Intelligent Design, My Part in it's Downfall
Ed Brayton has a post on Pandas Thumb linking to an article on his own blog, referring to an earlier post which itself links to a comment on this thread at Pandas Thumb. (Phew!)
So, allow me to relive my fifteen minutes of fame, with my tiny contribution to the undermining of Michael Behe's credibility on the "peer review, but much more rigorous" testimony at the Dover trial. Thanks Ed Brayton for bringing it up.
16 comments:
Thanks Chris
(blushes)
Do you mean this interview?
At the end of his post Ed says:
Let me also say this: I think the book should have been published. I agree with Dr. Shapiro that while I think much of his argumentation is less than honest and his conclusions absurd, it's very well written and is probably the best example of the argument from design that has been published since Paley's day.* It's a provocative and well written book on a hot subject. From the perspective of a book publisher, that certainly means the book should be published. The point of all of this is not to say that his book should have been rejected by the publishers. It is only to say that the claim that it underwent more rigorous peer review than a journal article is patently absurd and contrary to the facts. (*my emphasis)
Skip Evans and I both contacted Professor Shapiro who kindly participated in a thread. Unfortunately things deteriorated from hereon. I was, to say the least, disappointed with the comments that could not see the difference between appreciating good writing while deprecating the content. (Especially Registered User)
So I'm very pleased to see Ed Brayton saying this about Shapiro and DBB.
DaveScot: "Alan Fox is no longer with us. His email to Rieseberg said his finding were being used to dispute evolution."
DaveScot has banned Alan Fox for having the temerity to contact the evolutionary biologist, Loren Rieseberg, whom DaveScot cited. Apparently, Alan used the term "evolution" to refer to the Theory of Evolution. DaveScot claims he doesn't dispute "evolution", so his conflation allows him to accuse Alan of dishonesty. In fact, Alan provided a link to the discussion for Rieseberg, and Rieseberg responded directly to the point about Natural Selection and parallel evolution.
Then DaveScot wrote a very misleading and embarrassing note to Rieseberg claiming he doesn't dispute "evolution", but only the very limited role of chance. What he means, of course, is an Intelligent Designer is involved, something he neglects to mention.
Very sad. It speaks volumes about DaveScot and Uncommon Descent.
I'm also sorry to see that Alan Fox was banned -- sorry, but not surprised.
Thanks for the kind words. Actually, I'm pretty relaxed. When Dave feels so threatened he has to ban non-scientists like me (and Dave Springer, of course, who does seem to have a sensitive spot about his lack of scientific education) who only post of-the-cuff comments (usually unresearched)then I am sure ID is a concept on its way out.
Zachriel: it does take some swallowing, that Dave should accuse me of dishonesty, but that he had to engineer such an excuse just illustrates the weakness of ID as any form of supportable idea.
Carlos: I guess you have been chosen as the current tame evolutionist. You do a much better job than I ever did of gently opening their empty box of ideas.
Secondclass: Your post that you decided not to publish in the end seems quite appropriate for me, without the erudition, naturally!
Hello!
Very interesting.
I particularly noticed this:
I’m absolutely appalled by Behe’s arguments, which are simply a rehash of ideas that Darwin considered and rejected. There is not a shred of evidence to support intelligent design, and a vast body of evidence that argues against it. It is not a scientific hypothesis, it simply the philosophical wanderings of an uniformed (or disingenuous) mind.
Quite true. Behe's 'irreducible complexity' is most likely lifted from The Origin of Species, ch. 6: Difficulties on Theory, where Darwin has this little piece:
If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case.
Apparently Behe wanted to have a try at it as well.
Alan Fox: "it does take some swallowing, that Dave should accuse me of dishonesty"
Don't worry. I get accused of dishonesty every day on the blogosphere. I assure you, I may be wrong, but I do comment honestly.
I'm not currently banned on Uncommon Descent, but there is no point wasting time if my comments are going to become Desaparecidos. People with eyes can see the truth.
Carlos: I guess you have been chosen as the current tame evolutionist. You do a much better job than I ever did of gently opening their empty box of ideas.
Thank you. I think I'm less threatening to them because I'm a theist, of a rather odd sort. If I can get them to see how "theism" (taken broadly) and "naturalism" (taken broadly) are consistent, it'll take some wind out of their sails.
Of course, those who insist that theism requires narrow-minded and moralizing bigotry will not be convinced -- nor will those who insist that naturalism requires a Stoic resignation a godless and empty universe.
But I'm not interested in preaching to either extreme. I'm preaching to the middle who feel some pressure to move to one extreme or the other.
secondclass: "Regarding your recent appeal to move a discussion from UD to here, you might want to point out that Dembski never intended UD to be a fair or neutral forum. Some quotes from Dembski make this clear..."
That's true, but Mark Frank's point remains valid that the arbitrariness of the policy makes the forum virtually unusable for extended discussion. Of note, they often post triumphant declarations that 'Darwinists' have no answer to their challenges, when in fact, the 'Darwinists' have been largely silenced.
And this is the best that the Intelligent Design movement has to offer.
Testing. This blog is hard to figure out.
Carlos, did I offend you over there?
What problem did you have posting, avocationist?
If you are using a link I posted at UD in one of my comments, it may be that it takes you to a thread page rather than the homepage. Just click on my name on any of my comments at UD and you should get the homepage.
secondclass: "as Dembski himself admits ..."
Got it. As in, "Uncommon Descent's *admittedly* arbitrary moderation policy ..."
Avocationist,
Not at all! I've just been very busy with teaching this week, and I'm trying to figure out the best way of responding to your provocative line of questioning. I'll definitely respond this weekend, but probably not today.
Good! No hurry. When I wrote my post over there, I was very tired and had almost no time-but I wanted to write something. 1st paragraph garbled. If it sounded strident, that was unintended.
Alan, I guess I got it figured out but this blog has an odd setup.
Alan, I guess I got it figured out but this blog has an odd setup.
Blame Blogger, not me. I hesitate to mess with the template now, as there is a fair amount of material here which it would be a shame to lose.
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