Arguments from Ignorance

The most common argument form the materialist will see is the argument from ignorance. One common topic in which this argument form arises is on the creationist front. The neurologica blog does a decent job of explicating the important points in this post.

The key point that should be emphasized here is that IDers are in fact correct that their argument is not technically an argument from ignorance in its purest form. Rather, it's an argument from ignorance due to the fact that in questions of complicated science, the unexplainable is often times indistinguishable from the currently unexplained. ID is offering what it believes to be the square circle, when in fact it's merely presenting a square that merely looks circular, but is in fact a square. As such, we get what might as well be an argument from ignorance.

This is not to say that we could never discover something irreducibly complex, but the stark failure of all attempts thus far should stand as a reminder to us all to be wary of such claims.