Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

From the files: Why intelligent design is going to win, revisited

Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

Douglas Kern at Tech Central Station warned, in 2005 that intelligent design is going to win.

And why was that?

He starts with the claim that ID types are more likely to be fertile than others.

I will not hash that out here except to say this: If it means YOU, you might want to include a budget item for receiving blankets, gripe water, and soothers – and if you do not know what those terms mean, ask your nearest and dearest … 

Update note: Your nearest and dearest may even have some amazing news for you that will change your, um, “expectations.”  Like remember that night when you and she got along so well?  Okay, well, life goes on. No, really, it does, and this is how it does. )

He then argues that “the pro-Darwin crowd is acting like a bunch of losers”:

“Ewww…intelligent design people! They’re just buck-toothed Bible-pushing nincompoops with community-college degrees who’re trying to sell a gussied-up creationism to a cretinous public! No need to address their concerns or respond to their arguments. They are Not Science. They are poopy-heads.”

There. I just saved you the trouble of reading 90% of the responses to the ID position.

Well, that certainly hasn’t changed! In fact, it was never any different. The Darwinists are always willing to believe any nonsense that underwrites materialism. And they always find supporters too.

He follows up with Darwinism’s critical problem:

ID has already made its peace with natural selection and the irrefutable aspects of Darwinism. By contrast, Darwinism cannot accept even the slightest possibility that it has failed to explain any significant dimension of evolution. It must dogmatically insist that it will resolve all of its ambiguities and shortcomings – even the ones that have lingered since the beginning of Darwinism.

Interesting. Strict intelligent design theory has never had – so far as I can determine – a problem in principle with natural selection (NS) as a conservative force that routinely eliminates non-functional life forms. Anyone can see that NS must function that way; otherwise, the planet would be overloaded with kludges.

The PROBLEM has always been with the idea that natural selection functions as a mechanism for creating information, as opposed to editing information. ID theorists have not been able to find any evidence that natural selection creates information at anything like the levels that Darwinists claim, and there is much evidence against it.

Which is, like, curtains, for Darwin’s theory.

Kerns also thinks that ID will win because it will attract the best minds, who are attracted to information theory. Could that be why the Darwoids are stepping up the persecution of smart guys who know that Darwinism is the Enron of biology?

Lastly, Kerns thinks that the human mind tends to find design whether it exists or not. This is a somewhat cynical view, as it begs the question of WHY the human mind finds design. For example, if I think that four and four make eight, did my selfish gene robot prompt that idea in the pile of mush in my head in order to help spread my selfish genes? Or … is Darwinism simply failing as an explanation of the history of life?

Comments
I know what receiving blankets are, and I'm assuming that soothers are pacifiers, but what is gripe water?Jasini
November 30, 2007
November
11
Nov
30
30
2007
04:13 PM
4
04
13
PM
PDT
"Darwinism is the Enron of biology" The best line! I promise to use it in the future.Lurker
November 30, 2007
November
11
Nov
30
30
2007
03:13 PM
3
03
13
PM
PDT
I think the point of the article Denyse posted is that ID's "power" rests in the fact that it needs to deny no data, is powerful philosophically, and promotes effective investigation and is a persuasive way of looking at the world. That's the interesting thing. ID doesn't need to prove itself to have a great, positive effect in science. The ID view just needs to itself promote discoveries, serious research, and results. It has managed this in the past (Newton's the favored examples, but there are others), and there's every reason to expect it to do so again, now that it's gained so much popular traction.nullasalus
November 30, 2007
November
11
Nov
30
30
2007
03:06 PM
3
03
06
PM
PDT
sorry liberals are having LESS kids. D'oooh!!!digdug24
November 30, 2007
November
11
Nov
30
30
2007
03:03 PM
3
03
03
PM
PDT
Well, liberals are also having more kids (not that there isn't a pretty close correlation between liberals and darwinists). So we may just be able to hold on until the last vestiges of darwinists get AIDS or die childless, then the entire landscape of the debate will change. Most darwinists I know are heavy drinkers and/or smokers or drug users. The implications of that theory are staggering, from the individual to the society level.digdug24
November 30, 2007
November
11
Nov
30
30
2007
03:02 PM
3
03
02
PM
PDT
Nochange has it right. Christians may be having more kids, but those kids aren't all growing up to be Christians. There are five times as many non-believers amongst young Americans than there were 40 years ago (4% to 16%-20%). We shall see, but I will be more convinced of an ID victory once I see a healthy, rigorous scientific research program that is producing peer reviewed results. The rest seems to me to be hopeful, but hollow, wishful thinking.tyke
November 30, 2007
November
11
Nov
30
30
2007
02:51 PM
2
02
51
PM
PDT
I'd like to say we'll win because we're right, not because we're more fertile. Denyse, your version sounds positively Darwinist. That said, I have other problems with their theory. I'm one of four kids from a Christian household. Three of them are nominally Christian, but operate as materialists. I'm the only one of them that has stayed true to the Word. I think his theory needs to be reworked, and we can't just count on winning because we've got more kids. They can recruit our kids, too.Nochange
November 30, 2007
November
11
Nov
30
30
2007
02:44 PM
2
02
44
PM
PDT
The other reason ID will prevail is because the Truth always wins in the end. You cannot prove a falsehood - that's why Darwinism can't be proven. That's also why Darwinian thinking leads to mental illness (Hoyle, F.,"Mathematics of Evolution," [1987], Acorn Enterprises: Memphis TN, 1999).Borne
November 30, 2007
November
11
Nov
30
30
2007
02:03 PM
2
02
03
PM
PDT
Which is, like, curtains, for Darwin’s theory.
Totally! Fer sure! I didn't, like, know that you spoke Valley, Denyse. That is, like, so rad! Sorry. Long week.poachy
November 30, 2007
November
11
Nov
30
30
2007
01:56 PM
1
01
56
PM
PDT
1 2

Leave a Reply