Intelligent design theory: A site for contemporary sociology of knowledge

The recent rise of intelligent design theory in opposition to the Neo-Darwinian synthesis as an account for the nature of life reflects an underlying shift in the defining ideological polarity of our time. The difference between these two scientific world-views cuts across the left-right binary that has dominated political thought for the past two centuries. The result is an updated version of Sorokin's opposition between "sensate" and "idealistic" cultures-represented by, on the one hand, the carbon-based orientation to life espoused by Peter Singer and other Neo-Darwinists, and, on the other, the silicon-based orientation promoted by Ray Kurzweil and his allies in intelligent design, who include many proponents of artificial intelligence. In the balance hangs the locus for defining "humanity," which in the past had been satisfied by the stable existence of something called "society." This paper traces the roots of intelligent design theory to the aspiration of Newton and other scientific revolutionaries to regard the mechanical world-view as enabling humans to approximate the mind of God