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ID in 2007 - from the horses mouth

By jlynch on January 1, 2007.

i-58c1d217449b5ac2d481df3b595a98b7-horsesmouth.jpg

In the shadow of The Year in ID, Dembski gives us his predictions for ID in 2007. Three simple things:

  1. A new ID friendly research center at a major university. (This is not merely an idle wish -- stay tuned.) [Prediction by me: This will be at Baylor and no biology will be involved.]
  2. The publication of Michael Behe's book with Free Press: THE EDGE OF EVOLUTION. [Prediction by me: No new science here, shoddy peer review, and Behe will ignore previous criticisms.]
  3. The publication of the sequel to OF PANDAS AND PEOPLE, authored by Jonathan Wells and me and titled THE DESIGN OF LIFE: DISCOVERING SIGNS OF INTELLIGENCE IN BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS [Prediction by me: Yawn, re-badged Pandas. A textbook before there is a science to be taught.]

(Screaming capitals in the original ... apparently Bill doesn't do italics.)

In fairness to Dembski, he missed two other predictions that are guaranteed to come true:

  • From the DI media complaints division: More stories on Judge Jones, Sternberg, "biased" liberal media, and Dawkins & the Evil Atheist Conspiracytm being written by lawyers and political scientists. More hilariously erroneous stories on science written by lawyers.
  • More wit and wisdom (ahem) from Dave Springer, Denyse "Buy my book" O'Leary and the merry japsters at UncommonDescent.com:

In the spirit of helping Intelligent Design have even more of a "bang-up year," here are some further suggestions:

  • A single peer-reviewed article offering positive evidence for design in a biological system.
  • A theory of how the Designer-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named did the designing.
  • From Dembski: a peer-reviewed paper in the mathematical literature that presents a method to unambiguously (and positively) detect design by differentiating design from non-design.
  • From Nelson: [1] An exposition of the theory of "ontogenetic depth"; [2] A promised peer-reviewed paper on problems with common descent (April 2005 seems so long ago. To speed things up, have Dembski put it online ... that's where he puts everything these days); [3] The promised monograph on common descent that is currently MIA since
    the late 90's.
  • From Wells: Any writing that actually fairly represents science (we're not asking for much here).

Come back next year and see what has been achieved.

Tags
In Their Own Words
Intelligent Design

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A theory of how the Designer-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named did the designing.

Actually, I'm more interested in a theory of how the putative Designer(s) did the manufacturing. That's something that has real commercial potential.

I predict the Discovery Institute will merge with the Church of Scientology and they will publish a book describing how and when the Intelligent Designer created the living creatures of Earth. It will be based on a manuscript by L. Ron Hubbard that was rejected by Amazing Science Fiction 50 years ago.

DISCOVERING SIGNS OF INTELLIGENCE IN BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS

Obviously not using themselves as research subjects, eh?

By speedwell (not verified) on 01 Jan 2007 #permalink

I'm little disappointed. I was expecting next-generation animations with more advanced flatulence. Maybe they'll be on a cd that comes with the new pandas book.

I'm still waiting for Demski's contribution to information theory. It doesn't even have to be revolutionary, just something that will at least partially justify his grandiose proclamations of "I'm the Newton of Information Theory, biznitch!"

Yes, he will continue to be an insult to Shannon, Wiener, Kolmogorov, Solomonoff, Chaitin, etc. But at least it will be something.

"Prediction by me: This will be at Baylor and no biology will be involved."

I would think that Baylor would be "once bitten, twice shy" after the attempt under Dembski. My money would be on Biola (which would look like a "major university" to a third-rate hack at a small seminary).

A theory of how the Designer-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named did the designing.

Didn't you hear about the Beer Volcano?

And and... a stripper factory.
These orthodox guys have forgotten how to have fun with their mythology.

By secularizer (not verified) on 01 Jan 2007 #permalink

It's definitely a dry spell for the DI.

Prior to Kitzmiller the DI was getting all sorts of notice in the mainstream press: opinion pieces and fair-and-balanced news reports.

However, post-Kitzmiller all that dried up and since the 2006 elections has become a veritable desert, devoid of news.

Thus, the DI tried to create news with the Jones article and the two-year old Sternberg "news" but to no avail. The mainstream press is not interested.

The DI and ID are old news. Move on, folks, nothing to see here. My prediction for 2007 is that the DI will jockey for position among the other crackpot websites: UFO's, crystal energy, conspiracy, etc

Step right up, folks, and see the Dog Faced Boy...

A new ID friendly research center at a major university.

Of course, from the claustrophobic confines of a Baptist seminary, Central Nebraska Community College looks like a major university!

The publication of Michael Behe's book with Free Press: THE EDGE OF EVOLUTION.

There are better odds of this than of Behe publishing a regular, peer-reivewed paper in 2007. Too bad. He was once a moderately talented biophysicist; perhaps the only IDer who showed any real talent at anything except self-promotion and prevarication.