The demiurgic hypothesis
An interesting comment from Jim Buck and my reply. I was delighted by his unexpected review of DMR at Amazon. The emphasis on design is commented on by me below the first comment.
Let me say in general that my strategy was not to make claims for ID as such but to present the issues in a clear way: the ID argument is usually confused by its association with Biblical fundamentalism, spoiling the argument.
The universe is unknown to us, but might contain all sorts of complex ‘machines’ whose action would seem like design.
DMR simply outlines the different categories:
supernatural design(ers)
demiurgic agents inside nature
teleological mechanisms that look designed, which show mechanical ‘designs’ and ‘functions’.
*??Exterrestrial agents???
There are more, but the debate is too often over ‘god’ and that is usually a neaningless discussion..
I can give you an opinion, in the form of a rising suspicion, left as an ophan hypothesis: the demirugic power solution, first suggested by Plato. There are life forms beyond what we see in planetary biologies, and these forms or ‘demiugic powers/forces’ might be involved in biological evolution (I doubt it!), but, more likely, in advanced human evolution of ‘self-consciousness’. Human consciousness is highly complex and if we consider the reality of spirits, belief in which was almost omnipresent in homo sapiens until the coming of scientism, we are stuck with saying that spiritual hyper-life forms exist. The default version is the experience of the ‘spirit-self’ in the ‘bardo state’, described by buddhists. Once your realize that the human self can have a disembodied form, the road is open to the question/suspicion: there is an immensity of hyper-life out there, and we don’t see one iota of its reality, save in nebulous border-superstitious spirit experiences.
The muddle is complete: how distinguish a disembodied alien who has reached enlightenment beyond bodies from any other ‘what the Sam Hill’ combination///?????
In any case, these are not beliefs on my part, but simply an indication of the dangers of jumping to conclusion: the above shows the manifold of possibilities.
Such forms might exist, and not be evolutionary designers! Most probably not. The scale of life is huge and requires mechanical, yes, but also teleological and creative, and highly specified evolutionary processes. These would not be the creation of demiurgic powers, as far as we know.
All of this is up in the air, but the dogmatism of the ID/Darwinism debate needs a challenge on both sides.
Darwinists, and the priesthood of scientism will be aghast at these statements. Spock’s reply: very logical….
New Man, New Age, New Socialism 