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Title: The Design Inference : Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities by William A. Dembski, Brian Skyrms, Ernest W. Adams, Ken Binmore, Jeremy Butterfield, Persi Diaconis, William L. Harper ISBN: 0-521-62387-1 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 13 September, 1998 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $75.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.59 (22 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Book destined to endure
Comment: Despite Eli Chiprout's critical review of The Design Inference, readers can be assured that Dembski stands by his calculation and is prepared to defend it. Chiprout's chief objection seems to be that Dembski's conditional independence condition founders when human agents get into the act. Chiprout may register his complaint, but we should all note that this book and the theories it puts forth have been thoroughly vetted: it was Dembski's doctoral dissertation, it went through a grueling review process with Cambridge University Press, and the author sent preprints to probably fifty or so scholars and academics for comment. No one, and I mean **NO ONE**, corrected Dembski on what Chiprout suggests is an obvious oversight. Long after the dust of criticism settles, The Design Inference will surely stand as an important and enduring advancement in our understanding of the theory of Intelligent Design.
Rating: 5
Summary: A clear explanation of probability in relation to design
Comment: I think the book can be summed up by Dembski's Law of Small Probabilities - specified events of small probabilities do not occur by chance. For some time now, I have heard evolutionists claim to refute non-evolutionists' who state that life could not have originated by purely naturalistic means because of the sheer improbability. The evolutionists state the FACT that events of small probability occur all the time (it is a fact, just irrelevant). For example, shuffle a deck of cards and deal yourself 7 - it is very unlikely that you would have received those cards in that order, so you have just experienced a highly-improbable event. Or flip a fair coin 1,000 times - that particular series is again extremely, extremely unlikely to have occurred, yet it did. Dembski was the first author I have read that pointed out the error in the evolutionists' line of reasoning - the events they present are not SPECIFIED, but are FABRICATED. If you would have specified a particular series of 7 cards, or would have specified a particular sequence of 1,000 coin tosses, then you have a specified pattern to match and success or failure could be judged. As stated by the evolutionists' arguments, the patterns are determined AFTER the event - they are ad hoc, meaningless patterns: any and all results are considered a success. Another evolutionist asks what are the odds that your 4 grandparents would have met, mated, and had your father and mother as their children, who then had to meet and conceive you, and that the male gamete that fertilized your mon's ovum would have been the particular one out of the millions present (each of which would have produced a different offpsring) that would have resulted in your being the you we all know and love? Wow, you are the result of an extremely small probability event. Not really. Again, no one predicted that your 2 sets of grandparents would meet and have a son and daughter who would in turn have a child with your exact genetic makeup (I'd love to see someone try to make such a prediction BEFORE any of it happened!). Any and every child satisfies the pattern as described by the evolutionist - the pattern is determined AFTER the event - it is a fabrication. Also, concerning the grandparent-parent argument, the probability for EVERY event that is KNOWN to have happened is absolute certainty, not highly unlikely as the evolutionists suggest. So because we KNOW that your grandparents met, had children, etc., we reassign the series of events that lead to you from being extremely unlikely to being absolutely certain. However, we do NOT know that the first cells formed by totally naturalistic means - that is an assumption. As such, the probabilities remain extremely unlikely and not absolute certainty. If I am confusing the reader, I recommend he/she get the book (Dembski does a better job than I).
Rating: 1
Summary: Consistent inconsistency
Comment: This book has been highly aclaimed by Dembski's cohorts as a revolutionary breakthrough on a par with the work by Newton. It is saturated with mathematical symbols creating an impression of inordinate sophistication. However, an elementary analysis of Dembski's opus reveals that whereas he indeed is well versed in many fields of knowledge and is a man of many talents, his book actually is full of inconsistencies. His treatment of probability makes no sense whatsoever. For example, his alleged definitions of probability and likelihood are pure tautology. According to his definition, whatever has a larger likelihood is more likely to occur. True. Also whatever is larger has a larger size, but does such a platitude require a special scientifically sounding definition? The same relates to his quasy-definitions of complexity and difficulty. Wherever there are interesting things in this book, they are not new (fo example, axiomatization of probability which is just variation on Kolmogorov's classical approach without a reference to the source). Wherever there is something new in this book, more often than not it is logically deficient (for example, the procedure Dembski suggests for the first and th second nodes of his explanatory filter). His final design inference is based on a set of arbitrary hypotheses. A completely useless book.
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Title: Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology by William A. Dembski, Michael J. Behe ISBN: 0830815813 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Signs of Intelligence: Understanding Intelligent Design by William A. Dembski, James M. Kushiner ISBN: 1587430045 Publisher: Brazos Press Pub. Date: February, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.99 |
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Title: No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased Without Intelligence by William A. Dembski ISBN: 0742512975 Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield (Non NBN) Pub. Date: December, 2001 List Price(USD): $36.95 |
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Title: Darwin on Trial by Phillip E. Johnson ISBN: 0830813241 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: November, 1993 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe by Ignatius Press, Michael Behe, William A. Dembski, Stephen C. Meyer ISBN: 0898708095 Publisher: Ignatius Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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