If you have studied logic, you have used them. The English logician John Venn (1834–1923) left a fine analytical tool for later generations of students to employ: the Venn diagram. These figures, which provide a graphical method for representing the logical relationships among sets, propositions, and concepts, were much on my mind as I read…

Let me focus on your main questions, which I have numbered for ease of reference: Is it true that motives are completely irrelevant? Why do scientists so strongly disagree on the central claims of the ID movement? How do you define the scientific theory of ID? We’ll start with (1), then turn to (2) and…

Intelligent Design (hereafter, ID) is a view of nature older than Plato. Cambridge University philosopher David Sedley finds design (i.e., purposeful agency, rooted in mind, or nous) posited as the cause of the world, in Anaxagoras (c. 520-428 BCE). In its most recent incarnation, however, ID is still an obstreperous early 20-something, which to many…