William Dembski

Casey Luskin’s thoughts on tomorrow’s Darwin Day celebrations here: www.usnews.com/…/darwin-intelligent-design-…

This from the conclusion of Darwin’s THE VARIATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS UNDER DOMESTICATION: The shape of the fragments of stone at the base of our precipice may be called accidental, but this is not strictly correct; for the shape of each depends on a long sequence of events, all obeying natural laws; on the nature of the rock, on the lines of deposition or cleavage, on the form of the mountain, which depends on its upheaval and subsequent denudation, and lastly on the storm or earthquake which throws down the fragments. But in regard to the use to which the fragments may be put, their shape may be strictly said to be accidental. And here we are led to Read More ›

Check out this link: www.charlesdarwin.org.

A few days back I reported here that Ben Stein had been uninvited to give the UVM (University of Vermont) commencement address, at which he was also to be given an honorary doctorate. I’m afraid I may have come across as a bit miffed by this seeming unfairness. Well, I’m happy to report that all’s right again with the world in Vermont: Howard Dean tapped for UVM commencement http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=9800475&nav=menu183_2 Burlington, Vermont – February 6, 2009 A familiar face will give this year’s commencement speech at the University of Vermont. Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean has been chosen. He served six terms as the state’s highest elected official. He then went on to run for president and just stepped down as Read More ›

brainz.org/15-coolest-cases-biomimicry

Judge Jones, whose distinction prior to the Dover case was running the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, now has multiple honorary doctorates for rendering his decision, which he cribbed from the ACLU’s Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. Ben Stein, who is an acclaimed actor, author, and economist, on the other hand, has just been denied an honorary doctorate at the University of Vermont: “This is not, to my mind, an issue about academic freedom or the openness of the campus to all points of view. Ben Stein spoke here last spring to great acclaim,” UVM President Dan Fogel said. “It’s an issue about the appropriateness of awarding an honorary degree to someone whose views in many ways ignore Read More ›

When critics of ID try to define it out of existence by calling it religion or pseudoscience, it’s worth remembering that to this day scientists and philosophers have yet to settle on what is science and what isn’t. Critics who try to use such “demarcation” arguments against ID invariably end up excluding not only ID but also other things that they would like to count as science. Steve Meyer has written cogently on this very point. These articles by him have been out for a while, but they are well worth reviewing periodically: www.discovery.org/a/2834 www.discovery.org/a/3524 www.discovery.org/a/1696

… it’s because we didn’t take advantage of the incredible resources available to us:

The publications page at EvoInfo.org has just been updated. Two forthcoming peer-reviewed articles that Robert Marks and I did are now up online (both should be published later this year).* ——————————————————- “Conservation of Information in Search: Measuring the Cost of Success” William A. Dembski and Robert J. Marks II Abstract: Conservation of information theorems indicate that any search algorithm performs on average as well as random search without replacement unless it takes advantage of problem-specific information about the search target or the search-space structure. Combinatorics shows that even a moderately sized search requires problem-specific information to be successful. Three measures to characterize the information required for successful search are (1) endogenous information, which measures the difficulty of finding a target Read More ›

I’m finishing a book on theodicy (titled THE END OF CHRISTIANITY) and, in trying to track down for it whether certain celebrities are atheists, found this site: www.celebatheists.com

This just in from RichardDawkins.net: Today, thanks to many Cif readers, the overall total raised for the Atheist Bus Campaign stands at a truly overwhelming £135,000, breaking our original target of £5,500 by over 2400%. Given this unexpected amount, I’m very excited to tell you that 800 buses – instead of the 30 we were initially aiming for – are now rolling out across the UK with the slogan, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”, in locations all over England, Scotland and Wales, including Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, York, Cardiff, Devon, Leeds, Bristol and Aberdeen. Three questions: (1) What exactly is the probability that there is no God? (2) In times past the state was concerned Read More ›

Wikipedia has a big fundraising push right now. Here’s what I sent to donate@wikimedia.org: To whom it may concern, Wikipedia is a useful resource for uncontroversial areas, but in areas of controversy I find it quite biased. My own extensive biography at Wikipedia is terribly slanted. Colleagues who try to correct misrepresentations find their edits scrupulously removed. Until and unless Wikipedia is more careful about fact-checking and provides some means for correcting the bias of editors, I cannot in good conscience donate to Wikipedia. At the very least, I would suggest that acknowledged experts in an area (such as the living subjects of biographies) be given a 1,000-word response section to relevant articles — sections completely at their discretion and Read More ›

In an off-hand comment in a thread on this blog I remarked that I was dispensing with the Explanatory Filter in favor of just going with straight-up specified complexity. On further reflection, I think the Explanatory Filter ranks among the most brilliant inventions of all time (right up there with sliced bread). I’m herewith reinstating it — it will appear, without reservation or hesitation, in all my future work on design detection. P.S. Congrats to Denyse O’Leary, whose Post-Darwinist blog tied for third in the science and technology category from the Canadian Blog Awards.

As of tomorrow (Friday, November 14th), Barry Arrington assumes the leadership of UD. After more than three years at the helm, I’m finally stepping down. I expect I’ll still be posting here occasionally, but my energies will go more and more into technical ID research. Robert Marks and I continue to crank away at papers and have finally cracked the peer-review barrier in the information sciences with a paper on conservation of information (stay tuned at www.EvoInfo.org for a formal announcement). Barry has organized UD as a non-profit corporation and plans to take UD in some new directions that will increase its readership, sense of community, and impact. Take it away Barry!