Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Dembski and Intelligent Design

A scathing review does not in itself indicate prejudice. I suspect most Christianists would agree in the example of the Christ that the use of 'whited sepulchre', 'hypocrite', 'brood of vipers' and similar terms indicate a well-founded review. That may not be the case when Christianists listen to Mark Perakh's review of William A Dembski's work in the book "Unintelligent Design".

With a quote attributed to Tolstoy saying 'that the actual value of a person is like a fraction wherein the numerator indicates the person's achievements and talents, where the denominator indicates what the person thinks of himself.' used to indicate that Dembski's value is nearly zero (p. 106) and a statement that "The result is a seemingly very sophisticated theory, which may be impressive to those who find in it a confirmation of their preconceived convictions, but which nevertheless has so many holes and inconsistencies that it is overall meaningless." it can be said that the art of scourging bad work is not dead.

Dembski's failure to remain as an expert witness in Katzmiller vs. Dover - even though he was deposed - speaks volumes for his ability to stand up and meet criticism. In his own publications he is fierce, but when it comes to public discourse and peer review he seems to flee any true debate or adjudication.

Intelligent Design fails.

Mark Perakh, Unintelligent Design (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2003).

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