Re: [asa] Baylor, Marks, and Uncommon Descent

Dembski is quoted on ID

<quote>
You have to understand, in the current academic climate, Intelligent
Design is like leprosy or heresy in times past," [Dembski] said. "To
be tagged as an ID supporter is to become an academic pariah, and this
holds even at so-called Christian institutions that place a premium on
respectability at the expense of truth and the offense of the Gospel."
</quote>

At the expense of truth and the offense of the Gospel... Now that
seems ironic...

Two events took place at Baylor, one in late 2006 when Baylor returned
a grant which was going to pay for Dembski to work with Marks, the
second event in the middle of 2007 when Baylor removed the webpages of
Marks' Evolutionionary Information Lab because of concerns that the
title may suggest a Baylor approved research program.

Ironically, it may be Dembski's bragging and Luskin's interview which
may have alerted Baylor to Marks' pages.

http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/casey-luskin-interviews-robert-marks-director-of-baylors-evolutionary-informatics-lab/

<quote Dembski>ere's a fun interview with my friend and colleague
Robert Marks. I hope you catch from the interview the ambitiousness of
the lab and how it promises to put people like Christoph Adami and Rob
Pennock out of business (compare www.evolutionaryinformatics.org with
devolab.cse.msu.edu).</quote>

Of course a quick comparison shows no competition between the real
labs and the two man website of Marks and Dembski.

If Dembski wants to 'compete' in this area then he has a lot of work
ahead of him. Andreas Wagner, Stadler, Pennock, Adami, Schneider,
Gavrilets, Toussaint and many more who have shown how evolutionary
landscapes are ultimately 'friendly' to evolutionary processes of
variation and selection.

The real issue seems to be straightforward

<quote>On Aug. 30, Beckenhauer told Gilmore via e-mail that "there is
now a long trail of information that inappropriately links independent
research to the Baylor name," and he said the website issue centered
on "misleading representations of your client and his collaborator
(Dr. Dembski)."</quote>

What surprises me however is how little press releases followed the
event in which Baylor returned a grant while much is made of Marks'
'lab' when it seems to me that there exists a much stronger case
against the former than the latter. After all, Baylor has all the
right to control the use of its name.

Oh well, when science is lacking, what else is there but to influence
public perception, even if it eventually runs afoul of St Augustine?

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Received on Thu Sep 6 12:16:27 2007