It is with a heavy heart that I let you all know that Terry Mirll, who was one of the first to write ID-oriented fiction, has passed.
Terry succumbed to his liver disease early this morning (for those curious – his liver disease was not from too much drinking).
I honestly didn’t know Terry that well. I got to meet him a few times, and made (hopefully helpful) comments on some of the early drafts of his ID-focused science fiction book, Dial D for Darwin. Dial D for Darwin was a futuristic crime novel with many ID-oriented themes such as the nature of artificial intelligence, the nature of agency, and the nature of inferences to design.
For those who want to read more of what Terry wrote, you can see his list of books on Amazon here. He was an author at The American Thinker, and you can read those articles here. A very old blog of his is here. I’ll update this with other items as I locate them.
I’m sorry that I didn’t get to know Terry better. His passing, however, reminds me of one of his main criticisms of the ID movement – we don’t do enough to encourage our own up-and-coming talent. Terry was constantly fighting to try to get members of the ID community to read and comment on his work. The overall response was “too busy”. I understand that. That was my response on more than one occasion. However, if we are going to be serious as a movement, we also have to be serious about shepherding in the newer members, even those contributing in ways that differ from the norm.
So, here’s to Terry. May we all be better at listening, learning, correcting, and promoting each other’s work, especially among those lesser-known among us. They are the key to the future of the movement. And may we all remember that life is short, and none of us know how much time we have to make a difference.