Society privileges science in various ways, particularly in education, and consequently it is important to be able to distinguish between science and non-science – an issue known as the demarcation problem in philosophy of science.

Some non-sciences such as astrology and homeopathy deliberately masquerade as science, and are known as pseudosciences.

This series of posts considers the status of intelligent design (ID), a derivative of creation science. Creation science claims to be science, but is widely considered to be pseudoscience, primarily because of its insistence on the primacy of the Bible. ID is an attempt to adopt a more scientific approach.

To evaluate ID’s status, a demarcation strategy is proposed and an evaluation based on the strategy conducted.

The ethos of the Philosophical Apologist means that it was important the evaluation be as impartial as possible. A judgement was not finally made until the research for this series was completed.

An outline of this series is shown below.

Part 1: What is the demarcation problem?

Part 2: A demarcation strategy proposal

Part 3: What is Intelligent Design?

Part 4: Evaluating Intelligent Design – part 1

Part 5: Evaluating Intelligent Design – part 2

Part 6: Is Intelligent Design science?

Part 7: Does it matter if ID isn’t science?