Monthly Archives: December 2005
Darwinism — “A cult in which few believe this side of Berkeley and Harvard Square”
| December 18, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Darwinism, Evolution |
Who made the following predition: “Like the Marxists, the Darwinists are going to wind up as a cult in which few believe this side of Berkeley and Harvard Square.” Phil Johnson did over a decade ago. But these actual words are Pat Buchanan’s and were published today. Tom Bethell Puts Darwinism on Defense by Patrick… more
ID in Doonesbury
| December 18, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution, Intelligent Design |
ID appearing in Doonesbury indicates how far this topic has risen in the public debate. more
ID in Colombia
| December 17, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
The well-known Colombian journalist Daniel Samper wrote an article about ID for the most important Colombian newspaper a few weeks back. According to Daniel Andrés, the article says the usual things against ID and it’s clear that the journalist has not read anything about it except what other newspapers say. Daniel Andrés responded in his… more
Okay, ID may be taught — But you don’t get to teach it!
| December 16, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Education, Intelligent Design |
The latest edition of Jeffrey Bennett et al’s astronomy textbook The Cosmic Perspective (4th edition) is now out. Sure enough, “intelligent design” is in the index. Indeed, it gets a full page treatment (p. 714). Below is the scan of that page. Does this text provides a fair representation of ID? Hardly. It appears now… more
Biomimetics — A Subdiscipline of ID
| December 16, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
As you read the extract below, ask yourself the following: (1) Why does biology hand us technical devices that human design engineers drool over? (2) Why don’t we ever see natural selection or any other unintelligent evolutionary mechanisms produce such systems? (3) Why don’t we have any plausible detailed step-by-step models for how such evolutionary… more
“The Intelligent Hacker” Behind the Universe
| December 16, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
Science 2 December 2005: Vol. 310. no. 5753, p. 1421 DOI: 10.1126/science.310.5753.1421b Founder’s Message Combing through cosmic radiation could reveal a message from the universe’s creator, if it has one, say two physicists. According to theory, anyone could make a universe by squashing a lump of matter violently enough to replicate the big bang. And… more
Interview with Lenny Susskind
| December 16, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design, Science |
Note the following concession at the end of this New Scientist interview: “If, for some unforeseen reason, the landscape turns out to be inconsistent – maybe for mathematical reasons, or because it disagrees with observation – I am pretty sure that physicists will go on searching for natural explanations of the world. But I have… more
Remy Chauvin Slams Darwinism
| December 16, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Darwinism, Evolution |
[From a colleague:] There is a wonderful critique of Darwinism by the French zoologist Remy Chauvin. It is called Le darwinisme, ou La fin d’un mythe [Darwinism, or The end of a myth] (Editions du Rocher, 1997). It is even better, especially for polemical purposes, than the book by Chandebois, previously discussed on this blog.… more
Taking Up Patricia Princehouse’s Gauntlet
| December 16, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Education |
Patricia Princehouse — the philosophy professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, who has vilified ID and its supporters for years — has published a letter to the editor of USA Today (see below) in which she replies to Cal Thomas and Bob Beckel. The two journalists, one conservative and the other liberal,… more
Question about 25 Big Questions
| December 16, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution, Science |
With questions so basic as these, why is evolutionary theory taught with such confidence in our textbooks? THE QUESTIONS The Top 25 Essays by our news staff on 25 big questions facing science over the next quarter-century. http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/125th > What Is the Universe Made Of? > What is the Biological Basis of Consciousness? > Why… more
“Flopping around, witnessing the rebellion”
| December 16, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution, Intelligent Design |
It will be interesting to see the anti-ID faculty flop around as they witness the rebellion. more
[Offtopic:] A Different Culture War
| December 16, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Education |
Muslim Gang Rapes and the Aussie Riots By Sharon Lapkin FrontPageMagazine.com | December 15, 2005 http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=20535 In Australia this week amidst anger over an Islamic man’s rape conviction and the bashing of two Aussie life savers, working-class locals erupted in a rampage of anger and brawling in some of the worst racial riots in decades.… more
Resistance to ID in Brazil
| December 12, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
Here are a two letters seeking fairer treatment for ID from the Brazilian Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS): more
“Progetto Cosmoâ€Â
| December 12, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
The Italian website “Progetto Cosmo† is dedicated to Intelligent Design: http://progettocosmo.altervista.org or http://www.intelligentdesign.tk. more
“Orthodox Jews in S. Florida join debate on evolution vs. intelligent design”
| December 12, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design |
Orthodox Jews in S. Florida join debate on evolution vs. intelligent design By James D. Davis Religion Editor December 12, 2005 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cdesigndec12,0,3441548.story?coll=sfla-news-broward Evangelical Christians aren’t the only ones making evolution and intelligent design a cause célèbre: Leading Orthodox Jews have the topic in their sights as well — some of them gathering for a three-day… more
Casey Luskin on ID in HUMAN EVENTS
| December 12, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
Future of Conservatism: Darwin or Design? by Casey Luskin Posted Dec 12, 2005 http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=10790 more
“Methodological Cleansing” — The new regulative principle for science
| December 11, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution, Intelligent Design, Science |
In elementary logic, from premises P1: If A, then B and P2: A, one may conclude B. This rule is called modus ponens. Evolutionary logic now has a particular application of this rule which it is attempting to foist on science as a whole. It runs as follows: P1: If a claim or idea seems… more
Why no pet penitentiaries?
| December 11, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Darwinism, Evolution |
[From a paper by one of my students:] According to Darwin’s theory, humans are separated from the animals only by a matter of degrees, not by categories. This is the working presupposition behind the evolutionary ethics of James Rachels. Thus, there can be no fundamental difference between “evil†committed by rhesus monkeys and that committed… more
Bruce Chapman responds to NYTimes
| December 10, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution, Intelligent Design |
Bruce Chapman, president of Discovery Institute, responds here to Laurie Goodstein’s piece “Intelligent Design Might Be Meeting Its Maker” (blogged here). Note his point that “none of the critics quoted in your article supported the theory in the past” — Goodstein gave the impression that these critics had once been sympathetic to ID and then… more
Simon Conway Morris to do Gifford Lectures
| December 10, 2005 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution, Religion, Science |
Simon Conway Morris is scheduled to do the 2006-07 Gifford Lectures on the topic “What organic evolution tells us about our place in the universe, not least in terms of religious perspectives and natural theology “: http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/Admin/Gifford/ more