Sunday, March 20, 2005

Sciavo and Intelligent Design

It occcurs to me...

A major point of contention in the Terri Sciavo case is whether she is responding to stimuli on any level that demands more than reflex action. That is, is she aware of her surroundings on any level, and are her responses mediated in any way by any sort of intelligent design?

The advocates of Intelligent Design/Intelligent Origin Theory claim to have a hard and fast set of rules that will allow them to detect design in nature. I wonder if William Dembski would be able to examine Ms. Sciavo, and other people in borderline cases similer to hers, and determine, once and for all, whether they are aware of their surroundings or merely operating from reflex stimulus/response. This would be a very useful application of their design detection system, if it actually exists.

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