Intelligent design again

Here's a suggestion that scientists have only themselves to blame for at least some of the ID/IOT ideas floating around Creationist circles.

...a careful reading of some recent studies suggests that researchers haven't been shying away from using the word "design" in a way that can only be described as teleological.

But do they believe someone cobbled the system together?

Hetz and Bradley are quick to point out that they did not intend to imply that the insects' tracheal system is the result of the work of a designer. "We are using design there as a shorthand for an awful lot of ideas, such as that the system has been shaped by selection pressures to have a certain functional consequence," says Bradley.

The fact that scientists refer to natural laws does not mean there's a cosmic legislature drafting them. The fact that scientists refer to a design doesn't mean there's a designer creating it on a workbench somewhere.