This is my 4th attempt at making this post. None of the others seem to have
been accepted by the Reflector. Perhaps they were too long, as I quoted the
whole of an article. Anyway, I will now include only a link to the article,
and I apologise in advance if all 4 posts suddenly turn up at once (like
London buses).
Here's a statement by the Cranach Institute on Dembski's dismissal.
http://www.cuw.edu/Cranach/dembski_protest.htm
It seems to me that Dembski (and to some extent the Cranach Institute)
misread the report of the External Review Committee, taking it as an
unqualified endorsement of Dembski's position, when it was actually a subtly
worded compromise. (Perhaps too subtly worded!) The problem with Dembski's
press release was not just its triumphal tone and offensive remarks about
his colleagues, but that he was effectively rejecting the compromise.
Let me list the errors that I think Dembski made:
1. Dembski wrote: "...the peer review committee for its unqualified
affirmation of my own work on intelligent design." In fact, the Committee
did not affirm Dembski's work. It merely wrote that "...it considers
research on the logical structure of mathematical arguments for intelligent
design to have a legitimate claim to a place in current discussions of the
relations of religion and the sciences."
2. Dembski assumed that the Polanyi Center would continue in existence under
another name. The Committee did not say this, merely saying that
"...whatever research is carried out at Baylor on the design inference
should not bear the Polanyi name." Furthermore, the Committee's
recommendations made no mention of the "Center", but did write: "This
mission can best be fostered by the University’s Institute for Faith and
Learning where it seems to be naturally at home." Also: "Given the present
circumstances, these discussions might best be carried out under the broad
umbrella of the Institute through adequate administrative structures." These
comments suggest that the Committee envisaged Dembski being directly
attached to the IFL.
3. The Committee subtly suggested that the MPC had been concentrating too
much on ID and that Dembski should put more emphasis on other aspects of the
relationship between science and religion. "Within the broad range of issues
that bear on the relationship between the sciences and religion, those
raised by recent work on the criteria appropriate to claims of intelligent
design could well find a place." And: "In pursuing this mission, room should
be made for a variety of approaches and topics. It would clearly be too
restrictive on the part of the Institute to focus attention in this area on
a single theme only, such as the design inference." Dembski ignored this
subtle hint, and proclaimed that: "My work on intelligent design will
continue unabated." One wonders how he intended to expand the scope of the
center while still devoting as much time to his ID work, unless he planned
on working a lot more hours or hiring more staff.
4. The Committee wrote: "It is important to carry out this work in ways that
encourage dialogue with faculty in a variety of fields." The offensive tone
of Dembski's press release was hardly likely to encourage dialogue with
faculty! He also seemed to overlook the Committee's proposed faculty
advisory committee, with whom he would have to work.
The External Review Committee could perhaps be faulted for an excessive
degree of circumlocution, which contributed to Dembski's misreading of their
report. However, one would expect someone in Dembski's position to read the
report very carefully, especially after he had been given the opportunity to
retract his press release. Unfortunately, I think this is rather typical of
ID proponents' tendency to read what they want to read, rather than what is
actually written.
Richard Wein (Tich)
--------------------------------
"Do the calculation. Take the numbers seriously. See if the underlying
probabilities really are small enough to yield design."
-- W. A. Dembski, who has never presented any calculation to back up his
claim to have detected Intelligent Design in life.
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