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“Ayala’s Potemkin Village” — review of Francisco Ayala’s DARWIN’S GIFT

William Dembski
September 26, 2007
Darwinism, Intelligent Design
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Francisco Ayala’s latest book, DARWIN’S GIFT TO SCIENCE AND RELIGION, defends Darwinism against ID. For my review of that book for Science & Theology, go here.

Comments
I also found the review well-written and well-reasoned. As I read it, I was reminded of Ian Hacking's recent essay in The Nation. To put his view in a nutshell, Hacking argues that the mark of a "live research program" is that it raises a lot of interesting problems and questions -- that a lot remains to be done. I'm attracted by this view but not entirely sold. A theory with a lot of anomalies could generate the illusion of thriving, in Hacking's sense, when it is fact on its death-bed. I wonder if, as a practicing scientists, Ayala holds (along with Hacking) that the prevalence of unanswered but answerable questions is a sign of health, but he doesn't trust in "the average reader" to grasp this point. For those interested, Hacking's essay is here. (Caveat lector: Hacking is a Darwinist.)Carl Sachs
September 26, 2007
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Recommended related reading: "Darwins God" by Cornelius HunterJack Golightly
September 26, 2007
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Dr. Dembski, Thank you for the great review and it is also good to have you in your own words since we see all too much distortions about what you actually have said and believe by others who seem to put their words into your mouth. It will be interesting to see what Dinesh D'Souza's new book says about Darwin since in a synopsis of it he says that Darwin's theory supports God and design. Here is his quote from his website "Darwin's theory of evolution, far from undermining the evidence for supernatural design, actually strengthens it." Though I believe this is a very small part of the book from what has been said about it by reviewers.jerry
September 26, 2007
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Re: "For Ayala, Darwin resolves the problem of evil.... God, who is also an intelligent designer renders the problem of evil insoluble, since such a designer God would be responsible for all botched and malevolent designs in nature." Not sure why the problem of evil and theodicy is so mindboggling to people like Ayala. Is this why he quit to be a Catholic priest? Really, what would nature with only "perfect" designs be like? And, can we even talk about such "perfect" nature or is it logical to talk about "malevolent design"? Isn't any design a "good" or at least a "good enough" design even if it may seem botched to our imperfect mind and reasoning?rockyr
September 26, 2007
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Clear, cogent, and easy to read. Nicely done.dacook
September 26, 2007
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