ok, copy that......so, ID is like a cult with an agenda like scientology if I read your post correctly...
Yes. And that cult is fundamentalist christianity.
interesting info, thanks for the heads up....
so, does this mean then, that you are implying that this is what is being promoted here? [i hadn't noticed that, so i was looking for some clarification since you brought it up]
Look... I'm sure that if you would gather up 10 random people who identify as ID'ers would give 10 different answers to relatively basic questions concerning this supposed model of reality... Mainly because there is no such detailed model, just a vague idea at best which pretty much requires belief in the supernatural. They'll say, or some will anyway, that "the designer" could be "anyone" - we all know that they really mean an immortal god.
In any case, here's the point....
Anyone who would actually bother to honestly look up what this ID model is really all about, would know about
cdesign proponentsists. They would know about the leaked wedge document.
Also, they would notice that there is no comprehensive model. That there is anything
there there. So in depth study of this is impossible, since there is nothing there to study. You can't get a doctorate in ID, because ID isn't anything. There literally is nothing to study besides at best a few pages of apologetics, which will mostly only attack established science.
SO...
What I can conclude is that anyone who mentions it in all seriousness on some forum... That person did not do in depth studies of this. He just repeats something he vaguely read somewhere. He didn't take a course in it, because no such courses exist.
All that tells me that whatever is being said - there's no need to take it terribly serious. No, an IDist is
not going to have discovered THE disproof of an established theory like evolution.
There is no research.
There is no material.
There is nothing.
There's just religion and find & replace error that resulted in the gem
cdesign proponentsists
All that together does indeed put me in a place where I'll be instantly dismissive, at least in my head, whenever a person brings up intelligent design.
and second, does that also mean that anyone who suggests there may be a 'conscious' element to the known Universe in ways we haven't yet figured out, is some kind of member of this "cult" and all such talk is thus nonsense and pseudoscience?
Well, first I'ld query that person and ask him/her to clarify what he/she exactly means by that... And why it's necessary to include it. And once clarified, if it can be tested in some way. And if not, why I should give a darn?