intelligent design :: The Tentative Apologist

Post tagged with intelligent design

The Wedge Strategy of Fiat USA and other nefarious intelligent designs

September 02nd, 201105:17 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

In this post I want to respond to two different issues, both relating to ID. The first one is brought up by clamat in response to my critique of Expelled. Clamat writes: "Did the Discovery Institute renounce the Wedge Document and I didn't hear about it? Just because the basic claim of ID can be articulated neutrally doesn't change the fact that ...
The tortured attempts to avoid intelligent design continue

July 21st, 201112:07 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

Back to intelligent design for a bit. In my article "Intelligent Design, Unknown Intelligence, and a Ouija Board" I critiqued several of Joseph H. Axell's claims culminating in his assertion that you cannot invoke intelligence as an explanation unless you have an account of the intelligence. Axell posted a long response on July 10. Other commitment...
Intelligent Design, explanation, and the laws of physics

July 07th, 201110:22 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

The debate on intelligent design continues with the latest proposal coming from Mike who writes: Intelligent Design could only be a valid scientific explanation if you were proposing an intelligent entity that is bound by the laws of physics. If God is any part of the proposal, it is by definition unscientific, since no science can claim to expla...
Intelligent Design, Unknown Intelligence, and a Ouija Board

July 06th, 201112:37 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

Joseph H. Axell posted a long rebuttal in the comment section of my article "Unintelligent arguments against intelligent design: A Primer". There are a number of claims I'd like to challenge in the response. For instance Axell writes: "Dembski's 'explanatory filter' for detecting design has been shown to be inadequate (false positives being but one...
Why denying intelligent design borders on insanity

July 02nd, 201111:41 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

Earlier this week I challenged The Atheist Missionary's rejection of intelligent design and thus his position that it is illegitimate to make intelligent design inferences. I did so by posing the following scenario: The Atheist Missionary returns home on his birthday to see several dozen balloons taped to the side of his house forming a huge welcom...
Goddidit and The Chatty Skeptic Doll

May 27th, 201101:51 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

Is it possible that a historian could invoke divine agency as the best explanation of past events such as the reports of an empty tomb and post resurrection appearances that we find in a number of the documents collected into the New Testament? Robert thinks not. In the thread on "Heathenism, Naturalism, and other unstated premises" he writes: "Wh...
Intelligent Design according to "Charlotte's Web"

January 17th, 201111:42 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

The recent cinematic retelling of E.B. White's classic Charlotte's Web has a nice scene for anybody interested in pondering the intelligent design debates.For those who need a brief refresher, Fern is the owner of Wilbur the pig. Charlotte the spider has befriended Wilbur and is trying to save him from becoming a Christmas ham by writing suggestive...
An Intelligent Design for increasing traffic at your blog

July 08th, 201002:08 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

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 la...
Hey calm down, it's just a book

July 07th, 201011:01 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

Geez, you throw these guys an olive branch -- I'll even read Robert Wright, but why don't you read Steve Meyer? -- and they have all sorts of excuses. AnAtheist.Net attempts to extent the bizarre argument that if scientists present their theoretical proposal in a long book that seeks to reach a broader readership, we ought not read it. Does publis...
Does meticulously-tuned evil count as a defeater for meticulously-tuned good?

July 06th, 201011:34 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

There are two key issues I want to explore further in relation to the waving statute, St. Tom's Orphanage, and other cases of synchronicity. The topic of this thread is evil and other potential defeaters to positive events with putative high MDS. Let's begin with SilverBullet: "You've clearly spent some time thinking this over, so in the meantime...

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