Design Disquisitions

When I initially watched the Bundy-Behe ‘discussion’, I came away thinking it was one of the worst interactions I’ve ever witnessed. Not only were Bundy’s attacks on Behe puerile and lacking in substance, but the way he handled the interaction on a personal level was disgraceful and embarrassing. It’s really disappointing to see Dr. Dan agreeing that this is an adult and productive way to conduct disagreement.

1 year ago | [YT] | 1

Design Disquisitions

My short response to ‪@DannyPhilTalk‬

https://youtu.be/Ts3BgUNSPWg?si=sNRl-...

1 year ago | [YT] | 0

Design Disquisitions

As promised, here is a YouTube playlist of all the material I could find that directly address Dembski’s notion of ’specified complexity’.

youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8...

2 years ago | [YT] | 0

Design Disquisitions

In light of the publication of the 2nd edition of ‘The Design Inference’, I thought it would be appropriate to do a bit of a round-up of his work. I’ve put together a YouTube playlist of everything by Dembski (related to ID). I’ll shortly be following that up with a playlist more specifically on the notion of specified complexity. Stay tuned!

youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8...

2 years ago | [YT] | 0

Design Disquisitions

“Further, the same Arguments which explode the Notion of Luck, may, on the other side, be useful in some Cases to establish a due comparison between Chance and Design: We may imagine Chance and Design to be, as it were, in Competition with each other, for the production of some sorts of Events, and many calculate what Probability there is, that those Events should be rather be owing to the one than to the other.”

Abraham De Moivre, The Doctrine Of Chances: Or A Method Of Calculating The Probability Of Events In Play (1718)

2 years ago | [YT] | 0

Design Disquisitions

A book that came out this year defending Intelligent Design was this one by British philosopher Peter S. Williams. I have highlighted Williams work several times before. His writings were instrumental in me changing my mind in favour of ID (particularly from a philosophy of science angle). I can highly recommend this one. It contains various essays I have read before but it’s great to have his best work all in one volume. The newly written preface is truly epic, with an up-to-date analysis of various aspects of ID. The preface alone has 257 references 😳. Well worth a read.

“After a substantial author’s Preface woven around the author’s personal journey with the question of design in nature, An Informed Cosmos presents a series of essays that jointly defend the core arguments for a scientific theory of intelligent design. Together with a foreword by noted philosopher of science Stephen C. Meyer, and extensive recommended resources, An Informed Cosmos offers an informed overview of the contemporary case for intelligent design.”

www.peterswilliams.com/publications/books/an-infor…

2 years ago | [YT] | 1

Design Disquisitions

A question to those who think ID can’t be a legitimate scientific enterprise:

If you reject the proposition that ID can’t *in principle* be considered science, (by that I mean that not only is it not science now, but could never become one by definition), and yet it turned out that ID is true. What follows from that?…

1) Transfer funding from the science departments/labs to philosophy or theology departments, in order to better understand natural history.

Or

2) Abandon your naturalistic definition of science, and concede that ID should now be considered science.

2 years ago | [YT] | 0

Design Disquisitions

“The basic problem with pre-stipulated/conceptual/theoretical is that if reality itself happens to fall outside those boundaries, theorising within the confines of those boundaries will inevitably generate either incompleteness or error.”

-Del Ratzsch on one of the problems with methodological naturalism

2 years ago | [YT] | 2

Design Disquisitions

A segment of a presentation I put together on ID. In this section I briefly outline several of the proposed methods of design detection, the favoured method being Dembski’s concept of specified complexity. I strict and careful criterion is essential for ID to succeed, so this area is fundamental.

What do you think of these methods? Are any of them successful and applicable to biology?

2 years ago | [YT] | 1

Design Disquisitions

I highly recommend you check out this recent video by the Centre for Intelligent Design (UK), featuring the excellent Dr Kirk Durston. I really appreciate Dr Durston’s work and think it doesn’t get enough attention. He has his own research approach to ID, although his thinking ultimately converges with the views of Stephen Meyer and William Dembski.

In this video he tells his account of how he came to accept ID and started his own research on the functional information required for proteins. He discusses many interesting areas including his own formalism of design detection, genetic algorithms, probability, and his peer reviewed work (including an upcoming paper).

2 years ago | [YT] | 2