Product Description
What is ID? Why is it controversial?
Intelligent Design is surrounded by a storm of debate. Proponents and opponents have both sought to have their voices heard above the din.
Is it unscientific? Is it a danger to real Christian faith? Is it trying to smuggle God into the classroom?
Controversy can create confusion rather than clarity. So here to clear things up is Bill Dembski, one of the founders of Intelligent Design, who joins with Jonathan … More >>
Intelligent Design Uncensored: An Easy- To-understand Guide to the Controversy
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When a reviewer unloads such propagandist lingo, as you see above, first ask yourself–what substantive content from this book has he/she actually interacted with? Methinks it is the injured dog which barks loudest.
The reviewer has an obvious chip on his shoulder, and it is not at all evident that he even read the book. If not, then shame on him. If so, then the review would do well to reflect meaningful interaction with the content here. Oddly enough, he himself illustrates how important it is to treat intelligent design from many different angles, including the sociological and interpersonal angle, as Dembski does here.
As for the subject matter of the book, sociologist and historians and philosophers of science can all weigh-in on this multi-faceted subject, all while scientists continue to debate the finer points of intelligent design. I’m glad for books like this which can help reveal some of the seamy underworld involved in the sciences. I’m not trying to overplay it, but it is quite interesting to hear how unscientific scientists can be, and how anti-inquisitive academics can be. This book does well to introduce how purported scientific theories are handled and how they affect people. Science is rarely cold, objective reasoning, with the full weight of facts and certainty on its side. It is instead messy, ugly, accidental, and personal, and can even be bigoted–and that’s the good science.
Dembski’s books always touch a nerve, and opponents never tire of trying to discredit him, dismiss his work, and deride the mention of his name. Those who are not hopelessly dogmatized into their respective religion or irreligion, can learn a lot from this book. Don’t let the trolls dissuade you from investigating into the claims of intelligent design. True or false, it is an important subject with far-reaching implications and deserves to be understood for its cultural and scientific implications.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book is an easily understood guide to the intelligent design/evolution controversy. It provides clear definitions of philosophical materialism and methodological materialism. Discussions of science cross the line into philosophy without people being aware of the issues. It details a series of logical fallacies that are used against intelligent design which even critics need to consider. The book provides an introduction to the arguments for intelligent design. Michael Behe’s case for irreducible complexity is discussed as well as some of the rejoinders to that argument. William Dembski’s arguments on specified complexity are outlined with helpful discussions about how to distinguish between the appearance of design and actual design. The book provides helpful sources for finding out more information on ID. The cultural implications of this debate are also exposed. The book is an appeal for academic freedom so that both sides of this debate can be researched and discussed in academia. The book concludes with suggestions for action on the part of supporters of intelligent design. The footnotes are not hyperlinked in the Kindle edition.
Rating: 5 / 5
Great book! Highly recommend it to any searching for any easy to understand guide for the truth… ID.
Rating: 5 / 5
Back in 2004, Paul Nelson, one of the founders of the Intelligent Design movement, noted that there is no scientific theory of ID: “We don’t have such a theory right now, and that’s a problem. Without a theory, it’s very hard to know where to direct your research focus. Right now, we’ve got a bag of powerful intuitions, and a handful of notions such as ‘irreducible complexity’ and ‘specified complexity’ — but, as yet, no general theory of biological design.”
There is no scientific theory of intelligent design. Intelligent design explains no observations. Intelligent design proponents make no testable predictions that could serve to falsify their claims. Intelligent design is scientifically vacuous. This book doesn’t change those facts.
Dembski has claimed for years to be able to demonstrate “design” in nature, but has never, not even once, actually done so. None of his calculations or mechanisms (Complex Specified Information, the Explanatory Filter, etc.) have ever been applied to a real biological system by himself or anyone else. This book doesn’t change that fact, either.
In short, this book is a worthless anti-science rant by a member of the Dominionist-backed Discovery Institute who want nothing less than the destruction of science education in this country and the establishment of a theocracy. That last is not a rhetorical embellishment; Howard Ahmanson Jr., one of the major backers of the DI, has said explicitly “My goal is the total integration of biblical law into our lives.”
Don’t buy this book and don’t buy into the idea that there is any science behind Intelligent Design Creationism. The only real controversy is between Dembski’s fundamentalist beliefs and reality.
Rating: 1 / 5