Evolutionists are often quick to point out that intelligent design is not falsifiable and that therefore the theory is beyond the scope of science. In fact, the opposite is true. Intelligent design is falsifiable and evolution is not.

Consider the mystery of life’s origin. Chemists in the early 1900’s speculated that the earth’s early atmosphere must have contained no oxygen because without oxygen it is easier to synthesize the chemicals needed by life. In 1953, Stanely Miller produced amino acids in a spark chamber and further strengthened the idea that the early atmosphere contained no oxygen. Over the next few decades, science discovered the complexity of living cells and elucidated how they replicate and survive. It became clear that it would be impossible for a completely formed cell to originate in the primordial soup, so scientists instead proposed a self replicating RNA molecule. Many years of research later, it is clear that the self replicating RNA molecule hypothesis is fatally flawed - see chapter 10 in the book or on the web site. It has also become clear that the components needed to create a RNA molecule cannot be readily synthesized in the primordial soup - see chapter 9 in the book or on the web site. Also note that the sources for these two chapters are not other intelligent design literature - but rather the primary scientific literature (PNAS, nature, science, journal of molecular evolution etc.).

So now science is stuck. It has already assumed that naturalistic laws are responsible for the origin of life yet it can not propose a workable hypothesis as to how this may have happened. So we must now play a waiting game. Science is making an assumption that at some time in the future some very bright scientist will solve the origin of life mystery. I take no issue with this assumption because science must keep searching for an answer to this puzzle. But it does not take a rocket scientist to understand that with this second assumption - evolution is placed on a pedestal and it can no longer be falsified.

Now consider intelligent design. If a scientist ever synthesizes a self replicating molecule under plausible prebiotic conditions and this molecule can replicate in nature without help from the investigator then intelligent design is disproved. So the theory is falsifiable.

Evolutionists should look more closely at their own theory before they blindly lash out at one they do not understand. Intelligent design is not science because it does not assume that everything has a naturalistic explanation. But it is superior to science in that it does not rely on an axiom to obscure the truth. I wish more scientists would take a step back and understand the assumptions that they have made and how these assumptions influence their beliefs.

I was happy to see that in the latest version of the Molecular biology of the Gene ( the textbook used for most graduate level molecular biology classes) the chapter dealing with self replicating molecules was deleted. So perhaps some progress has been made.