id

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
3679ddb	"I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.	evolution bisphenol-a bpa dr-jack-cohen-podiatrist excitotoxins fluoride man-made-global-warming manmade-global-warming minority-view monosodium-glutamate msg scientific-discovery scientific-inquiry scientific-process science scientific-research scientific-revolution majority scientific-theory minority consensus scientific-method global-warming majority-view september-11-attacks id macro-evolution macroevolution intelligent-design darwinism	Michael Crichton
427b969	"Scientists are slowly waking up to an inconvenient truth - the universe looks suspiciously like a fix. The issue concerns the very laws of nature themselves. For 40 years, physicists and cosmologists have been quietly collecting examples of all too convenient "coincidences" and special features in the underlying laws of the universe that seem to be necessary in order for life, and hence conscious beings, to exist. Change any one of them and the consequences would be lethal. , the distinguished cosmologist, once said it was as if "a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics".	science fred-hoyle serendipity coincidence fine-tuning id intelligent-design theism chance	Paul Davies
cac6115	"There is no indisputable proof for the big bang," said Hollus. "And there is none for evolution. And yet you accept those. Why hold the question of whether there is a creator to a higher standard?"	science big-bang double-standards materialism id macro-evolution macroevolution intelligent-design religious-science-fiction darwinism theism theistic-science-fiction naturalism	Robert J. Sawyer
3cfa16e	"It is either coincidence piled on top of coincidence," said Hollus, "or it is deliberate design."	science coincidenc-e fine-tuning id intelligent-design religious-science-fiction theism theistic-science-fiction chance naturalism	Robert J. Sawyer
88c6339	"Even if we have a reliable criterion for detecting design, and even if that criterion tells us that biological systems are designed, it seems that determining a biological system to be designed is akin to shrugging our shoulders and saying God did it. The fear is that admitting design as an explanation will stifle scientific inquiry, that scientists will stop investigating difficult problems because they have a sufficient explanation already. But design is not a science stopper. Indeed, design can foster inquiry where traditional evolutionary approaches obstruct it. Consider the term "junk DNA." Implicit in this term is the view that because the genome of an organism has been cobbled together through a long, undirected evolutionary process, the genome is a patchwork of which only limited portions are essential to the organism. Thus on an evolutionary view we expect a lot of useless DNA. If, on the other hand, organisms are designed, we expect DNA, as much as possible, to exhibit function. And indeed, the most recent findings suggest that designating DNA as "junk" merely cloaks our current lack of knowledge about function. For instance, in a recent issue of the , John Bodnar describes how "non-coding DNA in eukaryotic genomes encodes a language which programs organismal growth and development." Design encourages scientists to look for function where evolution discourages it.	evolution science coccyx human-appendix human-coccyx junk-dna scientific-prediction vestigial-organs dna biology purpose id intelligent-design darwinism	William A. Dembski
1d79afa	Constrained optimization is the art of compromise between conflicting objectives. This is what design is all about. To find fault with biological design - as Stephen Jay Gould regularly does - because it misses some idealized optimum is therefore gratuitous. Not knowing the objectives of the designer, Gould is in no position to say whether the designer has proposed a faulty compromise among those objectives.	perfection science optimisation stephen-jay-gould biology optimization id intelligent-design	William A. Dembski
3bd0efd	Many investigators feel uneasy stating in public that the origin of life is a mystery, even though behind closed doors they admit they are baffled.	evolution science chemical-evolution origin-of-information origin-of-life biology id intelligent-design darwinism	Paul Davies
215fef6	"The problem with ID, of course, is that it leaves open the possibility that the intelligence behind nature may have a moral interest in us, having communicated already with humanity in the past, and might try to boss you around in your private affairs.	responsibility science aliens extraterrestrials moral-responsibility multiple-universe multiple-universes new-scientist dawkins multiverse richard-dawkins judgement id intelligent-design theism	David Klinghoffer

3679ddb

"I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.

evolution bisphenol-a bpa dr-jack-cohen-podiatrist excitotoxins fluoride man-made-global-warming manmade-global-warming minority-view monosodium-glutamate msg scientific-discovery scientific-inquiry scientific-process science scientific-research scientific-revolution majority scientific-theory minority consensus scientific-method global-warming majority-view september-11-attacks id macro-evolution macroevolution intelligent-design darwinism

Michael Crichton

427b969

"Scientists are slowly waking up to an inconvenient truth - the universe looks suspiciously like a fix. The issue concerns the very laws of nature themselves. For 40 years, physicists and cosmologists have been quietly collecting examples of all too convenient "coincidences" and special features in the underlying laws of the universe that seem to be necessary in order for life, and hence conscious beings, to exist. Change any one of them and the consequences would be lethal. , the distinguished cosmologist, once said it was as if "a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics".

science fred-hoyle serendipity coincidence fine-tuning id intelligent-design theism chance

Paul Davies

cac6115

"There is no indisputable proof for the big bang," said Hollus. "And there is none for evolution. And yet you accept those. Why hold the question of whether there is a creator to a higher standard?"

science big-bang double-standards materialism id macro-evolution macroevolution intelligent-design religious-science-fiction darwinism theism theistic-science-fiction naturalism

Robert J. Sawyer

3cfa16e

"It is either coincidence piled on top of coincidence," said Hollus, "or it is deliberate design."

science coincidenc-e fine-tuning id intelligent-design religious-science-fiction theism theistic-science-fiction chance naturalism

Robert J. Sawyer

88c6339

"Even if we have a reliable criterion for detecting design, and even if that criterion tells us that biological systems are designed, it seems that determining a biological system to be designed is akin to shrugging our shoulders and saying God did it. The fear is that admitting design as an explanation will stifle scientific inquiry, that scientists will stop investigating difficult problems because they have a sufficient explanation already. But design is not a science stopper. Indeed, design can foster inquiry where traditional evolutionary approaches obstruct it. Consider the term "junk DNA." Implicit in this term is the view that because the genome of an organism has been cobbled together through a long, undirected evolutionary process, the genome is a patchwork of which only limited portions are essential to the organism. Thus on an evolutionary view we expect a lot of useless DNA. If, on the other hand, organisms are designed, we expect DNA, as much as possible, to exhibit function. And indeed, the most recent findings suggest that designating DNA as "junk" merely cloaks our current lack of knowledge about function. For instance, in a recent issue of the , John Bodnar describes how "non-coding DNA in eukaryotic genomes encodes a language which programs organismal growth and development." Design encourages scientists to look for function where evolution discourages it.

evolution science coccyx human-appendix human-coccyx junk-dna scientific-prediction vestigial-organs dna biology purpose id intelligent-design darwinism

William A. Dembski

1d79afa

Constrained optimization is the art of compromise between conflicting objectives. This is what design is all about. To find fault with biological design - as Stephen Jay Gould regularly does - because it misses some idealized optimum is therefore gratuitous. Not knowing the objectives of the designer, Gould is in no position to say whether the designer has proposed a faulty compromise among those objectives.

perfection science optimisation stephen-jay-gould biology optimization id intelligent-design

William A. Dembski

3bd0efd

Many investigators feel uneasy stating in public that the origin of life is a mystery, even though behind closed doors they admit they are baffled.

evolution science chemical-evolution origin-of-information origin-of-life biology id intelligent-design darwinism

Paul Davies

215fef6

"The problem with ID, of course, is that it leaves open the possibility that the intelligence behind nature may have a moral interest in us, having communicated already with humanity in the past, and might try to boss you around in your private affairs.

responsibility science aliens extraterrestrials moral-responsibility multiple-universe multiple-universes new-scientist dawkins multiverse richard-dawkins judgement id intelligent-design theism

David Klinghoffer