From: Glenn Morton (glennmorton@entouch.net)
Date: Fri Aug 01 2003 - 15:18:59 EDT
Brian wrote:
>It just occurred to me that Dave would
>probably take this as being directed towards
>him, which is only natural since I was
>following up on his message. To avoid
>possible confusion on that let me say that
>the comment was directed at Glenn rather
>than Dave. C'mon Glenn, tone it down :-).
I can handle the criticism. :-)
I wasn't flaming Richard, who seems to be a fine fellow. I wasn't even
flaming the ID people, as most of them I count as friends. I really like
Paul Nelson and Michael Behe. But it is fair game to flame what they are
doing, which as you are aware, is wrong.
And at least I finally got you to respond to an email message from me. :-)
Now more to your point I will not grant that design can be detected via
information content. It can only be detected given a priori metaphysical
assumptions.
1. you have to assume that low probability (or high information content) is
only due to design. This can be disproven by a simple deck of cards. Each
shuffle produces something that is 10^-67 or so probable. That doesn't mean
that the order was designed.
So, to fill this gap, Dembski suggests specifying the target must occur
prior to the event. Using his own analogy he says that the finding of an
arrow in the middle of a target is only remarkable if the target was there
prior to the event of the arrows firing. If this isn't done, one could fire
an arrow at a fence and then paint a target around the arrow AFTER the fact.
Great. Now we have a procedure. But how is he to do this? Life formed on
earth 3.8 billion years ago and just now Dembski paints a circle around
where the arrow landed and proclaims design!!!! Dembski doesn't follow his
own recipe. What is his evidence that the specification was there before
life formed?
Its bananas.
And Brian, you and I have known each other for about 10 years. When did you
not know me to be inflammatory? It makes for energetic debates.
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