Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

“In Defense of Intelligent Design”

Philip Clayton, a professor at the Claremont School of Theology, asked me to contribute an article to The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science that he is editing. He asked me specifically to write on the topic “In Defense of Intelligent Design” for the section titled “Central Theoretical Debates in Religion and Science: Intelligent Design and Its Critics.” Robert Pennock is the other contributor to that section. For my article, go here.

TRIZ and ID

TRIZ (a Russian acronym that is usually translated “theory of inventive problem solving” and is pronounced treez) was developed by Russian scientists and engineers trying to understand technological evolution. I’ve touched on TRIZ’s relevance to ID in a number of my writings (go here, for instance). Some useful sites for understanding TRIZ are the following: Read More ›

“Intelligent Evolution” — If the courts rule against ID …

There are now a number of initiatives nationally in which evolution is being challenged and ID promoted. What would happen if the courts rule against ID, declaring it religion? In the long term, this prospect is of little consequence because the momentum is now with ID and the inertia with evolution. Read More ›

2006 Point Counterpoint Forum

The 2006 Point Counterpoint Forum is scheduled for February 10-11, 2006, on “Debating Design” – whether the universe was created by intelligent design or by evolution. The dialogue will be between one of intelligent design’s leading thinkers, William Dembski, the newly named director of the Center for Science and Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and evolutionist Michael Ruse, a professor at Florida State University. [From here]

“By Design or by Chance?” wins two top honours

“By Design or by Chance?” wins two top honours

June 20, 2005, Toronto

At the Write! Canada convention awards night (June 17, 2004), By Design or by Chance?, an overview of the intelligent design controversy, won two Canadian Christian Writing Awards, one in the category of books on culture and the other in the category of personal growth/Bible study & theology. The culture award was shared with Dianne B. Stinton of Nairobi, Kenya, for Jesus of Africa. Read More ›

Mushroom Physiologist Attacks ID

Gary Novak (mushroom physiologist) says he has evolved yeast into morel mushrooms in the lab, mocks ID, and joins the fray (go here). What Novak has actually shown, so one of my close ID biologist colleagues informs me, is that when he tries to grow wild morel mushrooms on artificial nutrient media in laboratory Petri dishes, they don’t develop beyond the single-cell stage — like yeast (a single-celled fungus). No evolution. Not even devolution. Just stunted growth. Say it isn’t so.