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.	bisphenol-a bpa consensus darwinism dr-jack-cohen-podiatrist evolution excitotoxins fluoride global-warming id intelligent-design macro-evolution macroevolution majority majority-view man-made-global-warming manmade-global-warming minority minority-view monosodium-glutamate msg science scientific-discovery scientific-inquiry scientific-method scientific-process scientific-research scientific-revolution scientific-theory september-11-attacks	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".	chance coincidence fine-tuning fred-hoyle id intelligent-design science serendipity theism	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?"	big-bang darwinism double-standards id intelligent-design macro-evolution macroevolution materialism naturalism religious-science-fiction science theism theistic-science-fiction	Robert J. Sawyer
3cfa16e	"It is either coincidence piled on top of coincidence," said Hollus, "or it is deliberate design."	chance coincidenc-e fine-tuning id intelligent-design naturalism religious-science-fiction science theism theistic-science-fiction	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.	biology coccyx darwinism dna evolution human-appendix human-coccyx id intelligent-design junk-dna purpose science scientific-prediction vestigial-organs	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.	biology id intelligent-design optimisation optimization perfection science stephen-jay-gould	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.	biology chemical-evolution darwinism evolution id intelligent-design origin-of-information origin-of-life science	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.	aliens dawkins extraterrestrials id intelligent-design judgement moral-responsibility multiple-universe multiple-universes multiverse new-scientist responsibility richard-dawkins science 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.

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

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".

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

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?"

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

Robert J. Sawyer

3cfa16e

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

David Klinghoffer