settled. Obviously, outside opinions are welcome if so, but please scan the discussion above first.   — Jess· Δ♥ 01:31, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

This RfC is unnecessary; clearly there's editorial consensus, based on policy, that the category "Denialism" is appropriate for this article. This whole section needs to hatted and forgotten; the two dissenters just aren't listening. Yopienso (talk) 01:37, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Agree. It's just a deadhorse argument. Hat it. Dominus Vobisdu (talk) 01:39, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

I did, and he reverted it. Yopienso (talk) 01:42, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Agree this is a case of WP:IDHT, but I don't see any major harm leaving it open. When an editor "isn't getting it", I typically tell them to post an RfC or on a noticeboard to get outside opinions, and TDA should be free to do that if he thinks we aren't representing policy well. That said, he's gotten a lot of outside opinions already (9 by my count), so when he doesn't get much support here he should be expected to let it go. Until then, I think we can just ignore it; no use edit warring, and it's not time for ANI or RFCU yet.   — Jess· Δ♥ 01:59, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

I don't know the history or even the context of the current question, but "denialism" is a pejorative bordering on an attack and should not be a classification. And that is a scientific atheist (me) speaking. North8000 (talk) 02:31, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

From what I can tell, every editor commenting above supporting the cat is a regular contributor to the article. Outside opinion traditionally refers to people who have not been heavily involved in the article and who may thus have a more objective perspective as a result.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 02:26, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

I wasn't claiming any categorization for myself, I was weighing in on the question at hand. North8000 (talk) 02:31, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

As already mentioned, please read the above discussion first before commenting. DA is confusing the scope of the article and is assuming that the reader will likewise do the same. His questions have been answered repeatedly and the consensus is quite clear, yet he repeatedly makes the same argument ad nauseam. No recognition of other arguments, no changing of stance, just the same argument over and over again. Classic WP:IDHT.-- OBSIDIAN†SOUL 02:39, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

I don't usually edit this page although I do keep an eye on changes and discussions here. On the subject of this RFC, it is blindingly obvious that ID is the very epitome of denialism - if it does not warrant inclusion in that category, nothing does. As others have commented, those opposing inclusion in the category are indulging in some industrial strength IDHT. The overwhelming majority of editors support inclusion of the article in the Denialism category - a very clear consensus. This RFC is unnecesssary and should be closed and the Cat applied forthwith. - Nick Thorne ^talk 04:20, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

The cat is still very much there. It is a question of whether it should remain. Were you to look at WP:CAT the exact wording there says:

“ Categorization must maintain a neutral point of view: categorizations appear on pages without annotations or referencing to justify or explain their addition; editors should be conscious of the need to maintain a neutral point of view when creating categories or adding them to articles. Categorizations should generally be uncontroversial; if the category's topic is likely to spark controversy, then a list article (which can be annotated and referenced) is probably more appropriate. ”

Most of the individuals above are arguing that it is acceptable to include because it only applies to a certain aspect of the subject. However, such explanations being necessary is exactly what WP:CAT is talking about. Basically, if you have to explain that the category is only negatively labeling one aspect of the subject then the category should probably not be included even if you have a thousand sources using the label.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 05:43, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Then this is not the place to be having that discussion. If you want to adopt that line of argument take it to the category talk page (good luck with that). In the meantime it is about time you accepted the concensus here and dropped the stick. The category does exist and it plainly applies to this article. Practically everyone here seems to accept that, I would call that a concensus. Move on now. - Nick Thorne ^talk 05:56, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

I think the category itself is perfectly acceptable in some articles. This is just not one of them.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 06:53, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

No. It applies to the defining aspect of the subject. The belief of a designer is the minor aspect of ID, one it shares with numerous other religions and ideologies, only a few of which are similarly denialist.

And again "need to maintain a neutral point of view" means we do have to follow the thousand reliable sources using the label. Not avoid anything for fear of offending someone or in the misguided sense of retaining outward harmony. NPOV != equal validity. How many times must you be told to read NPOV in its entirety? And I'm pretty sure I'm still talking to a wall. You'll reiterate the same argument in 3... 2... -- OBSIDIAN†SOUL 06:00, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

If you want to talk about NPOV how about what it says right at the top?:

“ Prefer non-judgmental language. A neutral point of view neither sympathizes with nor disparages its subject (or what reliable sources say about the subject), although this must sometimes be balanced against clarity. Present opinions and conflicting findings in a disinterested tone. ”

Again, if you have to explain that it only refers to one aspect of the subject, then you probably haven't satisfied WP:NPOV with regards to the cat.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 06:53, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Read the entire thing, ffs. Right beside the passage you conveniently quoted out of context are two far more relevant passages. Not to mention the first sentence of WP:NPOV itself and entire subsections WP:DUE, WP:GEVAL, WP:MNA, WP:PSCI, and WP:RNPOV. All of which make it abundantly clear that the category is both appropriate and neutral (in the "this is how reliable sources see this as" kind of neutrality not the "this is how someone who takes everything at face value without ascertaining reliability" kind of neutrality). WP:NPOV is married to WP:V, whether you like it or not.-- OBSIDIAN†SOUL 07:15, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Why do people keep citing "equal validity" and "due weight"? I said very plainly that pseudoscience is a perfectly acceptable category for this article (making the PSCI mention odd as well) and that satisfies such concerns. MNA seems to be another odd mention as it does not pertain to the question at all. RNPOV is certainly relevant, but it is more favorable towards removing the cat as causing "unnecessary offense" since we already have the much clearer pseudoscience category.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 07:28, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Why indeed. If you can't even understand that, then we have no hope of ever moving forward from this. What's stopping you from making the same arguments for the removal of pseudoscience category for example? It's also offensive to people who might not realize that ID is not the same thing as teleological argument. Come to think of it, given that Christianity is also an aspect of it, it might be offensive to Christians too! Or religion in general! Or humanity! The very same arguments you are using now is the same arguments that won't work for the removal of the latter category. Context and scope is what you should be looking at, not hypothetical reactions of people who might misunderstand that the subject of the article actually does not refer to every single religious person out there.

And what's with the sudden U-turn. Didn't you just argue passionately a few hours back that reliable sources don't trump NPOV? Now you're saying something completely different (also don't oversell it, only one book is Wikipedia derived actually, lol). -- OBSIDIAN†SOUL 07:54, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Honestly, looking further I am being way too charitable in suggesting this label is even used very often. While statements that they "deny evolution" do occur a little more than a trivial amount of times in opinion pieces, the exact label of "denialism" is rarely applied. Thumbing through the Google Books results reveals even fewer actual connections, save for Wikipedia-derived books. Only some of the sources provided in the discussion above this show any mention of this label at all, and those mentions being very trivial or tenuous. This just adds on to the issue of its usage here.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 07:17, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

First, if you are worried about my POV, I'm a scientific atheist who 100% believes in evolution thinks that ID and creationism are in error. And I don't want ID taught in public schools. ID might even have a significant "political maneuver" aspect amongst those promoting it. But I have to say that the whole tone here seems like a witch hunt against ID rather than coverage of it. This impassioned insistence on applying a pejorative term to it seems a part of the pattern. A category by that name probably shouldn't even exist, it itself appearing to be a maneuver by taking a term which has a common meaning that it pejorative and using a second supposedly-dispassionate meaning to try to justify its use. There is nothing to say that it needs to be applied here. Manual of Style/Words to watch even explicitly lists "denialist" as a word to avoid. North8000 (talk) 11:11, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

The Devil's Advocate, you said, "[m]ost of the individuals above are arguing that it is acceptable to include [the category] because it only applies to a certain aspect of the subject." In this you are wrong. There is no other aspect to intelligent design other than the outspoken denial of evolution:

“ Intelligent design was developed by a group of American creationists who revised their argument in the creation–evolution controversy to circumvent court rulings such as the United States Supreme Court Edwards v. Aguillard ruling, which barred the teaching of "Creation Science" in public schools as breaching the separation of church and state. ”

(from the 3rd paragraph of the lead, see citations there)

ID proponents define ID to specifically call into question evolution; they have a campaign called "Teach the Controversy" which falsely claims that the scientific community is divided as to whether or not evolution occurred; they help political organizations draft legislation which requires students to be read disclaimers about evolution (see Academic freedom bills); their only research to date centers on irreducible complexity and complex specified information, both of which are used to suggest evolution could not happen; and, in their most famous court case, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, Judge John E. Jones III wrote:

“ The history of the intelligent design movement (hereinafter “IDM”) and the development of the strategy to weaken education of evolution by focusing students on alleged gaps in the theory of evolution is the historical and cultural background against which the Dover School Board acted in adopting the challenged ID Policy. ”

(source)

I hope it is now obvious that ID is nothing more than a political movement to teach creationism in US public schools by denying evolution. Their very essence is denialism, and Yobol has already presented sources which make this connection explicit.

North8000 and Cla68, you should review the policies on WP:DUE, WP:FRINGE, and WP:PSCI. This is not a witch hunt against ID, nor an article biased against it: it is an article giving due weight to a pseudoscientific, fringe "theory," in adherence to Wikipedia policies. Please try to keep this in mind. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 16:25, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Pseudoscience, however, is a perfectly acceptable category as ID does commonly get described that way and it is clear to what the label applies. Your response here demonstrates that the denialism category is not nearly as clear in its application to the subject. It is not about whether it causes offense, but whether the message being communicated by the category is clear and objective.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 19:38, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Hwhaaa??? How the effing eff does my response demonstrate "that the denialism category is not nearly as clear in its application to the subject"??? All that information is in the article... have you even read it? And please stop trying to move the goalposts here: first you claim that it doesn't belong here because WP:NPOV, and now "it is not about whether it causes offense"? You also claimed earlier that WP:V isn't sufficient justification for the inclusion of this category, but now the sources don't even count? This is just absurd. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 19:53, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Your response demonstrates it by going to great lengths to try and explain why you think ID is really just about evolution. If it is so clear you shouldn't need to cherry-pick a court case (another quote from that same case ties it in with general belief in a creator god), rather it should be apparent from how Intelligent Design is commonly defined, but I have already pointed out that the very first sentence of the lede suggests it goes beyond evolution and even on evolution may only address an aspect of the theory. Saying the category violates WP:NPOV for not clearly communicating that it refers to the evolution aspect is not the same as saying it should be removed for causing offense. As to my position about WP:V, that was based more on me deferring to the arguments from editors like you that this is supported by a preponderance of reliable sources. When I looked into it myself I realized it was only supported by a very small number of sources. That is not moving the goalposts, because I still think WP:V would not be good cause for including the category.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 21:53, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

I wouldn't have had to explain all that if you had read the article. It's easy to say that a subject is incorrectly categorized if you don't know jack crap about it. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 22:06, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Verifiability is a requirement for inclusion, not a force for inclusion. North8000 (talk) 23:20, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Devil's Advocate, I agree with you that the article is biased and I believe you when you say that many, if not most, of the followers of the ID philosophy do not consider it to be a denial of the theory of evolution. Nevertheless, it appears that a number of reliable sources claim that ID is a denialist philosophy. We go by the sources. Cla68 (talk) 23:28, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

"We go by the sources" is not entirely accurate. It is more like we consult the sources and we don't say something unless it is supported by the sources. Sometimes the sources say things that Wikipedia should never say. For instance, we don't say Hitler was evil at any time in his bio and the word "evil" only occurs once in the body of that article. That is certainly not due to some lack of sourcing for the claim, but because we recognize that some things are just not constructive to building an objective encyclopedia. Wikipedia is not here to cast judgment on one's opponents, even though it is often used for just such a purpose. Denialism fits in some articles because it is a common description and clearly communicates what is being denied, but this is not at all true in this case.

If you want something a little more substantive, we have one occurrence of "deny" and another of "denialism" throughout the entire article with both being very poorly sourced. One of the instances is about creationism as a whole and neither instance includes a claim that Intelligent Design denies evolution, and one actually specifically says it only denies part of the theory of evolution. Clearly the purpose of the denialism category here is not to categorize it in a way that is helpful or supported by sources, but just to smear the subject based on what opponents think of the idea.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 00:41, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

If that's true, then the denialism category is inappropriate. Could someone please list the sources here which support the label of "deniers"? Cla68 (talk) 01:36, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

This article is describing (and evaluating, to be sure) ID as a concept according to policy while TDA is criticizing the Hitler article for not making a judgment value on Hitler's character. Those are two very different things.

A look at the Adolf Hitler article shows an objective description of his deeds:

• Hitler is commonly associated with the rise of fascism in Europe, World War II, and the Holocaust.
• Hitler's supremacist and racially motivated policies resulted in the systematic murder of eleven million people, including nearly six million Jews.
• Hitler's policies and orders resulted in the death of approximately 40 million people. . .
• Historians, philosophers, and politicians have often applied the word "evil" to describe Hitler's ideology and its outcomes.
• He became adept at using populist themes targeted to his audience, including the use of scapegoats who could be blamed for the economic hardships of his listeners.

Yopienso (talk) 02:13, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Here's an archived discussion of the Denialism category. Yopienso (talk) 02:14, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

If no one can show some reliable sources claiming that ID is a form of denialism, then I will be opposing the addition of the category to this article. Cla68 (talk) 02:23, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Here's the one I gave above, Jonathan Well's essay, "Why Darwinism is False. And here's another from Michael Behe's blog: "One of the most important results of ID theory is that it effectively falsifies Darwinian theory." (A blog is a RS for what the person in question says.) Yopienso (talk) 02:44, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

A quick google scholar search also turns up Denying AIDS: conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and human tragedy by Seth Kalichman (pg 8) and science Denialism: evolution and climate change by the NCSE.   — Jess· Δ♥ 03:39, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

I didn't check Yopienso's refs yet, but those two by MannJess clearly label ID believers as denialists. By putting this article in the "Denialism" category, it doesn't mean that Wikipedia is saying that ID is denialist philosophy, it just means that we are grouping it with topics that have also been labled, in RS, as such. Cla68 (talk) 04:16, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

One of those books makes a very weak connection. It says denialists employ their tactics in subjects like creationism and intelligent design, but that is in a long listing of numerous other subjects including animal rights activists opposed to animal testing. The other source does say "science denialism" and mentions evolution, but it mentions creationism right alongside it. Also, with a bit of digging one finds that the author of that paper is a member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. In other words, he's a debunker, which is different from citing some regular scientist or academic.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 04:20, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

I read through both refs fairly thoroughly, and I'm convinced that they were labeling ID as denialism. It doesn't matter to me what the authors' suspected motivations were, because to me what only matters is that the label is backed-up by reliable sources. What we need to concentrate on here is making this and other theistic science articles more NPOV, so that our readers can read them, check the sources, and decide for themselves if the proponents' and/or critics' arguments have any merit. Cla68 (talk) 04:28, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Any time when the establishment detests an idea or person you will be sure to have little trouble finding an assortment of sources supporting whatever negative wording you would like to insert. The inclusion criteria is not limited to "I have some sources saying this" but whether its inclusion avoids skewing the article towards a certain POV. Were it really just a game of "find the source" then none of the other content policies would exist. WP:NPOV exists for the cases where there is no question that a claim is verifiable, but there is a question of whether it is included in a manner that skews the article.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 07:01, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Strongly disagree with this conclusion. Yes, one will have little trouble finding an assortment of sources saying which ever supports whatever argument. But NPOV says that WP isn't to become one of them, lending disproportionate weight to one side or another.

NPOV does not mean "slap happy face stickers" to hide content that might cause discomfort to a reader of the encyclopedia.

The "skewing" is addressed in WP:Undue - if wikipedians act as if it's their job to correct the sources, that's not what NPOV is about. Professor marginalia (talk) 07:33, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Again with this talk about a "cause offense" argument that I have never raised. It has nothing to do with whether it offends people, but whether the category's inclusion pushes a bias.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 08:44, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

@ TDA, your use of "the establishment" indicates that you're arguing against the clear majority expert view. As an aside, as well as denying evolution, ID proponentsists deny that their religious argument is a religious argument: they often remind me of Mark 14:30. . . . dave souza, talk 08:48, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

I just want to quickly point out that, when this issue first arose, I asked for RSs to support the connection. Yobol responded with four: NCSE, book about HIV denialism, book about general denialism, book about climage change denialism. So yeah... sources aplenty. And thanks, Yobol, for your apparently overlooked work. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 15:21, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

If that were a mere sampling it might mean something, but from what I can tell having searched myself those are the results. So far, I don't think any other sources have actually been presented with these sources being repeated several times.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 17:07, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

If one finds some wp:"RS" sources that classify Obama as a socialist, does that mean that someone can put his article in the Socialism category? (And again, sourcability is a requirement for inclusion, not a force for inclusion.) The answer is no, even if it met the verifiability requirement it would violate other policies and guidelines. North8000 (talk) 17:37, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

The Devil's Advocate, how many sources do you want? Aside from Yobol's four five (from the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, the NCSE, a psychologist whose research exposes him to denialism, a journalist of science and technology, and the Executive Director of the National Physical Science Consortium), Yopienso has provided another two sources from ID proponents: Jonathan Wells (on the DI website) and the contributors to William Demski's blog Uncommon Descent. I also mentioned Richard Dawkins's The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution which explicitly identifies ID proponents as history-deniers for their denial of evolution. This is in addition to the findings of the Kitzmiller trial, which states, among other such mentions, that "[d]espite the scientific community's overwhelming support for evolution, Defendants and ID proponents insist that evolution is unsupported by empirical evidence." So, how many sources do we need to find?

North8000, I agree that sourcability is not a force for inclusion. But the facts are that ID was developed to skirt US law regarding the teaching of evolution, that their research and political maneuvers are relegated to denying and attacking evolution, and their definition of ID explicitly states that evolution did not occur. There is no question that they deny evolution, nor is there a question that this denial is a the defining aspect of ID. I honestly cannot fathom how one could say this doesn't satisfy the criteria for category inclusion. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 17:54, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

I looks to me like the objections all boil down to 'I don't like it' and the rest of the supposed issues with using that category are simply pretexts for that. Raul654 (talk) 17:56, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

North & TDA: the issue here isn't whether we can find some source that describes ID as denialism, but rather, that sources which describe denialism broadly are likely to include ID as an example. To compare this with North's example - if scholarly works on socialism used Obama as an example, then yes, it might be appropriate to include him. But your example is usage that lies in opposition to the usual definitions of socialism. In this case, what we have instead is (a) the fact that ID is consistent with the normal usage of denialism, and (b) scholarly sources using ID as a prime example of denialism. As I mentioned above, Kalichman uses ID as an illustrative example of denialism when he's trying to convince his readers that HIV/AIDS denial is an example of denialism. The key here is the direction in which things flow. Guettarda (talk) 18:04, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

I would ask each person to ask yourself not "what is a basis to trying to assign this category?" but "what is your reason for making such a big effort to assign the word "denialism" to ID?" If it's actually "I don't like what the ID people are doing, they could use a good smack-down, and getting themlinked to this negative sounding term sounds good in that respect" then I would say that you are probably going to inadvertently make a witch-hunt or smack-down article, to the extent that that can be done within Wikipedia rules. North8000 (talk) 21:59, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

"what is your reason for making such a big effort to assign the word "denialism" to ID?" - I think you have that backwards. The article has been in the category for years. What we have is "such a big effort" to remove the article from the category. So maybe you need to ask yourself why you're making "such a big effort" to remove the category from just this one article. Guettarda (talk) 22:31, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

{ec} North8000, please assume good faith: no one here has said anything remotely like that, and one could certainly make the same statements from the opposite perspective (as has now occurred). This gets us nowhere.

I have a couple of questions for everyone here: is the Denialism category itself POV? If so, would it be worthwhile to Cfd it? I ask because, as has been mentioned before, it seems like a lot of people are opposing the category inclusion because of the connotation of the word "denialism," which is obviously inseparable from the category title. Also, I'm curious to know, for those of you who think the category should not be deleted but should not include ID, which topics could exist in this category without being POV. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 22:36, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

To Guettarda, with me being a scientist/atheist who doesn't believe in creationism or ID, and doesn't want them to be taught in public schools, I'm just out to try to help it be a good article. Also, whenever I see what might be something not quite right and lopsided going on I tend to jump in on the side of the "victim". That's about it. MisterDub, I think that the category should be deleted. The common meaning of the term is pejorative, and the guideline even explicitly says to avoid characterizing by that word. But I've said my peace and would be happy to leave this article if not wanted. Sincerley, North8000 (talk) 22:52, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

I agree that "denialism" is a negative category title and, to be honest, I suspect that at least some of the sources are using it pejoratively in an effort to, perhaps unfairly, denigrate ID and other philosophies. Remember, however, that placing a Wikipedia article or topic in a category does not mean that we (Wikipedia) is deciding that the label is true, we are just going on the sources. I respect your opinion and hope that you will continue to contribute towards improving this article. Cla68 (talk) 23:05, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

North8000, I think that's a discussion of a different issue then. I'm not trying to take anything away from your opinion, but it's logical that if you think the category itself is POV, then no article should be within it. And I definitely don't want you to leave: this is one of the more contentious articles on Wikipedia, and I'm glad we have a diversity in editors to keep each other in check and ensure this article is high quality and NPOV. Discussions here can get frustrating at times, but I think the article would be worse off without the stringent criticism. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 23:21, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

In response to your earlier comment Dub, the problem is most of those sources do not actually support the denialism category. You are interpreting most of them like you have with the Kitzmiller trial opinion as meaning this, but that is not an appropriate way of verifying it. Also, the Council of Europe source you mention is only labeling creationism as denialism, which definitely shouldn't be labeled as denialism (guess what category is currently included in that article) because it is chiefly a religious belief that does include theistic evolution. Now, as to that point about the general category, I have already said I see areas where it can still be applied. Holocaust denial and AIDS denialism are some obvious ones. Other articles where it gets included I am more shaky about, but there are some cases where I think it is appropriate to include. Perhaps there should be a general discussion about its usage, but that can be looked at later.

My issue here is that the category's inclusion could easily be taken as implying belief in a creator is denialism given ID's broader meaning in society and so far the editors wanting to keep the category have not satisfactorily addressed that concern. Saying "well the category is definitely, definitely referring to its denial of Darwinian evolution and that should be obvious to anyone who reads the article" does not really mean much to me, because I think quite a few readers seeing that category here will read the first sentence of the lede and more likely get the impression that Wikipedia is saying "if you think flowers being pretty means there is a god, then you are in denial!"--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 01:30, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

FFS, when you have something new to say, then by all means say it. Until then drop the effing stick. You have said the same thing here multiple times. That does not improve your argument and if anything makes it less likely that you will succeed in convincing anybody of the correctness of your arguments. Continually repeating the same arguments in slightly different words not only does not work, it is counter productive to your aims because it pisses people off. The more you say the same thing over and over the more I feel like I want to oppose you, regardless of what you say. Please just stfu and allow some others to have their say without you responding to practically every point raised by making the same argument you already have ad nauseum. - Nick Thorne ^talk 02:52, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Nick, an angry diatribe that presumably was posted in response to your comments here has been reverted. I almost undid the revert because I thought if it were removed from the page yours should be, too. You have crossed the line from addressing the article and policy issues to making it personal. Please do not make editorial decisions based on your emotional state toward another editor. Refactoring--as in striking everything but the first five sentences--would be in order. I agree it's good for him to know his style is annoying, but your reciprocal annoyance doesn't help. After that, you're getting personal and repeating yourself. Yopienso (talk) 16:24, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

OK. I don't agree that I have crossed any line, but I do agree that I was repeating myself. Since the thrust of my post was an objection to unnecessary repetition, I have stricken the last part as suggested. - Nick Thorne ^talk 05:27, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

As my grandfather would have said, "You're a prince of a fine fellow." Thanks. Yopienso (talk) 08:10, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

To CLa68 & MisterDub. Thanks. I'll stick around. I'm kind of talked out on this particular question. I gave what I think are solid policy and guideline reasons to not include it in the denialism category. I still stand by them even if I don't discuss this particular item further. Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 15:03, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

The Devil's Advocate, you really need to read the sources before commenting:

“ The theory of evolution is being attacked by religious fundamentalists who call for creationist theories to be taught in European schools alongside or even in place of it. From a scientific view point there is absolutely no doubt that evolution is a central theory for our understanding of the Universe and of life on Earth.

Creationism in any of its forms, such as “intelligent design”, is not based on facts, does not use any scientific reasoning and its contents are pathetically inadequate for science classes.

”

(Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, emphasis added)

And, if the current state of the Denialism category is evidence of anything, it's all the more justification to keep ID in there, not less. Articles within this category include Creationism (ID is creationism), Creation science (from which ID evolved), Critical Analysis of Evolution ("a proposed high school science lesson plan promoting intelligent design"), Louisiana Science Education Act (an anti-evolution law), Politicization of science (which includes ID, among other topics), Strengths and weaknesses of evolution (which has no direct tie to ID, but also denies evolution), and Young Earth creationism (which describes some, though not all ID proponents). Your arguments boil down to "people don't know what ID is, so we can't make statements of fact that would contradict their misconceptions." That's why this article is here, so people can learn about the subject. If they don't know why it's in the Denialism category... they can read the article! You wouldn't try to get AIDS denialism out of the category because "aids" can be interpreted as "helpers," would you? -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 15:57, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

WP:OTHERSTUFF applies to more than deletion discussions. Saying "these articles are included in the category" does not mean much. Creationism and YEC should not be included in those categories because they are focused on the religious beliefs. The others I am more hesitant about. "Politicization of science" is a very problematic article that should be refocused, for instance, so the category's placement there is one thing that would probably get tossed out as a result of such refocusing. Some of those, however, have a clear focus that will allow the denialism category to be understood as referring to the specific claims about evolution.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 17:20, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Perhaps you've forgotten already, but you brought up the WP:OTHERSTUFF: "... guess what category is currently included in that article...". My response, on the other hand, was prefaced with, "... if the current state of the Denialism category is evidence of anything...". So let's just agree that this information has nothing to do with the discussion at present and drop it, yes? -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 18:13, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

I never claimed how one article is treated should determine how this one is treated so that does not apply to my comment.--The Devil's Advocate (talk) 22:56, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Patent denialism. Just checked my inbox and found an article in The Scientist about Springer publishing--or maybe not--an ID book, Biological Information: New Perspectives, edited by R. J. Marks II, M. J. Behe, W. A. Dembski, B. L. Gordon, and J. C. Sanford. A link there goes to the NCSE; I'll paste in an excerpt here:

Sanford testified that he believes the earth is between 5000 and 100,000 years old, that he rejects the general principle of common descent and the idea that humans are descended from prehominid ancestors, and that he agrees that "the teaching of science as is currently practiced is an indoctrination in naturalism." Yopienso (talk) 05:55, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Show me the empirical data

Caution: Un-involved editor, saw the RfC and took the time to read the article. My concern is the "denialism" is a pseudo-scientific term in its own right. It is utterly subjective in its application. Moreover, it assigns nefarious motive to supporters of the concept. From the article, it looks all the world like a politically motivated movement to me, but I have no way of assigning such motive to any specific individual involved in it.

As a theologian, by profession, the lay-proponents I typically encounter excited about ID are in denial of nothing other than that due to a presumed simplistic view of both science and of faith. Most can easily integrate a more complex view of those two studies, once prompted. It is not usually denial which must be overcome, but laziness.

To the Fundamentalist, who claim the Bible as the primary authority for all things, I would say, "Show me in the Bible where it says the Creation story cannot be interpreted spiritually."

To those who support using the "Denialist" brand, upholding scientific method above all, I ask, "Show me the empirical data supporting that proponents of ID are in denial."

There, I have talked myself into a decision: Oppose.--cregil (talk) 06:17, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm curious why your decision is based on "show me" rather than on sources. After all, isn't our operational principle WP:V? As for the issue of "show me the empirical data"...can you explain why you consider the evidence presented in this article (and on this page) inadequate? I mean, take Icons of Evolution, a key book by an important ID proponent. Every one of his "icons" is a combination of misdirection and outright denial of the facts. Signature in the Cell is another case - the book not only denies evolution, it also misleads (like most of ID) by using probability-based claims that not only are incorrect, but that had been shown to be incorrect long before the book was written. In the Kitzmiller trial, Behe's testimony showed many of the holes in ID - and yet, ID proponents continue the advance the claims that Behe admitted were false. And this is just the stuff I can come up with in a few minutes (I'd much rather be asleep right now). So what sort of empirical evidence are you looking for? Why do you consider these few random examples inadequate? What sort of information would convince you? Guettarda (talk) 06:46, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

Show me? Easy one to explain: The turnip truck off of which I feel was drawn by dinosaurs.

"Cherry picking" is reasonably expected on emotionally-charged articles pertaining to ideologies. So, to counter that, I expect empirical evidence that those who support ID do so because they are in denial. The burden of proof will be supported by clinical studies-- not pseudo-science.

A biologist's, or chemist's, or physicist's use of the term "denial" as an emotional response to a manifest reality is preposterous-- unless he interviewed his opponents in controlled therapeutic sessions-- in which case, we should have a diagnosis beyond merely "denial."

Which Axis? Are there other behavioral factors which are noticed? Are the ID proponents suffering from delusions or hallucinations? Is a type of paranoia indicated? Psychosis or Neurosis? What diagnostic criteria are used, and how many of them must be met? You cite hearsay, and I want sources-- professionally accredited sources using accepted clinical practice to indicate that denial is the cause for one to support ID. Otherwise, it is name-calling, and people who name-call are just stupid.

That was an inclusio-- I started with irony and ended with it. Clever of me, for 3 in the morning, wasn't it?--cregil (talk) 08:02, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

cregil, you asked for evidence of denialism, but the article has everything you need (as Guettarda already pointed out). First, please read the lead again. From the third paragraph: "Intelligent design was developed by a group of American creationists who revised their argument in the creation–evolution controversy to circumvent court rulings... which barred the teaching of 'Creation Science' in public schools as breaching the separation of church and state." Also note that, contrary to empirically verifiable reality, ID proponents deny evolution both by definition ("... not an undirected process such as natural selection," emphasis added) and in practice (e.g. recommending Of Pandas and People, an anti-evolution text, for classroom integration; running campaigns that attack/deny evolution, such as "Teach the Controversy" and "Academic Freedom"; authoring, or assisting with the authoring of, anti-evolution legislation). To recap, ID was born of the creation-evolution controversy specifically to skirt legislation that prevented creationism from being taught; it is defined by their proponents in a way that denies empirically verifiable reality; it has a research program whose only output has been attacking evolution; and it's other activities continue to falsely promote the idea that there is a controversy over evolution's veracity (accuracy?) within the scientific community. "In describing the dangers posed to education by teaching creationism, [the Council of Europe's 'Committee on Culture, Science and Education' issued a report that] described intelligent design as 'anti-science' and involving 'blatant scientific fraud' and 'intellectual deception' that 'blurs the nature, objectives and limits of science' and links it and other forms of creationism to denialism" (Council of Europe). -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 15:13, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

All of the points you make are exactly why I wrote that I suspected the ID concept was political at base. What I have not made clear, is that the "denialism" is not a scientific term-- but also a political one, and wholly subjective. That being the case, is not reasonable to view the the article with the healthy suspicion that the most appalling and least scientifically acceptable proponents of ID are included?

This is the ONLY wiki article on a controversial ideological subject which I have read, which includes criticism in-line (POV violation) as well as in a separate section (good and necessary). Thus the "Cherry Picking" flag waves smartly in the wind.

I agree with the criticism. What I do not agree with is the moniker of "Denialism." I don't want the agenda of the proponents to succeed, and expect a quick and natural death of the movement-- but that is no excuse to take editorial license (by Cherry Picking), or by criticizing the arguments in the same paragraph in which the argument is made, or by categorizing the entire article as an example of the subjective pseudo-scientific term, denialism.

For example, if a theory is rejected by peer review, one expects that the theory may be re-presented with changes based upon the criticism. That is engaging the criticism-- it is not pretending it did not exist.

Since it is not denial, but persistence, the term denialism seems certain to have no meaning other than an attempt to silence-- and that is my objection.--cregil (talk) 22:40, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

Actually, your view about criticism sections versus in-line criticism is a bit off the mark. Criticism sections aren't desirable, and wherever possible, criticism should be woven in-line into the article itself. That's why we have Template:Criticism section to stick on articles that have them, although in some cases such sections are difficult to avoid. This article weaves them in where possible, and collects them in a section otherwise. That's hardly a POV violation as you characterize it. See also the essay WP:NOCRIT, which admittedly doesn't have the force of a policy or guideline but does have a fair level of community agreement. ~Amatulić (talk) 23:22, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

Sigh. Why is that always brought up. Does nobody actually read the policy page? Contrary to popular perception, NPOV does not mean giving equal weight to every view. See WP:PSCI. Given the overwhelming rejection of ID by every other reliable source, this is exactly how it should be discussed. It must be emphasized, otherwise you would actually be violating NPOV by giving undue weight to an unsubstantiated or unreliable viewpoint. And no, plenty of other articles with similar dubious statuses are treated in the same way. See Holocaust denial, Flat Earth Society, and Moon landing conspiracy theories.-- OBSIDIAN†SOUL 23:38, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but I really have no idea what you're saying half the time. Cherry-picking? What do you mean by this? And yes, with science you expect a theory to take criticisms into consideration and either refute or account for them. This is not what ID does. ID continues to make the same claims in spite of the scientific criticism. Other folks here have given you information regarding the in-line NPOV clauses and the scientific definition of denialism, so I won't rehash those. Needless to say, your reasons for your position are quite befuddling. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 15:08, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

Your comparison to psychological disorders is itself preposterous. The term denialism (yes we have an article on it) encompasses behaviors that goes against widely accepted and proven facts in support of a rejected and unproven hypothesis, with the addition that in doing so, they also deny the wide acceptance of the former.

And I think you (like so many before you) are again confusing believers of the teleological argument (or creationists in general) with the ID movement itself. You do have a way of assigning motive to specific individuals. "Intelligent Design" is a distinct movement. It's not a church nor a religion, but an agenda by an organization. The leaders of the said organization do not have a simplistic view of both science and faith. Oh no no no. Most of them understand (to a point) the sciences they are constantly attacking. Which is why they're so effective in impressing those who do hold a simplistic view on science and religion. Whether it's nefarious or not, there is a (political) motive to ID rather than simply expounding on spirituality. They wish to reinstate Christian creationism in classrooms, and demote modern biology itself to the same level of acceptance as their stories.

Calling that "hearsay" is ironically denialist in itself. Tell, me what other activities does ID have other than denying the very foundation of modern biology itself? Do examine their books, their websites and the way they lobby politicians - what's their purpose, their goal? If you can't answer that, then your argument holds. But I bet you can. Very easily. Name-calling is stupid, but refusing to name something by that rationale alone is even stupider. -- OBSIDIAN†SOUL 16:50, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

I agree with almost everything you just wrote. Where we differ is that I object to the term being tagged to any article. The article called Denialism, can mention all examples its contributors wish, but to give credence to the branding by tagging other articles with it... is a POV violation.

The construct of the word, Denial+ism suggests that the ID supporters subscribe to a philosophy or culture (or something) of denial. We can say that of them in the article only if they say it of themselves:

Surely we have all seen it done, and know it is wrong:

* Calling Democrats "Socialists."

* Calling a pro-choice supporters "pro-abortionists."

How is this different? --cregil (talk) 00:14, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

@ Crews Giles, you appear to misunderstand categories: they're a navigational index, a way for readers to find articles related to a topic. If reliable sources link the subject of the article to the category topic, then it's appropriate to include that category. Of course calling Democrats "Socialists" is inappropriate as they're far too right wing and reactionary to merit being called socialist, but if reliable secondary sources describe them as being in that category then the category would be appropriate. Just as Republicans, rather more justifiably, are liberals. . . dave souza, talk 00:40, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

Question: have you read the denialism article? It says right up front: In science, denialism has been defined as the rejection of basic concepts that are undisputed and well-supported parts of the scientific consensus on a topic in favor of ideas that are both radical and controversial. Are you arguing that for a topic that purports to be about science, a non-scientific definition of the term should carry the greatest weight? Are you saying that we should be coddling the sensitivities of those readers who might be ignorant of the meaning of the term? I can understand where you're coming from, but your politically-loaded analogies don't hold up. If ID is a science, as its supporters claim, then it seems perfectly fair to categorize it according to a scientific meaning. ~Amatulić (talk) 00:43, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

• The turnip truck off of which I feel was drawn by dinosaurs - I made a good-faith attempt to engage you in discussion. Not a promising start...
• I expect empirical evidence that those who support ID do so because they are in denial - denial and denialism are distinct concepts. No one is saying that "ID supporters are in denial".
• The burden of proof will be supported by clinical studies-- not pseudo-science - denialism is not denial. Did you not bother to familiarise yourself with the topic before you weighed in, or are you simply being tendentious?
• A biologist's, or chemist's, or physicist's use of the term "denial" as an emotional response to a manifest reality is preposterous-- unless he interviewed his opponents in controlled therapeutic sessions-- in which case, we should have a diagnosis beyond merely "denial." - again...are you unfamiliar with the topic, or are you being tendentious?
• Which Axis? Are there other behavioral factors which are noticed? Are the ID proponents suffering from delusions or hallucinations? Is a type of paranoia indicated? Psychosis or Neurosis? What diagnostic criteria are used, and how many of them must be met? - Surely you are familiar with WP:NOR? Demanding that other editors engage in original research, primary diagnostic work, before you would deign to support a category which is supported by reliable secondary sources - that is out of line.
• You cite hearsay, and I want sources - Sources have been provided.
• Otherwise, it is name-calling, and people who name-call are just stupid. - You're seriously calling your fellow editors "stupid" for citing reliable sources? Please remember that WP:CIVIL is policy, as is WP:NPA. You can discuss sources without engaging in attacks on your fellow editors.
• That was an inclusio-- I started with irony and ended with it. Clever of me, for 3 in the morning, wasn't it - You started by being rude and you ended with insults and personal attacks. And you filled the intervening space with angry remarks unrelated to the topic at hand. That's not irony, and it's certainly not "clever". Guettarda (talk) 18:57, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

If you cannot see the intended humor in the unexpected (ironic) statement, "name calling is just stupid" than I have no hope in explaining where you went off on the wrong path in anything else you wrote above. And, seriously, a reference to a dinosaur-drawn turnip-truck in an article on creationism is funny. It just is. You are just pretending not to get it. Admit it.

If the intended humor can be seen... We have a new pejorative term, Denialism, apparently leaping into our consciousness circa 2006. I have no problem with that term being used for the HIV and Holocaust deniers-- where it began.

But Thomas Aquinas? Really? Then so is the respected Prime Mover philosophical argument attributed to Aristotle? Asa Gray? No. You mean the movement-- a political organization-- begun with political ties. That has its own article: Intelligent design movement. Go brand it (along with every other political agenda organization-- they all deserve it). I would have suggested that from the very beginning, but I did not know it existed until a few moments ago.

I'm not passionate about defending the science of anyone who believes the heavens and the earth were created 6,000 years ago but to smear the rest with the absurdity of that movement is unfair.

But I fear you are going to do it anyway, and feign being the victim. So be it. But you would still be wrong.--cregil (talk) 01:39, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

• If you cannot see the intended humor in the unexpected (ironic) statement, "name calling is just stupid" than I have no hope in explaining where you went off on the wrong path - To begin with, I've seen plenty of insults...intentional insults...around this place that displayed just that sort of lack of self-awareness. Sure, I initially took your conflation of denial and denialism as farce, but given the context of your entire comment, I saw no reason to take that comment at anything other than face value.
• a reference to a dinosaur-drawn turnip-truck in an article on creationism is funny - Admit it was funny? I would if I thought it was. Sadly, obscure comments devoid of context aren't funny. People rambling on about denial when the subject is denialism - yeah, that came across as a weak attempt at humour. Until I figured you were serious. Then it's hard to tell whether the situation is really funny, or just really sad.
• We have a new pejorative term, Denialism, apparently leaping into our consciousness circa 2006. I have no problem with that term being used for the HIV and Holocaust deniers-- where it began - I see, so suddenly you go from being ignorant of the concept to being an expert. And sources be damned - all that matters is your pronouncement on the topic. So this is another attempt at a joke, right? To begin with, the Hoofnagle brothers took a lead role in popularising the term, and by March 2007 they were talking about ID/creationism. And that's aside from the sources cited here previously, including one that used ID as an illustrative example of denialism to explain the concept in a book on HIV denialism.
• But Thomas Aquinas? Really? Then so is the respected Prime Mover philosophical argument attributed to Aristotle? Asa Gray? No. - You really need to work on you communication skills. I have no idea what your intent was with this name drop. The collection of names suggests that you're drawing from the Standard Book of IDist Spells, Grade One. Yep, I've tried chatting with the undergrads in the IDEA club...some were very bright kids, but others, sadly, often needed you to explain their arguments to them first. So, quite simply, neither Aquinas nor Aristotle could have argued that "certain elements of the world are too complex to have been explained by evolution"...Aristotle couldn't even have even used that argument for the motion of the planets, with their epicycles another other contrived motions that obviously could not be explained by purely "unguided" means. As for Gray - I'm tired of people who couldn't explain Gray's scientific contributions to save their lives try to claim him as a proponent of intelligent design when in fact he could best be described as a proponent of theistic evolution...except, of course, that it would be anachronistic. TE is, of course, one of the things that creationists (including IDists) love to rail against.
• You mean the movement-- a political organization-- begun with political ties. That has its own article: Intelligent design movement. - The ID movement was spun off from this article. Most of the content there was cut from this one because it got to long. This article, if you bothered to read it, is about the "science" produced by the ID movement.
• Go brand it (along with every other political agenda organization-- they all deserve it). I would have suggested that from the very beginning, but I did not know it existed until a few moments ago. - So what you're saying that you never bothered to read this article? Because that's what this article is about - the thing that the ID movement has created since the 1980s. No more, no less. This is all explained in the hatnote at the top of the page. You don't even have to read the article to figure this out - you just need to glance at it.
• I'm not passionate about defending the science of anyone who believes the heavens and the earth were created 6,000 years ago but to smear the rest with the absurdity of that movement is unfair. Now you're talking about Young Earth creationism. Granted, some IDists are, apparently, YECs, and while ID was at its height it attracted some common cause support from them. But the ID movement is (supposedly) a "big tent" movement, one that was going to use the "wedge" of intelligent design to bring down the scientific establishment. One that was dedicated to getting creationism into the science classroom...you know "cdesign proponentsists" and all that? Oh, wait, no, you haven't read the article. Or wait, are you joking now? When I pointed you to WP:TE, it was not meant to be an instruction manual... Guettarda (talk) 05:22, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

Excluded Middle problem

Is there anything in the reliable sources that talks about the Excluded Middle foundation the whole Intelligent design that Evolution has to be only Darwin's version? There have been many Theories of Evolution (Lamarckism, punctuated equilibrium, Quantum evolution and so on) and if Darwin was "wrong" in some respect then why does this have to be "proof" that Intelligent design is the answer rather than some other theory of evolution?--BruceGrubb (talk) 07:12, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

Could be sparse because the argument that you describe (essentially saying that some flaw in the Darwin-specific items proves the opposite) is IMHO a rare one. IMHO the more common one in this area is a saying that some yet-unanswered gap or question etc. implies that evolution in general has a problem and that that shows that a particular alternate (e.g. creationism) must be true.— Preceding unsigned comment added by North8000 (talk • contribs) 09:54, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

It's addressed to some extent in the Arguments from ignorance section, where I've added the Kitz finding. At present this and God of the gaps both give rather undue prominence to the arguments of Bradley Monton's Seeking God in Science: An Atheist Defends Intelligent Design which is questionable. The topic is included in discussion by Padian and Matzke and by Forrest and Gross, as well as Pete Dunkelberg. These could usefully be used as sources for clarifying various sections of the article. . dave souza, talk 10:55, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

Rewritting Lede

Lead length

The lede is too long and needs to be rewritten. Should I apply the template at the top? I would like to see the lede to be about 300 words.

As it stands right now, the Lede is only 406 words long. What's the benefit of removing 100 words? The WP:LEDE guideline says an article of this length should have an introduction of 3-4 paragraphs; I think the length is perfectly appropriate, and gives a good overview of the topic at hand. Mildly Mad^T_C 12:26, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

Ascribing motive

Overall it looks like a pretty good lead to me with an OK length. The one area that I would critique is the first sentence of the last paragraph. It ascribes a motive as fact in the voice of Wikipedia. North8000 (talk) 14:50, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

That sounds fine too. From the cited sources:

Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (link)

“ As Plaintiffs meticulously and effectively presented to the Court, Pandas went through many drafts, several of which were completed prior to and some after the Supreme Court’s decision in Edwards, which held that the Constitution forbids teaching creationism as science. By comparing the pre and post Edwards drafts of Pandas, three astonishing points emerge: (1) the definition for creation science in early drafts is identical to the definition of ID; (2) cognates of the word creation (creationism and creationist), which appeared approximately 150 times were deliberately and systematically replaced with the phrase ID; and (3) the changes occurred shortly after the Supreme Court held that creation science is religious and cannot be taught in public school science classes in Edwards. ”

Understanding the Intelligent Design Creationist Movement: Its True Nature and Goals p. 7, emphasis added (link)

“ As stated earlier, ID is the direct descendant of earlier forms of creationism. After Edwards, a group of creationists decided to adopt “intelligent design” terminology in an attempt to skirt this Supreme Court ruling (Forrest, 2005a, 16-18; 2005b). CSC fellow Charles Thaxton, co-author of the seminal ID book, The Mystery of Life’s Origin (Thaxton et al., 1984), chose the term “intelligent design” in 1988 to designate the product of the post-Edwards transformation of creation science (Witham, 2002, 221). Dean H. Kenyon, a CSC fellow who submitted a sworn affidavit as a creation scientist in the Edwards case while he was also co-authoring the ID creationist textbook Of Pandas and People, admitted candidly in 2000 that “Scientific creationism... is actually one of the intellectual antecedents of the Intelligent Design movement.” ”

-- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 15:18, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

First, as clarification, I am talking about where it says that the motive is "to circumvent court rulings", and would argue that the rationale for that misses the mark by two levels:

1. At least with respect to what you have shown, the source doesn't even say that
2. Even if the source did say that, the text is still stating one side of a controversy as fact in the voice of Wikipedia.

I'd recommend dialing back that particular wording one click. I might try it if I can think of something. North8000 (talk) 15:28, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

North8000, the bold text in the second quotation quite clearly states exactly what the lead does (circumventing = skirting). You could also continue reading the Kitzmiller ruling for more snippets like the following: "The weight of the evidence clearly demonstrates, as noted, that the systemic change from 'creation' to 'intelligent design' occurred sometime in 1987, after the Supreme Court's important Edwards decision. This compelling evidence strongly supports Plaintiffs' assertion that ID is creationism re-labeled." It's quite clear from the sources that ID was created when scientific creationists couldn't use creationism anymore due to the Edwards v. Aguillard case, forcing them to adopt the "ID" terminology to continue their political efforts of teaching creationism in public schools. There is no controversy as to the history/origins of the ID movement. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 15:39, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

You are right, somehow I missed that. That takes care of #1. Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 16:57, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

@North8000 What's wrong with #2? What leads you to believe there is a controversy about it? Professor marginalia (talk) 20:23, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

It essentially say that intelligent design is just an invention, and that it was invented to circumvent court rulings. Believers in ID would certainly not agree with that. North8000 (talk) 20:30, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

The article is about the Discovery Institute's "intelligent design", and this is solidly documented. Are you just acting as devil's advocate or do you have sources that challenge this? Professor marginalia (talk) 21:10, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

But perfesser, the title of the article is Intelligent design not Discovery Institute's intelligent design nor Intelligent design (Discovery Institute). There are other authors that are significant persons (they are physicists and astronomers of note) that have used the term and have disassociated themselves from the DI. ID≠DI and this article does an injustice to the facts when it exclusively makes that association. The problem is that the DI has done a bunch of bad stuff for which they have been "caught" in Kitzmiller. But it's guilt by association and the DI has no right to usurp the term for its authority and veracity to rise and fall along with the DI. It's like an article that defines Liberalism solely in terms of a particular party (like the Liberal Democrats or something) and then this party does some discreditable stuff that wrongly reflects on liberalism. Let the DI be discredited, but let the facts and other authors that have made use of the term speak for themselves. Do not let DI stain ID. 71.169.185.196 (talk) 02:57, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia isn't the place to right great wrongs. That this article is about the specific ID movement produced and promoted via DI is explicit (see below the article's title). Professor marginalia (talk) 04:51, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

@ North8000 , That's reading more into it than is there. It essentially says that ID is a form of creationism, which proponents would deny but which is supported by overwhelming evidence, and that it is a modern form of the teleological argument, which its proponents have agreed. Proponents have repeatedly asserted that it a scientific theory, rather than a religious-based idea. What's the problem? . . dave souza, talk 21:12, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

My point was simply about the statement of motive, not all of these other tings. Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 21:27, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

My question stands. The motivations as laid out in Forrest as well as The Creationists and Where Darwin Meets the Bible are cited to documents and statements made by ID proponents. Phillip Johnson's motivations are explicit in Darwin on Trial making clear those court decisions were a major impediment and emphasizing the openings left to them to introduce special creation as science. Professor marginalia (talk) 21:52, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

Grammar fixes

I think this is a run on sentence:

It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, presented by its advocates as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins" rather than "a religious-based idea". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.66.202.85 (talk) 16:20, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

Grammar looks fine to me: a complex sentence with an independent clause ("It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation...") and a dependent clause ("presented by its advocates..."). What do you see wrong with this? -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 16:31, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

It is unnecessary. The same ideas can be conveyed:

It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God. Furthermore, it is presented as a "scientific theory about life's origins" rather than "a religious-based idea". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.66.202.85 (talk) 00:42, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Splitting the sentence is also unnecessary, so why do you want to change it? I prefer the current version because I find it more fluid than reading short sentences like, "It is this," "It is also this," and, "Furthermore, it is this," over and over again. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 14:56, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

One problem I see is the quote "scientific theory about life's origins." This is redundant also known as tautology because a scientific theory is defined as evidenced based. Why not use the scientific term to express the same idea: "Abiogenesis" or "biopoiesis" the study of how biological life could arise from inorganic matter ?173.66.202.85 (talk) 20:34, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

The problem with using abiogenesis (or biopoiesis) is that "the term usually refers to the processes by which life on Earth may have arisen." There is at least one other hypothesis as to the origins of life on Earth called panspermia, and intelligent design proponents would argue there is yet another option: an intelligent designer. In this light, origins seems more appropriate.

Even were it not, the quotations seem to suggest this is a direct quote from someone. I haven't found the source yet, but we can't change the wording of a direct quote. I suppose we could start the quote at the word "scientific," but I'm hesitant to remove information from a direct quote just for the sake of grammar. Otherwise, I'd agree: it is redundant. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 21:33, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

[Update]: The source has been found and added to the lead. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 23:36, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

This definition is wrong

"It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, claimed by its advocates as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins" rather than "a religious-based idea"."

This description is wrong. it needs citation to show which advocates are presenting that idea and it must be proved that this concept is presented as ("an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins" rather than "a religious-based idea"), (an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins) doesn't make sense!?! I think this statement is compeletly wrong and is presenting wrong information to the readers of this article, so it must be removed. please vote on it because there are users who want to keep this statement there. --Mindlogger (talk) 21:12, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Remove from lede' I agree with Neurosys — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.66.202.85 (talk) 22:41, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Keep. What is wrong with it (other than your misspelling "calaimed")? What would you replace it with? A cite for "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins" is in the following bullet.

• Meyer, Stephen C. (2005-12-01). "Not by chance". National Post. CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. as sold to Postmedia Network Inc. Retrieved 2012-03-24. Contrary to media reports, intelligent design is not a religious-based idea, but instead an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins-one that challanges strictly materialistic views of evolution./

  — Jeff G. ツ (talk) 21:14, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Jeff G., where did you find that source? I was looking for it in the article and couldn't find it. If it is not already there, we need to add it to support the direct quotation in the lead. Thanks! -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 21:39, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Jeff G. National Post is a news paper. is there any scientific paper published about ID yet to show that it's a "scientific evidence-based... theory"? --Mindlogger (talk) 21:41, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Per that source, "In February, The Wall Street Journal reported that an evolutionary biologist with two doctorates had been punished for publishing a peer-reviewed scientific article making a case for this same theory." See also Stephen C. Meyer#Peer_review_controversy and Sternberg peer review controversy. I found that source via the "Original Article" link on http://www.discovery.org/a/3059 , which I found with Google.   — Jeff G. ツ (talk) 21:48, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

The so-called "intelligent design theory" made its way into scientific sphere in a paper published in the peer reviewed scientific journal "The Proceedings" in 2004 by Stephen C. Mayer who is a member of Discovery Institute, and in no time was criticized for its holding *no scientific value* by several other papers and institutions (http://www.aaas.org/spp/dser/03_Areas/evolution/issues/peerreview.shtml). The Proceedings declared later for the said paper that "[i]t was published without the prior knowledge of the Council, which includes officers, elected councilors, and past presidents, or the associate editors. We have met and determined that all of us would have deemed this paper inappropriate for the pages of the Proceedings". Also, AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) seems to have long resolved on "intelligent design" once and for all in that it is not a scientific assertion, much less a "evidence-based scientific theory" (http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2002/1106id2.shtml). I vote for the part of the sentence in question should be simply removed, or modified accordingly. Neurosys (talk) 22:02, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Neurosys, we already have that information in the article. The statement in the lead says, it is "presented by its advocates" as an evidence-based theory, which is correct and verifiable. This does not mean that ID is an evidence-based scientific theory, and you can read further to see how the scientific community and US courts reject it as religion and pseudoscience. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 22:13, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

MisterDub, then, that it was presented as such should either be mentioned elsewhere in the article - not in the leading paragraph for it may cause confusion or inappropriate significance to the claim but not to its refutation-, or immediately mentioned that the said presentation is resolved to be incorrect (by AAAS, "The Proceedings", etc. ). Neurosys (talk) 22:28, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

I will either remove the whole part of the sentence in question, or add right after it that the scientific presentation is resolved to be incorrect by the very journal in which the claim was first made, as well as by AAAS. That sentence is simply out of place and confusing, if not incorrect. Neurosys (talk) 22:43, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

This article gets enough complaints about WP:NPOV that I don't think that kind of change will be supported by consensus; personally, I think it's unnecessary to state it in the first paragraph if it's mentioned so closely already. The lead is divided into three paragraphs with differing topics: the first defines ID (first by its proponents, then by the majority view as per WP:DUE and WP:PSCI); the second presents the opinions of the scientific community; and the third presents the history of the ID movement, including the opinion(s) of the US courts. I mean, there is essentially two paragraphs to illustrate how ID is not a scientific theory, as its advocates present it. The latter two paragraphs are more specific and explain which features of ID lead the scientific community and US courts to identify it as non-science. I think mentioning that it's not science any more is just beating a dead horse. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 22:59, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

It is already agreed upon that it was not "presented", but "misrepresented" as science. But saying so would be not NPOV. I agree with you to some extent, and stand corrected. However, it should be noted that the average reader only reads the leading paragraph. Neurosys (talk) 23:22, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Well, you can definitely pursue this change if you want, but as I said before, I doubt it'll pass consensus due to common complaints about NPOV (and, recently, lead length). -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 23:25, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

ID is NOT "an evidence-based scientific theory" because it's not falsifiable therefore it CAN'T be a scientific theory, plain and simple. — raekyt 22:15, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Raeky, please read my previous post. The statement in question makes no such claim. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 22:18, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Remove or Correct it I think ::Neurosys is right on that, this is very confusing. that sentence should be completed with "the scientific presentation is resolved to be incorrect by the very journal in which the claim was first made, as well as by AAAS." with a citation from AAAS, or be removed.--Mindlogger (talk) 22:58, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Please review my reply to Neurosys: we already have that information in the lead. You just have to read the very next paragraphs. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 23:03, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

• For info: a couple of previous discussions: [1] [2] . . dave souza, talk 05:05, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

I think that I may have found the problem

I've been mostly a lurker here. My real life POV (an atheist who doesn't want creationism or ID taught in public schools) is opposite my view as a Wikipedian on this article (somehow this article feels like a POV "let's beat up on ID" piece) Probably the best definition of ID is the first line of the dis-ambig page:

Intelligent design is the proposition that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection.

And that indeed is the common meaning of the term. It encompasses a whole range of specific and vague beliefs (including those of many creationists), not just an invention by the Discovery Institute.

But then this article goes awry right from the start. It basically says that the top level Intelligent Design article is only going to cover the particular invention by the Discovery Institute, and that everything else covered by the above is sent off into obscurity under a different poor name, the teleological argument article. So, the remaining portion is something created by a conservative organization which is much more easily pilloried than ID beliefs as a whole. Further, the error is replicated throughout the article by accepting the erroneous definition of ID (= just an invention of the Discovery Institute) and essentially repeating it as fact. Thus, the article goes awry right from the start, dooming it to be overall POV regarding the broader meaning of ID.

A suggested solution would be to take the disambig line off of the beginning and start writing the other half of the article, resurrecting it from the buried and narrowed coverage under teleological argument. Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 11:52, 26 March 2012 (UTC) Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 11:52, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

The "other half" comes in two parts: as the second disambiguation line notes, For the philosophical "argument from design", see Teleological argument, and for the superset (of which ID is a subset) see creation science, or more broadly creationism. While all of these use the words "intelligent design" on occasion, the term intelligent design specifically refers to the version promoted by the DI. It's both unrealistic and unreasonable to try to shoehorn them all into this one article which would be far too big.
As a further clarification, the DI didn't create ID, they bought into it at an early stage as is clearly shown in the article. . dave souza, talk 12:13, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm confused. Instead of having an article on the teleological argument and an article on ID, you want two articles about the teleological argument? Doesn't it make more sense to cover each topic within its individual article, linking to the other where necessary? Otherwise we end up with several, disheveled articles repeating the same information. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 14:27, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

It still does not speak to the obvious non-neutral POV in the article because it conflate ID with DI from the beginning. Every suggestion that this article represent other points-of-view of ID, from other authors than DI-affiliated authors, where this information is verifiable, every suggestion to do that has been slapped down by wp editors that WP:OWN the article. Because of Kitzmiller and because of other evidence of dishonest actions taken by the DI, that conflation consigns this article to being a "let's beat up on ID" piece. It is not NPOV and has not been so for at least 5 years. Despite FA status. ID doesn't look as bad when it is decoupled from DI. 71.169.182.235 (talk) 16:19, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

First off, please no WP:SOAPBOXing. Wikipedia is not a forum so if you don't have anything constructive to add, please don't add anything. Secondly, the article of "ID" decoupled from the DI is called the teleological argument. If you have something relevant to that subject, bring it up there. -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 16:28, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Similarly to the observation of Samuel Johnson: "patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel", WP:SOAPBOX and WP:FORUM is the cheap defense of obviously non-neutral POV editing in Wikipedia. I am not using Wikipedia to promote ID or even to defend ID. I am complaining about nakedly non-neutral editing in this particular article. It is the reason it draws so much complaints from others, some of whom I imagine are defenders of ID and even defenders of DI. I am neither. I am a quite liberal NPOV warrior who is as intolerant of naked POV from liberals as I am from conservatives. So, I might suggest that you deal with the issue rather than just denying that it's there. 71.169.187.254 (talk) 05:13, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

ID doesn't look as bad when it is decoupled from DI - let's start with some high-quality sources about this "ID decoupled from the DI". Then we can figure out what (if anything) we need to do next. Guettarda (talk) 17:19, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

I have done that many, many times. I have referred to notable authors, such as John Polkinghorne, Owen Gingerich, and Freeman Dyson, who have referred to the concept and called it "intelligent design" (Gingerich makes sure that the reader understands that it's with a small-case "i" and "d") and who do not associate themselves with the Discovery Institute. I have cited books and from some of them copied quotes. And all of this is on archives of this very talk page. Guettarda, I have no confidence that you are the least bit sincere in figuring out what "we" need to do about that. If I did, I might be motivated to go back the the archives and restate exactly what I cited back then. Then there are authors who refer to the concept generically (not DI's version of ID) and yet reject it (like Francis Collins).

I certainly do not want to see a puff piece on intelligent design, I just want to see an article that isn't so obviously biased in selection of facts and in tone. This article is a little bit better than it was in 2007, but the tone of it is still very bad, and it was never a particularly scholarly decision to base it totally on DI's ID. That decision was poor scholarship from the very beginning. 71.169.187.254 (talk) 05:13, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Responding to MisterDub. My "other half" was probably an overstatement. My recommendation would be one section at the beginning of the article which discusses the broader common meanings of the term with links to appropriate articles. Then it would segue into the meaning of ID that the whole current article is about. Then a similar change for the lead. Open with 1-2 sentences on the general common meanings, then segue into the DI version. As an aside, "telelogical argument" should probably get renamed. Describing an entire belief set as an "argumnent" is problematic, much less using a non-commonplace adjective for it. Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 17:31, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Our current division of the topic is "the argument/position/belief, historically to today" in one article, and "the DI's formulation of the argument, today, in US politics" in another. That division makes sense to me. Their respective names are an application of WP:UCN. Mention of each article in the other seems acceptable, but we should not be devoting large amounts of content regarding one in the other, nor reformulating the lead such that both articles begin or are defined the same. This article's topic (the DI's political movement) is a large enough topic as it is in just the political arena, enough so that it has multiple full-length articles devoted to it; other issues aside, we shouldn't be expanding it further than it needs to encompass new topics too.   — Jess· Δ♥ 17:45, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

For those familiar, an analogy would be an article on "Chicago professional baseball teams" and start with the disambiguation: "This article is about the Cubs, for the White Sox, see the South Side argument article."

It sounds like you don't think the difference between ID and the teleological argument is made explicit enough here. Fair enough, but I don't see how your analogy is different from the hatnote we currently have on the article. Doesn't it already say that this article is about the DI's ID and link to those related articles? -- MisterDub (talk | contribs) 18:09, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

@North, either your complaint is with the topic division (historical argument for design and the DI's current manifestation), or your complaint is with our application of UCN ("teleological argument" and "intelligent design"). If the former, please propose a new division of topics. If the latter, please present sources which show that different names are more commonly used for the two topics.   — Jess· Δ♥ 18:32, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Agree with Guettarda. Nothing should be changed in the current article without coming up with the Sources first. Sources. Professor marginalia (talk) 18:12, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Responding to MisterDub, that was not my point. My point is that the major aspects of the named topic should be covered in the top level article. In my analogy, the structure basically implies that the Sox are the only Chicago professional baseball team which is both POV and in error. Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 18:22, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Responding to Professor marginalia, do you mean that as a requirement for inclusion of material, or an effort to end a talk page discussion about scope of the article? North8000 (talk) 18:24, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

North8000, what additions are you proposing that aren't already covered in the Intelligent design#Origin of the concept section? If you can find secondary sources discussing a broader "intelligent design" then that would be the most likely place for it. Also note the issue is raised in the lead by noting that intelligent design in its current meaning is "a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, presented by its advocates as 'an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins' rather than 'a religious-based idea'.". . dave souza, talk 18:52, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Now that I did another a slow read for the content, looking past some of the characterizations in the article, I see that there IS material in there about the broader meaning of ID. Probably the first fix would be to take that "disambiguation" statement off of the beginning. Those are often problematic when they include the writer's definition of the scope of the article. And I'd suggest taking / modifying the out the statements that ID is exclusively the DI creation. Even this article itself refutes such statements. North8000 (talk) 23:24, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

The article should be written in such a way that the disambiguation statement at the top would not be necessary. The antics of DI can be a large part of the article. 71.169.187.254 (talk) 05:19, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

@North8000: You are in error when you say "And that indeed is the common meaning of the term. It encompasses a whole range of specific and vague beliefs (including those of many creationists), not just an invention by the Discovery Institute." This is not supported by the reliable sources available to us.

When the term ID is used by recognized experts nowadays, it practically always refers to the DI version. The term was rarely used until the DI appropriated and popularized it. ID and the DI are inextricably connected to each other like white on rice. To the point that anything else that anyone may want to call ID (your "broader meaning") has to be disambiguated at the outset so as not to be confused with the DI version.

To treat ID as a philosophy is a categorical error. It was not developed (and never has been developed) as a philosophy, but as a political and legal strategem. This is where your concept of "broader meaning" falls apart. There is no "broader meaning" of the term of which ID as promulgated by the DI is a subset. The uses you refer to are a completely different kettle of fish altogether, and have to be handled elsewhere, not in an article with such a restricted scope as this one. The best place to do that is in Teleological argument.

As for expanding the scope of this article, I see no justification or practical way to do so. ID as promulgated by the DI is more than distinct enough to be a stand-alone topic. It is more than just a subset of the teleological argument, as it has political and legalistic history that sets it apart. The restrictive scope of the present article is well justified, and disambiguation at the outset is absolutely required. Yes, the term ID was appropriated by the DI, and yes, they have skunked it. However, like it or not, current usage within the scholarly community recognizes their appropriation, and individuals wanting to use the term in other senses are in the distinct minority by any measure. They, and you, may feel that this is unfair, but it is not our role to right great wrongs. Dominus Vobisdu (talk) 06:20, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm not convinced that ID shouldn't be treated as a philosophy. I can understand placing the view that it is a political strategy in the "criticism" section, but to have the article itself treat it that way means that Wikipedia would be taking a side on the debate about it. Unless, of course, DI's proponents themselves have acknowledged that it is a political strategy, not a philosophy. Have they? Cla68 (talk) 06:33, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

We treat the topic as do the reliable independent sources do, and they are practically unanimous that ID is first and foremost a political and legal strategem. Whether the DI agrees or not is immaterial. They have a long and sordid history of misrepresenting ID, themselves and their intentions. See Wedge Document and Of Pandas and People. Dominus Vobisdu (talk) 06:59, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

I disagree. There are obviously at least two sides to this topic: DIs and their critics. If we take the critics' side, then we are violating NPOV. I take it you have answered my question, DI has not stated that the idea is a political strategy. Cla68 (talk) 07:05, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Your conclusion is incorrect. My answer to your question was to point you to articles where you could start answering the question for yourself. Also, your understanding of WP:NPOV is faulty. Presenting the subject as it is presented by recognized experts in reliable independent sources is not "taking sides". Dominus Vobisdu (talk) 07:28, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Actually, wouldn't DI's opinions on ID be considered as also coming from "recognized experts" since they are the ones promoting the philosophy? Cla68 (talk) 07:36, 27 March 2012 (UTC)