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Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2004
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Claim CI113:

Genetic algorithms and computer evolution simulations do not show that intelligent design is unnecessary. On the contrary, those programs must be designed themselves, and they require a designer to specify the outcome.

Response:

  1. See the response to the claim that evolutionary algorithms smuggle in design in the fitness function. Modeling evolution requires modeling fitness differences. Fitness functions often are not designed but are taken from the real world. The exact outcome is not specified in genetic algorithms, only the general requirements. And evolutionary simulations have no intended outcome for the simulated organisms at all.

  2. The fact that the programs are designed themselves is not relevant so long as they accurately model real phenomena. They will not model everything, of course; that is why they are called models. But the fact that modeling evolution is done by designers has no more implications for intelligent design than the fact that painting seascapes is done by designers, too.

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created 2003-7-6