What's the difference between Intelligent Design (ID), and Theistic Evolution (TE)?

Many TE adherents share with most ID adherents the conviction that there's design in nature and that God is the designer. They may even share the same views on when the design is accomplished by God, which varies within both TE and ID but not necessarily between TE and ID. So, among both TE and ID adherents there are some people who imagine that God continually directs the course of natural processes (such as evolution) long after the beginning of the universe, and there are other people who imagine that God set things up at the beginning to guarantee certain outcomes so that no later "steering" would be needed.

Regardless of whether God designs by front-loading or ongoing direction, among people equally accepting of divine design the difference between TE and ID is whether divine design is detectable using the scientific method.

• Design-accepting TE adherents argue that belief in design - while rational and consistent with science - requires theological reasoning that goes beyond what science itself can do if the designer is unidentified and potentially divine.

• ID adherents argue the opposite: that design - while compatible with, and even potentially supportive of, religious belief - is a scientific conclusion reachable without reference to any theology even if the unidentified designer might be God.

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