Monthly Archives: October 2005
Dover Trial Transcripts
| October 25, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
Go here: http://www.aclupa.org/legal/legaldocket/intelligentdesigncase/dovertrialtranscripts.htm. more
Will Anything Ever Be the Same Again?
| October 25, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design |
Here’s a note from a colleague in the biological sciences: I’ve been following this issue off and on for about 20 years, but I haven’t been in the thick of it like you. Has it ever been this hot in the scientific community or the public at large? I get the sense we have entered… more
Cornell’s IDEA Club Counters Hunter Rawlings
| October 25, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
On October 21, President Hunter R. Rawlings III of Cornell University issued a “State of the University Address” that was devoted entirely to, as he perceives it, the threat of ID (go here for his address). Cornell’s IDEA Club has now officially replied (go here). more
Open Letter by Samuel Chen on Dover
| October 24, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
In 2002, Samuel Chen, then a high school sophomore in Pennyslvania, invited Michael Behe to speak at his high school (the event is described here under the title “Darwin’s Dictatorship”). Chen has since graduated and is now a college student at Baylor. Here are his thoughts about the ongoing ID trial Kitzmiller v. Dover —… more
The Charge of Duplicity
| October 24, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
Design theorists who are religious believers are often charged with duplicity for not explicitly identifying the intelligence that they claim is responsible for certain forms of biological complexity with the God of their religious faith. But this charge is itself ill-intentioned. As far as the science of ID goes, there is no way to get… more
“We shouldn’t dismiss questions, even if some are ill-intentioned.”
| October 23, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution, Intelligent Design |
Okay, it’s finally becoming clear why all the backlash against ID. No, it’s not that ID is raising the wrong questions. No, it’s not that ID has been shown to be false (certainly Kirschner & Gerhart haven’t shown that). It’s that IDs proponents are, in the words of Marc Kirschner, “ill-intentioned.” Ah, yes, the old… more
The Plausibility of Life
| October 23, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution |
[From a colleague:] Marc W. Kirschner and John C. Gerharrt are important players in the evo-devo movement. They have a new popular book that is just out titled The Plausibility of Life (Yale, 2005). It summarizes a good deal of work in their earlier textbook and several important articles. In the new book, the authors… more
ID bashed also in Germany — Why can’t we all just be friends?
| October 22, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
[From a colleague in Germany:] Recently your name in connetion with ID did appear in several (liberal) newspapers here in Germany, mostly of course accompanied by unqualified critic. You surely experience this yourself often enough in the US, lately I saw e.g. a scientist and ID-opponent on the O’Reily Show (Fox News) directly attacking ID… more
Cornell State of the University Address — 90% devoted to ID
| October 22, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Education, Intelligent Design |
This academic year may be pivotal for Cornell University (a school at which I spent half a year doing research on probability theory back in 1986) as its president just spent nearly the whole of his State of the University Address speaking about intelligent design: more
ID Slammed in Aussie Media
| October 22, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
From a contact in Australia: Last night on TV and today in all newspapers ID was derided as “not science.” See below the transcript of our ABC National Broadcaster’s treatment of ID in the program “Catalyst” last night: www.abc.net.au\cayalyst. It is followed by a specially timed letter for all Australian Newspapers today proclaiming “It’s not… more
The Origins Institute at McMaster University in Canada
| October 21, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Biology, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Science, Self-Org. Theory |
Check out http://origins.mcmaster.ca/about.html. Will ID get a fair hearing at this institute? more
Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems (PUP, 2005)
| October 21, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Darwinism, Evolution |
[From the 14Oct05 review in Science of Andreas Wagner's new book:] Wagner does a wonderful job of outlining the parameters of the debate [over robustness, or how organisms achieve stability under perturbation]. He recognizes two basic difficulties. One is a catch-22: the more robust a system becomes, the less variable it is (by definition), and… more
Aristotle — Creationist in a Cheap Toga
| October 21, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
Aristotle was one of those creationists in a cheap toga who concluded that the abundant design in nature points to an intelligent cause even if that cause isn’t visible. “For teeth and all other natural things either invariably or normally come about in a given way; but of not one of the results of chance… more
My Life’s Work Dispatched in a Mere Four Pages
| October 21, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution, Intelligent Design |
This just in from a friend of mine: “Into The Cool; Energy, Thermodynamics, and Life, by Eric Schneider and Dorion Sagan, devotes several pages to “demolishing” your contributions, pp 319-322. No surprise, given the ludicrous proposals they make about the origin of life, Benard cells explaining physiology, etc. When they stick to expositions from the… more
Antikythera Mechanism
| October 21, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Comp. Sci. / Eng. |
The Antikythera mechanism: The clockwork computer Sep 19th 2002 From The Economist print edition An ancient piece of clockwork shows the deep roots of modern technology. . . . MORE more
Will the real testable theory please stand up?
| October 20, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution, Intelligent Design |
A test nobody wants to take Neither side is interested in trying to prove intelligent design. By MICHELLE STARR Daily Record/Sunday News Thursday, October 20, 2005 HARRISBURG  Intelligent design and evolution proponents agree that a test on bacterial flagellum could show if it was or wasn’t able to evolve, which could provide evidence to… more
Evolution Indoctrination Minor at Northwestern University
| October 19, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution, Intelligent Design |
I reported in September about Northwestern University’s new indoctrination minor in evolutionary theory (go here for my earlier post on this blog). Here is a follow-up article about that new minor. The article notes, “The program will examine evidence for evolution from paleontology, anthropology and biology, according to Teresa Horton, the program’s director. One thing… more
Biochemical and Metabolic Pathways
| October 19, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution |
In the summer of 2000, I conducted a 6-week seminar on intelligent design and self-organization at Calvin College (go here). Among the people who presented at the seminar were Steve Meyer, Paul Nelson, Jed Macosko, Howard Van Till, Del Ratzsch, Michael Ruse, and Harold Morowitz. more
Technological vs. Biological Evolution
| October 19, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution |
Adaptive evolution in biology and technology: Why are parallels expected? Peter Kaplan University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology Ann Arbor, MI 48109 [snip]@aya.yale.edu INTRODUCTION: Since the beginnings of technology, inventors have sought to draw parallels between biological and technological designs. more
Barbara Forrest on Religion and Human Origins/Destiny
| October 17, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution, Religion, Science |
Here is Barbara Forrest’s take on the religious implications of neo-Darwinism and astronomy in her article “The Possibility of Meaning in Human Evolution,†Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science 35.4 (Dec 2000), 861-889. She writes (p. 862, notes omitted): more