After perusing a recent article here (“Desperately Seeking Evolutionary Innovation by Chance”), a reader offers a classic challenge:

You post lots of criticism of evolutionary biology. Have you made any advancement in formulation of your own theory? What predictive power has it shown, if any?

The query, which is really three ways of putting the same question, is a classic because it has been asked so many times in various forms – What predictions does ID make? Is it exclusively a negative case against Darwinian theory? Is it really science? etc. It just so happens that an excellent new ID the Future podcast features Center for Science & Culture Fellow Jonathan Witt discussing exactly this set of issues relating to design theory.

Dr. Witt explains, contrary to the objections of critics, how and why intelligent design is testable. He discusses predictions from biology and astrobiology, and points listeners to an extended list of testable ID predictions available online. Listen to it here, or download it here.

As to the future of ID, without prematurely giving anything away, that is set to include research into aspects of the genetic code; investigations into genomic elements presumed non-functional based on evolutionary theory, but predicted to be functional based on ID, and much more.

That said, the reader asks valid questions. Intelligent design as a theory of design detection has made many scientific advances over the past few decades. In fact, while not always going explicitly by the name “intelligent design,” ID has made so many advances — often reported in peer-reviewed scientific papers — that it’s impossible to give a thorough answer to the reader’s questions in this brief format. But because we’ve discussed ID’s scientific status and predictive power many times over in the past, that’s not necessary.

The following links are of special interest and relevance:

• “How Do We Know Intelligent Design Is a Scientific ‘Theory’?”
• “Does Intelligent Design Help Science Generate New Knowledge?”
• “Straw Men Aside, What Is the Theory of Intelligent Design, Really?”
• “A Positive, Testable Case for Intelligent Design”
• “Intelligent design has scientific merit because it uses the scientific method to make its claims and infers design by testing its positive predictions”
• “How Can We Positively Test Intelligent Design?”
• “FAQ: Does intelligent design theory implement the scientific method?”
• “How Can We Know Intelligent Design is Science?”
• “No ID Research? Let’s Help Out This Iowa State Student”
• “Peer-Reviewed Articles Supporting Intelligent Design”
• “Bibliography and Annotated List of Peer-Reviewed Publications Supporting Intelligent Design”

And that’s just for starters. Dear reader, if you’ll study these links, you will find the answers to your questions and more. Enjoy.

Photo credit: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / “Haltern am See, Westruper Heide — 2015 — 7965-9” / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.