Can design be proved?
A particular feature (a star, bacteria, whale, biochemical system,…) was produced either by detectable design-action or by what appears to be undirected natural process. These two possibilities, which I’ll call design and non-design, are mutually exclusive, so if non-design is highly improbable, design is highly probable. And vice versa. The evaluative status of non-design (and thus design) can be decreased or increased by empirical observations, so a theory of design is empirically responsive and is testable. Based on a logical evaluation of evidence, we can conclude that a design theory is probably true (if all non-design theories seem highly implausible) or is probably false (if any non-design theory seems highly plausible). A design theory does not claim that non-design is impossible and design is certain, it only claims that design seems more probable. But proof is always impossible in science. Instead, scientists try to develop a logically justified confidence in the truth or f
