Dembski and Caesar cyphers

From: Glenn Morton (glenn.morton@btinternet.com)
Date: Sat Nov 16 2002 - 13:34:51 EST

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    I am finally reading Dembski's Intelligent Design. A certain claim caught my
    attention.

            ìNow a little reflection makes clear that a pattern need not
    be given prior
    to an event to eliminate chance and implicate design. Consider the following
    cipher text:

          nfuijolt ju jt mjlf b xfbtfm
    Initially this looks like a random sequence of letters and spacesóinitially
    you lack any pattern for rejecting chance and inferring design.
            ìBut suppose next that someone comes along and tells you to treat this
    sequence as a Caesar cipher, in which each letter has shifted one notch down
    the alphabet. The deciphered sequence then reads,

          methinks it is like a weasel

    Even though the pattern (in this case, the decrypted text) is given after
    the fact, it still is the right sort of pattern for eliminating chance and
    inferring design. In contrast to statistics, which always identifies its
    patterns before an experiment is performed, cryptanalysis must discover its
    patterns after the fact. In both instances, however, the patterns are
    suitable for inferring design.î William Dembski, Intelligent Design,
    (Downers Grove, Illinois, 1999), p. 132

    I decided to test this concept. I had a random number generator create
    random letter sequences and then I looked for Caesar cyphers to turn them
    into something meaningful. Using this criterion, my computer is an
    intelligent creature who is trying to communicate with me by DESIGN.

    xeckqbfumq
    wasitabrat (was it a brat)

    gpizuwbgtu
    ontheslope (on the slope)

    wxbukwoors
    amadhatter (a mad hatter)

    ijfqbjwdih
    isthisapig (is this a pig)

    jyybxozrbd
    beeverfive (be ever five--something said of a dead five year old)

    yzusizpzqb
    isthisasin (is this a sin)

    It is not that hard to determine a caesar cypher to turn a randomly
    generated sequence into a meaningful, short message. I won't claim that all
    long sequences can be so treated but it is interesting that random sequences
    can be given meaning where none was intended. Thus, the question is how do
    we determine design in the face of this phenomenon?

    glenn

    see http://www.glenn.morton.btinternet.co.uk/dmd.htm
    for lots of creation/evolution information
    anthropology/geology/paleontology/theology\
    personal stories of struggle

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