Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Why teach ID? Because it’s fun!

William Dembski
April 27, 2006
Intelligent Design
Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
arroba Email

The evolution of intelligent design
Intelligent design gets a place in the philosophy classrooms of secular Knox College

By Liz Kemmerer
(April 27, 2006)

Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., recently completed its first run of a one-of-a-kind course taught by a one-of-a-kind professor. In December, Martin Roth, a professor of philosophy of science at the secular private college taught a short philosophy course titled “Intelligent Design” to explore the topic historically and critically. A concentrated course, it made its debut during the college winter break from Nov. 29 to Dec. 16 with students meeting for three-hour sessions three times a week for three weeks. . . .

“I want to see what topics the students were interested in, what they pick up on, which directions they want to go,” he said. The students enjoyed the material and appreciated that the arguments presented were far less tainted and silly than they were accustomed to, he added. . . .

The response generated from Roth’s class has been overwhelmingly positive among students and faculty. “Various school administrators have told me that they heard positive things about the course from students who enrolled in it,” Roth said. It appears that students who participated received a better explanation of intelligent design than they expected. “I gathered from the enthusiasm and interest with which they discussed matters that they were engaged with the topic,” said Roth.

“Dr. Roth was very good to us and treated the issue fairly,” Riecker said. “We were given the best of both sides.” Even some of Knox’s prospective students and their parents shared in the enthusiasm, having applauded the fact that Knox offers a course addressing this subject, Roth said. With the momentum resulting from the course, it looks probable that these prospective students will have the opportunity to experience it for themselves. . . .

MORE: http://www.stnews.org/news-2799.htm

Comments

"I bet you’re a Darwinist too just by the fact that you couldn’t discuss evolution without mentioning religion."

In fact I was discussing ID. Please let's keep it civilized and respectful, and not be disingenious.

Yes, I am a Darwinist. As a matter of fact, just earlier this month I wrote a computer simulation that uses random mutations and undirected natural selection to produce complex, organized structures (neural nets). Fascinating stuff:

ID is part and parcel of evolution for most of us here. That you would automatically exclude it is further evidence of your Darwinian prejudices. Let's try to keep it objective. -ds

P.S. Yes I did delete one of your comments because I didn't feel like correcting your errors of fact regarding the Cobb County evolution sticker lawsuit nor was I going to let you use this blog for a soapbox to propagate said errors of fact. I also edited out the gratuitous inclusion of your blog's URL in this comment for the same reason - this isn't a soapbox for ID antagonists. If that's your intent you can leave now. -ds

wb4
Will Darwinists one day regret saying "teaching ID is fine so long as it's taught in religion or philosophy classes and not in science classes."? If "Philosophy of ID" classes undermine the philosophy that supports Darwinian science, that's a roundabout way of getting to the right place, isn't it? russ
Good to see this course being taught. evoluck
wb4,

From the article:

“To add to the give-and-take, a member of the biology faculty and a local clergyman were invited as guest speakers…”

Dr. Dembski, could you shed any light on why a clergyman was invited as a guest speaker to argue for ID?

Arguments should be judged by their own strength, not by who makes them.

Also from the article:

“Roth designed the course to ‘look at intelligent design on three levels: as an argument for the existence of God, as an alternative to evolution in science, and in the context of the current debate over evolution and religion.’”

Huh? Why do God and religion keep coming into the picture whenever ID is discussed? What’s going on here?

So what? It's no secret that the implications of ID are very favorable for theism. Why do you think Christians like it so much?

crandaddy
Why Teach ID? It's not only fun but potentially profitable. If 70% of a secular college campus wants to study the topic, that will attract students, and students will build up departments within universities (gee, if I'm a department head of the philosophy department, what a wonderful way to ensure I have profitable retirement!). The goal of a survey which I commissioned last year was to show administrators there is money to be made with ID! Thoughts on "Intelligent design: Who has designs on your students' minds?" Further Eugenie Scott wants it discussed in the University. She said so on at least two occasions: My Correspondence with Eugenie and Anti-Evolutionist Fund Think Tank
Ironically, from the standpoint of evolution education, it is far preferable to have anti-evolutionary ideas expressed and debated at the university than in the local school board meeting.
So let the classes begin!
scordova

From the article:

"To add to the give-and-take, a member of the biology faculty and a local clergyman were invited as guest speakers..."

Dr. Dembski, could you shed any light on why a clergyman was invited as a guest speaker to argue for ID?

Also from the article:

"Roth designed the course to 'look at intelligent design on three levels: as an argument for the existence of God, as an alternative to evolution in science, and in the context of the current debate over evolution and religion.'"

Huh? Why do God and religion keep coming into the picture whenever ID is discussed? What's going on here?

It's guys like Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett who are constantly preaching how random mutation plus natural selection supports atheism. Then you have people like Eugenie Scott and Ken Miller who are constantly harping about how random mutation plus natural selection is compatible with Christian religion. And then there's the Clergy Letter Project where 10,000 Christian clergymen were conned persuaded to sign a letter saying Darwinian evolution doesn't conflict with the bible. And lets not forget that in Cobb County, the ACLU represented some parents who sued the school district saying that calling Darwinian evolution a theory, not a fact, amounted to the gov't trying to establish a religion. That's why God keeps coming into the picture whenever evolution is discussed. That's what's going on here. The Darwinists can't stop bringing religion into the the discussion. I bet you're a Darwinist too just by the fact that you couldn't discuss evolution without mentioning religion. -ds

wb4

Kudos to Dr. Roth! I think philosophy of science is a good conceptualization for intelligent design.

crandaddy
bFast, this morning, no coffee yet, walking slumber and this vocal sound wafts thru... "Intelligent Design" resonated the ear canals, accessed memory, was retrieved, and interpreted as intelligible human voice data of significant hiearchial value for intelligent review. The vocal sounds bypassed storage bytes of "interior design" and "intelligent desires" and arrived at a higher value match. All this in milli-seconds, Lol! Oh yes, smiling did occur at time of recognition. So, I did a 180 to evaluate more data input within a second or two. Avoiding external noise contribution, narrowly capturing the relevant input(name) required into short term memory for quick retrieval later today, I then tracked it down online knowing today's media savvy world would have a representative duplicate on alternative media. Realizing this is important to the survival of a enirely new line of species - "Homo Intellians", I passed information to other 'highly evolved' species like ourselves, therefore insuring our future success in spreading seed thru the world.... Arrrgggh aaarhhhh BwaaaahhhhHahahahahahahah.... It is an evil plot don't ya know.... science is crumbling now in the halls of Mordor P-domains; Panda, PZ, and Pianca-ites. ARrrrrghhh arrrhhh aarrrhhhh.... Michaels7
Michaels7, that's cool! "intelligent design that even Darwin could appreciate". I've been feeling inundated with "the next step in evolution" marketing. This is refreshing, I hope it catches on. bFast
Not only is ID Fun - But its Market Savvy tooooooo... http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/about/tvCommercial.php?ib_entity=llc Some marketing guru has picked up on the key of future success :) Click link above, then click "Darwin" button, its funny, "Intelligent Design - something even Darwin can appreciate". Now THIS is Good Marketing, trendsetters are merely intelligent discerners of future directions. Michaels7
are you kidding me? Sure, some good stuff has been discovered, but we've barely scratched the surface of what there is to know in biology. Evo-Devo is very new, and the discovery of DNA itself is relatively new. There's still sooo much to learn and I predict it will be good :) Fross
I must say that biology's view that all of the "good stuff" has been discovered, all of the mystery is solved, and the only thing left for researchers to do is wrap up a few loose ends like first life is BORING!! bFast

Leave a Reply