Intelligent design - Better Right Than Happy

Am I a Darwin Devotee? Taking the Dembski Quiz

*William A. Dembski (Source:* *The Discovery Institute*)

This blog has been lying fallow for a while, I realize. I do have some new content upcoming. But in the meantime, my attention has been drawn to a quiz called the “Darwin Devotion Detector”. This was posted by Intelligent Design Creationist William Dembski on the Discovery Institute’s website, “Evolution News” (which almost never has any actual news about evolution). Dembski writes that he created this questionnaire a few years ago for an “educational website”, which later removed it “to appease the search engines.” (ID Creationists rarely miss an opportunity to claim victimhood status.)

What Causes Mass Shootings? The Discovery Institute Thinks It Knows

To find the answer, read my latest article at Panda’s Thumb. (Spoiler alert: It’s Darwin.)

Bill Dembski has thoughts about COVID-19

I have a new article up at The Panda’s Thumb, about intelligent design founder William Dembski and what his opinions regarding COVID-19 reveal about the ID movement. An excerpt:

His rather detached attitude to the question of the virus’s origin is curious given his self-proclaimed status as one of the world’s leading experts in detecting “design” in nature. It would seem if he really believed his own promotional material, he would be volunteering his services and expertise to help answer a question that has been at the forefront of the single gravest issue facing humanity at this moment: Where did SARS-CoV-2 come from? Surely Bill Dembski can delay his quest to become a cryptocurrency billionaire for just a few days while he helps save the human race, no? Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark do it all the time.

Michael Behe: 15 Years After Dover

This month marks fifteen years since the conclusion of the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial which ruled that Intelligent Design (ID) is a form of creationism and, therefore, could not be taught as a scientific theory in American public schools. Recently, several of the people involved in the trial have given interviews about it, among them biochemist Michael Behe, the most prominent proponent of ID to testify at the trial.

Kitzmiller v. Dover 15 Years Later

This month marks the fifteenth anniversary of the conclusion of the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial, a significant event in the history of the conflict between creationism and science. In 2004, Young Earth Creationist members of Pennsylvania’s Dover Area School District were engaged in efforts to alter the school curriculum to suggest that there were serious weaknesses to the theory of evolution and that creationism was a legitimate alternative. Their efforts eventually culminated in the board passing a resolution that required biology teachers to read a statement to their class that said, in part:

Is Science Limited by Methodological Naturalism?

Watch this video from a few months ago in which creationist philosopher Stephen Meyer argues that the practice of science should not entail methodological naturalism:

A Neurosurgeon Argues That Mind Functions Are Immaterial. Badly. (Pt. 3)

This is my final post discussing creationist neurosurgeon Michael Egnor’s attempts to demonstrate that certain mental functions cannot be accounted for solely by the brain and, instead, indicate the involvement of some unspecified “immaterial” processes or entities. The first two posts in the series can be found here and here.

As before, I am including the video in which he makes his arguments, but it should not be necessary to watch the entire video in order to understand this post.