Seven More Views on Intelligent Design

Mano Singham makes several valid points about the role of philosophy in demolishing the intelligent design position ( Physics Today, June 2002, page 48). However, his final and most provocative point concerning the irrelevance of truth to science is not well-taken. In a human-based philosophy devoid of deity, “truth” simply means conformance of human mental contents, specifically concepts and propositions, to reality. Truth that requires omniscience and infinite accuracy with no contextual delimiters is a pseudoconcept that has no referent in the real world. By using “truth” only in that way, the author implicitly grants the creationists’ premise that such a pseudoconcept has meaning. Singham’s final point is only provocative or meaningful if the reader falls into the trap of thinking that that usage of “truth” does have meaning.

Humans constantly are discovering truths about the world, some of them comprehensive enough to constitute a scientific theory. A truth is contextual: It refers to a specific domain, a specific level of measurement accuracy, and the like. Newtonian physics was true when created and is true today. It was constructed and tested within a context of objects having a certain range of speeds and of measurements having a certain degree of accuracy; within that domain, it continues to be a true theory. Special relativity is true within a more extended context, and has led to new and broader conceptual understanding. However, special relativity in no way invalidates Newtonian physics within the latter’s contextual domain.

“Science” has two meanings. It is a valid methodology that can generate both false and true theories; that some theories are found to be false and are ultimately rejected is a vindication, not a criticism, of the method. Science also refers to an accumulating body of contextually true statements and theories about aspects of the world; the “truth” and the “validity” of these theories are synonymous. The value of science as a methodology lies strictly in the fact that it is an extremely successful means of arriving at, and expanding, true theories about the world.