Re: [asa] Timaeus--ID isn't "god of the gaps"

Here are Dembski's own words on this:

When the Explanatory Filter fails to detect design in a thing, can we be
sure no intelligent cause underlies it? The answer to this question is No.
For determining that something is not designed, the Explanatory Filter is
not a reliable criterion. False negatives are a problem for the Explanatory
Filter. This problem of false negatives, however, is endemic to detecting
intelligent causes. One difficulty is that intelligent causes can mimic law
and chance, thereby rendering their actions indistinguishable from these
unintelligent causes. It takes an intelligent cause to know an intelligent
cause, but if we don't know enough, we'll miss it. (
http://www.arn.org/docs/dembski/wd_explfilter.htm)

So, as Dembski puts it, designed things will sometimes "slip past the net,"
but "[e]ven though the Explanatory Filter is not a reliable criterion for *
eliminating* design, it is, I argue, a reliable criterion for
*detecting*design."

Dembski's design filter, then, is based on gaps -- it is a "net" that
catches things not explained by what he calls "law" or "chance."

 On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 10:28 AM, Randy Isaac <randyisaac@comcast.net>wrote:

> Mike,
> I must be missing something since I don't comprehend. This link doesn't
> provide all of the relevant text so I clearly need the additional
> information. But this snippet is still significant: "But the most
> significant aspect of this analysis is that it demonstrates that our design
> inference for the genetic code is not rooted in a " god-of-the-gaps"
> argument. Such an argument would have a defining pattern of
> gray-white-gray-gray, where the only indicator of design would be an
> argument for discontinuity."
>
> If I understand you correctly, you are saying that the "god of the gaps"
> critique doesn't apply because "discontinuity" is not the "only" indicator.
> But I'm asking a different question. What happens to the argument if there
> is NO discontinuity? I don't know what your scale is but what happens if
> there is no discontinuity and the explanatory filter criteria are not met?
>
> Randy
>
> Mike wrote:
> *Subject:* Re: [asa] Timaeus--ID isn't "god of the gaps"
>
> Hi Randy,
>
> I cannot speak for Timaeus, but I can speak for myself:
>
> http://www.thedesignmatrix.com/content/god-of-the-gaps-in-the-matrix/
>
> -Mike
>
>
>
>

-- 
David W. Opderbeck
Associate Professor of Law
Seton Hall University Law School
Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology
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