Dembski addresses the property that gives definition to intelligence:
“The defining property of intelligence is its ability to create information. . . . The ability of intelligence to create information should be more obvious and convincing to us than any claim of the natural sciences. Why? Because (1) we ourselves are intelligent beings who create information all the time through our thoughts and language and (2) the natural sciences themselves are logically downstream from our ability to create information (if we were not information creators, we could not formulate scientific theories, much less search for those that are empirically adequate, in which case there would be no science). Materialist philosophy, however, has all this backwards, making a materialist science primary and then defining our intelligence out of existence because materialism leaves no room for it (except as unintended motions and modifications of matter). The saner course would be to leave no room for materialism.”