Randal Rauser is associate professor of historical theology at Taylor Seminary, Edmonton, Canada and was granted Taylor's first annual teaching award for Outstanding Service to Students in 2005.
July 08th, 2010 02:08 PM ET

An Intelligent Design for increasing traffic at your blog

I ventured into turbid waters a couple days ago by mentioning that in the future I would discuss Steve Meyer's Signature in the Cell in the blog. What followed was a barrage of discussion which led AnAtheist.Net to observe: 

"It looks like you have discovered a quick way to attract a fiery horde of new readers."

Indeed. Actually I learned last year about the effect that mention of "intelligent design" has in a blog. I like to think of it as being like a bucket of fish heads and blood. Slop it in the ocean and within fifteen minutes you'll have a number of sharks swimming around the boat snapping things like:

"That's just creationism in a cheap tuxedo. Goddidit! Magic! You suck! Ha ha ha!"

So the question. Do you want to deal with the sharks?

Well let's deal with some hard facts. Blog traffic becomes a real concern in the summer when people go on vacation and leave their laptops behind, so in order to keep your blog from sagging in the dog days of summer, I suggest the following:

Blog about intelligent design.

Make sure you put the catchphrase "intelligent design" in your title.

Include the following names in the body of the text: Stephen C. Meyer, Michael Behe, William Dembski as well as Richard Dawkins for good measure.

Add a smattering of triggers like Discovery Institute and Answers in Genesis.

Don't forget to throw in a flashpoint reference to the bacterium flagellum, DNA, evolution, and creationism.

Now stir the bucket up and dump it over the side.

Then, if you dare, get in the shark cage and wait for the show to start.

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About this blog
An exploration of faith, knowledge, reason and doubt (with the occasional trite pop culture reference thrown in for good measure).