My reply would be to ask, if you were brought up in a monarchy before democracy or even Parliament existed would you believe it was natural for countries to be ruled by kings? If so, then is that fact evidence against the claim that democracy is better? If so, then if you were brought up in a fascist regime and had only knowledge of that sort of society, would you believe that sort of government is natural and fitting? Is that fact evidence against the claim that democracy is better?
Integral to Dembski's idea of specified complexity (SC) is the notion that something extrinsic to evolution is the source of the specification in how it develops. He compares SC to the message sent by space aliens in the movie "Contact." In that movie, earthbound scientists determine that radio waves originating in from somewhere in our galaxy are actually a signal being sent by space aliens. The scientists determine that these waves are a signal is the fact that they indicate prime numbers in a way that a random occurrence would not. What is interesting to me is the fact that Dembski relies upon an analogy with a sign rather than a machine. Like a machine, signs are produced by an intelligent being for the sake of something beyond themselves. Machines, if you will, have a meaning. Signs, if you will, produce knowledge. But the meaning/knowledge is in both cases something other than the machine/sign itself. Both signs and machines are purposeful or teleological...
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