ABSTRACT
Design arguments are at the centre of the Intelligent Design (ID) movement's thought. In the ID movement, Behe and Dembski have both defended analogical design arguments in this vein. Design arguments can also be described as inductive arguments. Inductive reasoning is about observing the connection in a sample of test cases and then extending the generalization to objects that belong to the same class. As Dawes argues, there are two alternative lines of critique which can be made against abductive theistic explanations. The arguments of theistic natural theology are different from the troll hypothesis. The ID movement, in contrast, uses the connection between the appearance of teleology and intelligence as a way of getting explanatory power. Dembski's argument is complex and multi-staged, construed as an eliminative argument where a pattern exhibiting specified complexity' is seen as designed after finding reasonable grounds for eliminating chance and necessity as plausible explanations.
