Are questions about creationism or intelligent design on-topic here?

Question

Our first creationism/intelligent design question Is Cell Division Irreducibly Complex? has received a lot od downvotes, some close votes and a moderator flag.

What should we do with this kind of question? Should we categorically disallow questions about pseudoscience here or should we try to answer them?

Answer 1

Categorically disallow; "debates" about creationism-versus-reality do not belong anywhere, even here.

Answer 2

They are clearly not on topic, since they are not fundamentally about biology. That is simply a smokescreen. No good can come of answering these questions, and people promulgating them (although not necessarily those posting them) aren't interested in answers anyway.

If such questions are present they will serve as a magnet for fractious "culture wars" argument and anti-science blather. They should be closed without hesitation, and preferably deleted.

Answer 3

I agree with KAM but I think we should make an exception for a particular type of questions: Namely, all questions which ask for a relevant, on-topic, biological, technical explanation and merely use the “intelligent design” framing as a starting point.

Of course these questions should not elicit discussions and any answers to that effect are completely inacceptable (simply because they are wrong). Furthermore, most of the relevant questions have probably already been answered on Talk Origins Archive but this isn’t necessarily a reason to reject them here.

Answer 4

I would propose a slight variation on Konrad's answer.

Allow any question that:

• Otherwise is a good fit for SE Q&A format

• Can be asked legitimately by anyone who is reading about/studying evolution but never heard of creationism/ID. This criterion is slightly subjective, but can be distilled down to "can the essense of the question be preserved without any mention of ID/creationism".

As examples:

• What is a specific evolutionary explanation of XYZ? (good)

• Why is ID not considered a science? (Bad, duh)

Basically, if a question needs an (in Konrad's words) "'intelligent design' framing", it's fair game to be considered off topic.

If it is a question that can (and has) be asked by a typical creationist, BUT can just as legitimately be asked by someone just starting to study evolution who never heard of creationism, then it's on-topic as long as it is otherwise good for an SE site.