Glossary:E
From ResearchID.org, a nexus for researching Intelligent Design
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Einstein's axiom
A hypothetical thought experiment employed by the theoretical physicist Albert Einstein when considering how research would be impacted by axiomatically assuming that the universe was designed by an intelligence. Also known as 'Einstein's design axiom.'
"For example, although Einstein did not believe in God, he seems to [have] fruitfully treated the world as if it were created by a deity: as one of his main biographers, Banish Hoffman notes, 'When judging a scientific theory, his own or another’s, he asked himself whether he would have made the universe in this way had he been God. This criterion . . . reveals Einstein’s faith in an ultimate simplicity and beauty in the universe. Only a man with a profound religious and artistic conviction that beauty was there, waiting to be discovered, could have constructed theories whose most striking attribute, quite overtopping their spectacular successes, was their beauty.'" (Banish Hoffman, Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel, 1972, ISBN 0452261937).
-- From Robin Collins, A Critical Evaluation of the Intelligent Design Program, 1998.
Electional adaptation
Apparently intentional adaptation of means to ends, which do not appear to be random, or even iterative. Instead the choice for high fitness is taken immediately, with this high-fitness choice occurring repeatedly in different elective events.
Electional exaptation
Apparently intentional adjustment of ends to means, which do not appear to be random, or even iterative. Instead the choice for high fitness is taken immediately, with this high-fitness choice occurring repeatedly in different elective events. How biological exaptation is distinct from electional exaptation is still being researched. Instinct and behavioral studies are still too speculative to draw clear distinctions.
Eliminative design
Detecting design by systematically eliminating all other possible causes. The Design Inference of William Dembski employs this approach to detection.
Epicyclism
The process whereby needless complications to an explanation are advanced in order to shield a belief system from actual evidence. The result is a situation where new research doesn’t bring clarity, but instead puts understanding farther from the reach of plausible knowledge.
The root of epicyclism comes from the word epicycle which was a complicated algorithm employed by Claudius Ptolemaeus in the 2nd Century AD to explain the odd movements of planets and stars that were believed to rotate around the earth.
Used in a sentence: The more we learn about the inner workings of cells and living systems, the more epicyclistic Darwinian explanations have become.
Epicyclistic research
- Research that inadvertently tends to uncover inconvenient facts which disconfirm preconceived notions.
- A generally degenerate research program.
Epistemological evidence
Data that would convince a hardcore skeptic that your position is reasonable or right. The objective of epistemological evidence is to generate consensus, and therefore is directed towards a sociological goal. (abbr. “EE”, source)
Evolution
- Change over time; history of nature; any sequence of events in nature
- Changes in the frequencies of alleles in the gene pool of a population
- Limited common descent: the idea that particular groups of organisms have descended from a common ancestor
- The mechanisms responsible for the change required to produce limited descent with modification; chiefly natural selection acting on random variations or mutations
- Universal common descent: the idea that all organisms have descended from a single common ancestor
- Blind watchmaker thesis: the idea that all organisms have descended from common ancestors through unguided, unintelligent, purposeless, material processes such as natural selection acting on random variations or mutations; the idea that the Darwinian mechanism of natural selection acting on random variation, and other similarly naturalistic mechanisms, completely suffice to explain the origin of novel biological forms and the appearance of design in complex organisms. This is often referred to as the Theory of Evolution
- Microevolution - changes in the genetic make up of a population
- Macroevolution - perceived linear change between the higher taxonomic levels
- Speciation - change from one species into another species
(The first six are from The Meanings of Evolution by Stephen C. Meyer and Michael Newton Keas, followed by other distinctions that are helpful. Please add others as necessary for research and discussion.)
Exogenous seeding
- Teleological - The concept that a heterogeneous consortium of unicellular organisms that were products of advanced bioengineering and were used to seed the earth with life.
- Non-teleological - non-intentional deposition of organic matter on the earth by asteroids, comets, or other natural delivery mediums.
