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Title: Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology by William A. Dembski, Michael J. Behe ISBN: 0-8308-1581-3 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: November, 1999 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.25 (40 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Dembski's "Intelligent Design"
Comment: Dembski's treatment is less about the mechanism of a grand scale design by a supreme deity, and more abut the specification of signs that are discovered to hold intelligent causes. Described this way, intelligent design is an open scientific question. I was pleasantly surprises to see this controversial topic couched this way.
Dembski presents his narrow definition of natural causation as something driven by necessity and contingency. That is, a natural cause is something that follows from determinism (cause and effect) or by a mindless random chance. Dembski argues that this view of nature is only self sufficient by assumption, and therefore deep reality holds out the possibility of intelligent causation that is both transcendental in its reach and unconflicted with natural causation. In fact, the evidences suggest that natural causation is not self sufficient, and this is plainly demonstrated in any effort were intelligent causation is discovered; be it in "... forensic science, artificial intelligence (cf. the Turning test), cryptography, archaeology and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence."
On page 106, Dembski writes, "... intelligent design properly formulated is a theory of information."
On page 107, he continues, "... the world contains events, objects and structures that exhaust the explanatory resources of undirected natural causes and that can be adequately explained only by recourse to intelligent causes." To look at the patterns of letters on a newspaper, and this much is clear. What Dembski calls an intelligent cause is far from a rigid formalism, as such causation can be as whimsical as any abstract painting. But on pages 109 and 110, Dembski oddly insist that intelligent design is not theistic evolution or teleological evolution.
In fact, Dembski's intelligent design is every bit consistent with teleology and any creative process that derives itself from a final cause. Perhaps feeling this conflict Dembski admits on page 212 that: "... An act of creation is always a divine gift and cannot be reduced to purely naturalistic categories. To be sure, creative activity often involves the transformation of natural objects, like the transformation of a slab of marble into Michelangelo's David. But even confined to natural objects, creativity is never naturalistic without remainder."
Dembski describes complex specified information (CSI) not merely as a complexity measure but also as a measure of intelligent specification/significaton. Therefore, the CSI content is a quality of a sign that tells of intelligence. Intelligent designs becomes compatible with semiotics and panpsychism. How we read CSI is a property of both the universe and ourselves. We perceive of design because we can conceive it in ourselves. CSI holds a self referential quality.
Pages 160 to 170 contain the most important philosophical insight: that it is not possible to generate CSI from natural causes. Dembski "proof" comes in three parts: (1) natural laws by themselves cannot generate new CSI independent of prior signification; (2) random chance by itself cannot generate new CSI with any statistical confidence; and (3) the combination of law and chance cannot generate CSI. Step (3) is most intriguing, as Demisi is able to break the sequence of natural causes into a sequence of one-way interactions where findings (1) and (2) can be applied independently. This is reminiscent of C.S. Pierce's discovery of the irreducibility of a triadic sign (three-way semiotic relationship) in terms of the less dynamic dyadic (the two-way relationship). We cannot explain CSI by natural causes because we cannot remove ourselves and our powers of conception from the chain of events, no more that we can turn a triad into a dyad. Naturalism only allows for a forward moving chain of events, and nothing more is permitted for semiotic interaction.
Chapter 7, "Science & Theology in Mutual Support", contains a very interesting discussion related to rational behavior (consistent with statistical decision theory) and the abductive logic of C.S. Pierce. Abductive logic is found to be the most useful approach to permit dialog among different schools as diverse as religion and science.
Dembski's book is as much an interesting contribution to metaphysic as it is a bridge between science and religion.
Rating: 3
Summary: I Can Do Better Than These Authors
Comment: Here is what is wrong with the science vs religion debate. Science starts with the assumption that there is no God, that there is nothing except for the physical matter that we see and the laws that apply to them. It assumes that there is not and cannot be anything such as spirit (i.e. that our bodies house spirits) or God. Basically, science in this sense is a religion itself which is unfairly believing that physical laws are God, and are responsible for life on earth and the creation of planets, stars, and galaxies. Let me say that again. Science is a religion because it is a belief system, and it is a belief that there is no such thing as Spirit and no such thing as a Supreme Being or God (or Gods). Science then is not interested in discovering if the truth is that there really IS a God (or Gods) and Spirit. It is ONLY interested in trying to explain the Universe from a BIASED perspective that there is only physical matter and laws that we see around us with our physical eyes. It is as closed-minded as persons who adhere to a religion and assume it is correct without ever questioning the possibility that they could be incorrect. Open-minded persons are interested in the truth, and NEVER assume that something is or isn't true. Science is inherently flawed in that it only relies on physical evidence of things, and not Spiritual evidence. Writing about what exactly Spiritual evidence is would easily fill a book, but basically Spiritual evidence is revelation from God to man, as found in Holy Scripture. Scientists automatically reject that God exists and that therefore any person who claims to speak His words (a prophet) is a liar, or schizophrenic, or something. However, millions of people have discovered for themselves that there is a God and they are not a bunch of lying schizophrenic stupid people, as scientists would have us believe. They in fact have Spiritual evidence that He exists, which is revelation from God to them. Okay, I'll stop now but carefully consider what I said about Physical and Spiritual evidence of things, and the rejection by science of considering that anything other than that which is physical is possible.
Rating: 1
Summary: ID Not Science
Comment: I'm sorry to break it to you guys, but anyone who thinks that this book is a sucessful exercise in expressing the intelligent design theory in scientific terms has been woefully mislead. Dembski uses scientific terms to ATTEMPT to explain the creationist point of view, but intelligent design is simply NOT SCIENCE. This is not a matter for discussion, any more than one could discuss using mathematics to define religion. The two fields simply do not work together. If you don't believe me, then you haven't read enough about science to really understand what it is.
In terms of philosphy and science, ID has been shown to be fallacious, and since Dembski clearly has a religious agenda (i.e. Christian agenda), he should not be allowed to call ID any kind of science, and you people should certaintly not believe him when he says that it is.
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Title: DARWINS BLACK BOX: THE BIOCHEMICAL CHALLENGE TO EVOLUTION by Michael J. Behe ISBN: 0684834936 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 20 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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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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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: Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? Why Much of What We Teach About Evolution is Wrong by Jonathan Wells, Jody F. Sjogren ISBN: 0895262002 Publisher: Regnery Publishing Pub. Date: January, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Evolution: A Theory in Crisis by Michael Denton ISBN: 091756152X Publisher: Adler & Adler Pub Pub. Date: August, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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