The AntiEvolutionists: William A. Dembski

Introduction

Dembski's home pages

Dembski Links

Chronology

2002/04/23: The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) had an event on examining "intelligent design". William Dembski and Michael Behe presented on their ideas of specified complexity and irreducible complexity. They were questioned by philosopher Rob Pennock and biologist Kenneth Miller. The moderator was Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education. See my account of the event at this page.
2002/01/21: William A. Dembski's Shermer's Cozy Delusion, a response to Shermer's "The Gradual Illumination of Mind".
2001/10/17: Researcher challenges Darwin's theory of evolution, by Melanie Brubaker Mazur for the Durango Herald.
2001/09/19: TAMU Battalion article: Baylor professor refutes much of Darwin's theory
2001/06/17: William A. Dembski's Order and Design: Philosophical Issues presentation at the CTNS/AAAS "Interpreting Evolution" conference held at Haverford College (draft video form).
2001/06/17: Wesley R. Elsberry's Order and Design: Philosophical Issues presentation at the CTNS/AAAS "Interpreting Evolution" conference held at Haverford College (draft video form). (Readers might find the Powerpoint presentation useful as an adjunct to the video.)
2001/06/07: Effect of Ties on the Evolution of Information by the Ev program, by Tom Schneider. Schneider experimentally tests Dembski's claim that fine-tuning of code is necessary for the "ev" program to show an information increase. Results: Dembski's claim fails.
2001/06/07: Rebuttal to William A. Dembski's Posting, by Tom Schneider.
2001/06/05: MetaNexus post by William A. Dembski. Dembski critiques Tom Schneider's "ev" program as having "smuggled in" "complex specified information".
2001/01/24: William A. Dembski's "Is Intelligent Design Testable?", post originally made to Meta-Views. (Subject: Intelligent Design Activism.)
2000/12/15: W.R. Elsberry's letter to the editor, submitted to the Houston Press in response to Kern's 2000/12/14 article. (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center.)
2000/12/14: Lauren Kern's In God's Country, a Houston Press article on Dembski's interaction with Baylor University. (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center.)
2000/12-2001/01: Fred Heeren's The Deed is Done, an article for the American Spectator on the subject of William Dembski's removal from the job of director of the Michael Polanyi Center. (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center.)
2000/12/10: Lewis Barker's Chance and devination: Dembski gambled and lost, a post to an evolutionary psychology web-board. (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center.)
2000/12/07: William A. Dembski and Mark Hartwig's Fishing for votes.
2000/12/06: William A. Dembski's theology trumping science?, a post to an evolutionary psychology web-board. (Subject: Intelligent Design Activism.)
2000/12/01: Howard Van Till's Robust Formational Possibilities, a Meta-Views post in reply to Dembski. (Subject: Intelligent Design Activism.)
2000/11: Larry Arnhart, Michael Behe, and William Dembski discuss ID and design inferences in Conservatives, Darwin & Design: An Exchange, in the November 2000 issue of "First Things". (Subject: Design Inferences.)
2000/11: Summary of talk titled "Another Way To Detect Design" given by William A. Dembski at the 2000 Yale ID conference. (Subject: Design Inferences.)
2000/11: Summary of talk titled "No Free Lunch" given by William A. Dembski at the 2000 Yale ID conference. (Subject: Evolutionary Algorithms.)
2000/11-12: William A. Dembski's Shamelessly Doubting Darwin, published in the Hudson Institute's "American Outlook" magazine, Nov.-Dec. 2000. (Subject: Anti-Darwinian Commentary.)
2000/11/18: W.A. Dembski's Intelligent Design Coming Clean Meta-Views post. (Subject: Intelligent Design Activism.)
2000/11/15: Fred Heeren's The Lynching of Bill Dembski for "The American Spectator". (Subject: Intelligent Design Activism.)
2000/10/28: "Durward Starman"'s article, Giordano Dembski, on the Reiterations Meta-List. Contains a quoted statement from Michael Beaty, director of the Institute for Faith and Learning at Baylor University on Dembski's dismissal as director of the MPC. (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/28: W.R. Elsberry's Information request re: Dawkins and conservative allocation of luck. Dembski claims that his 500 bit universal complexity bound is a more conservative allocation of luck than Dawkins' ~66 bit complexity bound. I asked for the justification for this claim. (See also the Reiterations Meta-List post.) (Link: Correspondence Log.)
2000/10/27: Statement of the Cranach Institute protesting Dembski's dismissal as MPC director. (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/26: Baylor Lariat article by Blair Martin, "Sloan fields faculty questions at forum". (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/24: Baylor Lariat article by Blair Martin, "Polyani Center's future is unclear". (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/24: Art Toalston's article on the Baylor situation for "Current Baptist News". (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/23: John Wilson's editorial in Christianity Today on the events at Baylor. (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/22: Glenn Morton's ASA list post telling why Dembski cannot be considered a martyr in relation to the Baylor MPC situation. (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/21: William A. Dembski's The Evidential Collapse of Darwinism, an Amazon.com member review of Jonathan Well's Icons of Evolution. (Subject: Anti-Darwinian Commentary.)
2000/10/21: W.R. Elsberry's Information request re: inclusion of ANS models as EA's. This requests justification for Dembski's assertion that "neural nets" should be classed as "evolutionary algorithms". Dembski offers as his criterion of inclusion any process that "sifts contingency". Since many, if not most, ANS models do not rely upon "chance", the question arises as to how this classification can be considered accurate. (Link: Correspondence Log.)
2000/10/20: Dembski accuses administration at Baylor of "utmost bad faith" (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/19: Jason Embry's Waco Tribune-Herald article, Baylor demotes director of Polanyi Center. (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/19: Ron Nissimov's Houston Chronicle article, < a href="http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/721907">`Intelligent design' leader demoted. (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/19: Announcement that William Dembski was relieved of duties as director of Michael Polanyi Center (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/19: Baylor Lariat article by Blair Martin (Meta-News post) (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/18: Baylor Lariat article by Blair Martin (on review comm. report) (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/18: Re: Polanyi Center Press Release, a Meta-News post by William A. Dembski. (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/18: Changes ahead for Polanyi Center, including new name. By JASON EMBRY, Tribune-Herald staff writer. (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/17: Baylor PR release about external review committee's final report on the Michael Polanyi Center. (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/10/09: W.R. Elsberry's Information request re: Dawkins' "weasel" program. Sent as email to Dembski's Discovery Institute address and cc'd to the Calvin Reflector. It asks for a justification for Dembski's description of Dawkins' weasel program, since Dembski describes it as treating "correct" letters differently from "incorrect" letters. (Link: Correspondence Log.)
2000/10/01: W.R. Elsberry's Request for data regarding use of "complexity-specification" to find "design" in biological systems. Sent as email to Dembski's Baylor University address and cc'd to the Calvin Reflector. (Link: Correspondence Log.)
2000/09/30: What Does "Intelligent Agency by Proxy" Do For the Design Inference? by Wesley R. Elsberry. A response to EXPLAINING SPECIFIED COMPLEXITY by W.A. Dembski. (Subject: Design Inferences.)
2000/07-08: Keith Devlin's Snake Eyes in the Garden of Eden, an article published by the New York Academy of Sciences. (Subject: Explanatory Filters.)
2000/07: Alan G. Padgett's Creation By Design, article in Christianity Today, July/August 2000. (Subjects: Design Inferences, Intelligent Design - the book.)
2000/06/21: Classification of Artificial Neural Systems: Is Stochasticity a Reliable Diagnostic Character? by Wesley R. Elsberry in response to Specified Complexity. (Subject: Specified Complexity.)
2000/06/19: Response posted by Paul Nelson to the Calvin Reflector concerning Dembski's book critiquing natural selection. (Link: Correspondence Log.)
2000/06/18: First impressions of "Inteliigent Design", by Wesley R. Elsberry. (Subject: Asking for status on a book Dembski had talked about the year before. In responding to my criticism of "Specified Complexity", Dembski stated that his in-principle refutation of the ability of evolutionary algorithms and natural selection to generate specified complexity would be in a forthcoming book. (Link: Correspondence Log.)
2000/06/13: Design as a Research Program: 14 Questions to Ask About Design by William A. Dembski. (Subject: Intelligent Design Activism.)
2000/05/31: Review of Dembski's Intelligent Design by John Carvalho. (Subject: Intelligent Design -- the book.)
2000/05/19: W.R. Elsberry Asking for a clarification on what a "chance hypothesis" might be. Link: Correspondence Log.)
2000/05: Lynn Vincent's Wild Science, an article for Connection Magazine that features an interview with William Dembski.
2000/04/25: Who's got the Magic? by William A. Dembski. (Subject: Letter submitted to the editor of the Lariat by Wesley R. Elsberry (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/04/12: Baylor Lariat article on the Michael Polanyi Center, 2000/04/12 (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/04/10: Letter submitted to the editor of the Lariat by Wesley R. Elsberry (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/04/06: Baylor Lariat article on the Michael Polanyi Center, 2000/04/06 (Subject: Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University.)
2000/03/16: Disbelieving Darwin - And Feeling No Shame!, by William A. Dembski. (Subject: Anti-Darwinian Commentary.)
2000/02/08: Dembski signs books in support of Roger DeHart (Subject: Intelligent Design Activism.)
2000/02/02: Critique of "Not Optimal Design" by Wesley R. Elsberry. (Subject: Design Inferences.)
2000/02/02: Intelligent Design is Not Optimal Design by William A. Dembski. (Subject: Design Inferences.)
2000/01/24: Gert Korthof, review of Dembski's "Intelligent Design". (Subject: Intelligent Design -- the book.)
2000/01: Information, physics, and religion by WA Dembski. Part of a "millenium symposium" in "First Things" magazine (January, 2000). (Subject: Theology.)
2000/??/??: ev : Evolution of Biological Information by Tom Schneider, Nucleic Acids Research, 28(14): 2794-2799, 2000. Not directly commenting upon Dembski, but it does directly contradict Dembski's claims concerning information increase via evolutionary computation. (Subjects: Evolutionary Algorithms, Specified Complexity.)
2000: Massimo Pigliucci's article, Design Yes, Intelligent No: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory and Neo-Creationism. (Subject: Design Inferences.)
1999/12/29: Critique of Detecting Design by Wesley R. Elsberry. (Subject: Design Inferences.)
1999/12/29: Another Way to Detect Design? A response to Sober's critical review. (Subject: Design Inferences.)
1999/12/08: Famous people who use Macintosh computers, references Dembski's "The Design Inference". (Subject: Design Inferences.)
1999/11/01: Bait-and-switch in analysis, response by Wesley R. Elsberry to Specified Complexity. (Subject: Specified Complexity.)
1999/11/01: Specified Complexity by W.A. Dembski. A follow-up essay to EXPLAINING SPECIFIED COMPLEXITY. (Subject: Specified Complexity.)
1999/10/26?: W.R. Elsberry email to Dembski asking for a reference that directly documents T.H. Huxley as the originator of the famous "typing monkeys" metaphor, as claimed in Converting Matter into Mind. (Link: Correspondence Log.)
1999/10/18: Zeus Thibault on RNA SELEX experiments as empirical disproof of Dembski's "law of conservation of CSI". (Subjects: "The Design Inference", Complex Specified Information.)
1999/10/17: Zeus Thibault on origination of CSI and genetic instantiation. Commentary related to the topics of Dembski's "The Design Inference".
1999/10/15: Wesley Elsberry on specification for the TSP. Commentary related to the topics of Dembski's "The Design Inference".
1999/10/03: The "Algorithm Room": Can the "Design Inference" Catch a Cheater? A challenge to the Design Inference by Wesley R. Elsberry. (Subject: Design Inferences.)
1999/10/01: The intelligent design Filter Double Blind Test. Marty Fouts' challenge to claims that Dembski's EF produces no false positives. (Subjects: Design Inferences, Explanatory Filters.)
1999/10: W.A. Dembski's Are We Spiritual Machines?, First Things 96 (October 1999): 25-31. (Subject: Naturalism and Supernaturalism.)
1999/09/13: CSI and Evolutionary Computation. (Subjects: CSI, Evolutionary Algorithms.)
1999/09/13: EXPLAINING SPECIFIED COMPLEXITY by W.A. Dembski. Article from "reiterations" mailing list.
1999/09-10: William A. Dembski's The Unthinkable, commentary on Paul Davies and "The Fifth Miracle", Books and Culture feature in "Christianity Today". (Subject: Naturalism and Supernaturalism.)
1999/06/01: Dembski in round-table discussion of Denton's "Nature's Destiny"
1999/04/26: John Wilson's Lord of the Absurd, an article in Christianity Today which mentions "Mere Creation". (Subject: Mere Creation.)
Unknown: Explaining Functional Complexity in Nature: Do the Life Sciences need a Theory of Intelligent Design? by Loren A. King. Commentary related to the topics of Dembski's "The Design Inference".
Unknown: Elliott Sober, Branden Fitelson, and Christopher Stephens's review of Dembski's "The Design Inference", How Not to Detect Design.
Unknown: Mark Vuletic's critique of Pigliucci's review of Dembski's "The Design Inference".
Unknown: Online review by Massimo Pigliucci of Dembski's "The Design Inference".
1999/03: Review of Dembski's "The Design Inference", Reports of the National Center for Science Education, March/April 1999, by Wesley R. Elsberry. Similar online version.
Unknown: Review by Eli Chiprout of Dembksi's "The Design Inference". (2001/10/12: currently unavailable; please drop me a note if this review reappears.)
1999: Review of Dembski's "The Design Inference" by Ellery Eells, appearing in Philosophical Books. (Subject: Design Inferences.)
1999/??:Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology by William A. Dembski.
1999/01: W.A. Dembski's replies to correspondence concerning his article, "Science and Design", from the Oct. 1998 First Things.
1998/11/20: Rabi Gupta's comments on Dembski's "The Design Inference" as a support for claims involving the paranormal. (Subject: Design Inferences.)
1998/11/15 (file date): W.A. Dembski's Intelligent Design Theory. (Subject: Complex Specified Information.)
1998/11: THE DESIGN INFERENCE : ELIMINATING CHANCE THROUGH SMALL PROBABILITIES by William A. Dembski. Book published by Cambridge University Press concerning detecting design and agency.
1998/10/19 (file date): http://www.origins.org/offices/dembski/docs/bd-random.html
1998/10/19 (file date): W.A. Dembski's What every theologian should know about creation, evolution and design. (Subject: Theology.)
1998/10/19 (file date): W.A. Dembski's Intelligent Design as a Theory of Information. (Subject: Complex Specified Information.)
1998/10: Creationism on the rise? By Marty Rudin, commentary on Dembski's "The Design Inference". (Subject: Design Inferences.)
1998/10: Dembski WA. Science and design. First Things 1998 Oct; 86:21-2. http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9810/dembski.html. Accessed April 8, 1999. (Subject: Design Inferences.)
1998/08/10: The Act of Creation: Bridging Transcendence and Immanence. Dembski explores the theology of Intelligent Design, and explicitly links certain phenomena identified as CSI as being God's handiwork.
1998: W.A. Dembski's The Intelligent Design Movement.
1997/11/29: W.A. Dembski's An Analysis of Homer Simpson and Stephen Jay Gould.
1997/05/16: Dembski WA. "Redesigning Science", The Real Issue, 16 May 1997. http://www.origins.org/real/r19602/dembski.html. Accessed August 13, 2000.
1997/02: Dembski WA. Intelligent design as a theory of information. Conference on Naturalism, Theism, and the Scientific Enterprise (Austin, Texas). http://www.dla.utexas.edu/depts/philosophy/faculty/koons/ntse/papers/Dembski.html. Accessed March 8, 1999. (Subject: Complex Specified Information.)
1996/11/14: W.A. Dembski's Alchemy, NK Boolean Style, a review of "At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self Organization and Complexity", Stuart Kauffman, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, 321 pp.
1996/04: W.A. Dembski's Teaching Intelligent Design as Religion or Science?, The Princeton Theological Review, April 1996. (Subjects: Intelligent Design Activism, Theology .)
1996: Dembski WA. The Explanatory Filter: A three-part filter for understanding how to separate and identify cause from intelligent design. http://www.origins.org/real/ri9602/dembski.html. Accessed March 8,1999. (Subject: Explanatory Filters.)
1994/10: W.A. Dembski's The Fallacy of Contextualism, The Princeton Theological Review, October 1994. (Subject: Theology.)
1991: W.A. Dembski's Conflating Matter and Mind, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 43:2 1991. (Subjects: Naturalism and Supernaturalism, Theology.)
Unknown: W.A. Dembski's The Intelligent Design Movement: A Brief Catalogue of Resources. Lists several books by Intelligent Design proponents. (Subject: Intelligent Design Activism.)
Unknown: Mere Creation, edited by William A. Dembski. (Subject: Mere Creation.)
Unknown: Darwinism: Science or Philosophy, Chapter 7a, Response to William A. Dembski, by K. John Morrow, Jr.
Unknown: The Incompleteness of Scientific Naturalism by William A. Dembski.
Unknown: W.A. Dembski's Intelligent Design. (Subject: Complex Specified Information.)
Unknown: SETI: Comment
Unknown: Comment
Unknown: Comment
Unknown: Comment upon Dembski's CSI.
Unknown: Comment
Unknown: Comment
Unknown: Regression Testing Dembski's EF: Comment