Posted on 09/24/2009 6:08:52 AM PDT by xcamel
William Dembski, the “intelligent design” creationist who is a professor in philosophy at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, has some rather interesting requirements for students of his creationism courses — 20% of their final grade comes from having written 10 posts promoting ID on “hostile” websites: Academic Year 2009-2010.
Spring 2009
Intelligent Design (SOUTHERN EVANGELICAL SEMINARY #AP 410, 510, and 810; May 11 – 16, 2009)
NEW! THE DUE DATE FOR ALL WORK IN THIS COURSE IS AUGUST 14, 2009. Here’s what you will need to do to wrap things up:
AP410 — This is the undegrad [sic] course. You have three things to do: (1) take the final exam (worth 40% of your grade); (2) write a 3,000-word essay on the theological significance of intelligent design (worth 40% of your grade); (3) provide at least 10 posts defending ID that you’ve made on “hostile” websites, the posts totalling 2,000 words, along with the URLs (i.e., web links) to each post (worth 20% of your grade).
AP510 — This is the masters course. You have four things to do: (1) take the final exam (worth 30% of your grade); (2) write a 1,500- to 2,000-word critical review of Francis Collins’s The Language of God — for instructions, see below (20% of your grade); (3) write a 3,000-word essay on the theological significance of intelligent design (worth 30% of your grade); (4) provide at least 10 posts defending ID that you’ve made on “hostile” websites, the posts totalling 3,000 words, along with the URLs (i.e., web links) to each post (worth 20% of your grade).
And this we can do if we see that the Holy Spirit is already well aware of our state.. And very likely what we need is already present available to us in some way..
A Story: When I went on my adventure to Alaska.. I left St. Louis and went toward Phoenix(brother lives there) and out in the middle literally nowhere I threw a rod in my moter in my van(packed with everythin I owned).. So... standing in the road.. I prayed.. "GOD: what is this all about, whats up with this?.. after a short time I went up on a small rise to get a better look around and there was a little house.. not visible from the road.. In that house was a man that owned a wrecker(truck that pulls cars).. that towed me into Albuquerque directly to a Garage(mechanic) that he knew about.. My van stopped on the road not 100 yds from the answer to my problem.. but I couldn't see it.. Makes me wonder about other problems that I have had where I tried to fix the problem myself.. This may not be a formula but it does show a possibility with some problems we have.. Who knows maybe all of them..
How like hunchbacks we all are..
Carrying information in our hunch..
In yiddish the metaphor "nobody sees their own hoika(hunch)".. We see everyones else though, is the message....
Sorry, I'm not buying the idea that arguments based on misperceptions are valid. Saying that Darwin should have explicilty said so just rationalizes hanging on to the misperceptions.
I rather thought you'd find that cite "amusing," dearest sister in Christ! I know you've read some or all of it by now, and so let me thank you for that, and also for your further help with sourcing the analytic philosophers Horgan and Potrc.
Their book Austere Reality was published by M.I.T. Press in 2008. You mentioned you found a single book review of this work. I had no such luck at all, when I visited Amazon and Barnes&Noble: No book by this title is currently available anywhere — either as in-print or on the aftermarket. There is no review at all at either on-line bookseller.
I dunno. There seems to be something "strange" here....
I have searched and searched, and the more Creationists and IDers I read, the more they say Shannon information is either trivial, or entirely useless with respect to the Creation/Evolution debate, as it ignores the most important aspect of the design of life, namely the complex, functionally specified, digitally coded meaning of biological information. So unless I’m missing something, will someone please tell me why Shannon information is so important to the Creation/Evolution debate?
[[So you’re a pessimist... good..]]
perhaps I’m more a piss-amist- I piss and moan, but accept and udnerstand lol
[[Man claims he wants justice. But he does not want what’s coming to him.]]
One of my pastor’s favorite sayings was ‘are you sure you want God’s wil lfor your life? Because if you do, hold on, it may be much much different than what you had in mind’. I’ve always known even from young age, that my lot in life was goign to be rough wehile those aroudn me would sail by fairly easily, and you know- it’s almost worse for them, wishing they could take on some of my burden, but knowing they can’t- they feel a bit guilty for not havign to endure what I’ve had to, and I could see the pain in their eyes when I faced soem of my worst times- As I mentioned, my position has it’s pluses and minuses, and it’s a mixed blessing curse situation- I keep hearing that ‘God will never push us beyond what we can endure’, but my goodness, does it have to be right up to the edge so often? That’s what runs htrough the mind- how many more times before I break? Why is it necessary to ‘find out’ in my case? The ok times are ok, but the bad times are not ok (even though I accept that for whatever reason God is allowing it)
I keep thinking back to the apple- Just reaping what we’ve sown- some people more than others
bah- when I get tired I get down- so G’night
Praise God!!!
Their philosophy sounds like a hoot to me - I can't take it seriously.
Shannon's model is mathematics. Complex systems theory is inter-disciplinary.
The letter in your mailbox is of no effect until you read it and your uncertainty is reduced - you become "informed."
Major clue: DNA survives death. It is a message much like the letter in the mail box. In the dead person, the DNA message is no longer being transmitted.
Information (Shannon, successful communication) is the reduction of uncertainty in the receiver (or molecular machine) as it goes from a before to an after state.
It is the action, not the message.
More importantly, as I pointed out earlier at post 691, the Scriptures illuminate the relevance of communication. God's word becomes active or actualized once communicated (emphasis mine:)
For he spake, and it was [done]; he commanded, and it stood fast. – Psalms 33:9
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. [There is] no speech nor language, [where] their voice is not heard. – Psalms 19:1-3
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: - John 10:27
So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. - Romans 10:17
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl [that] may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. - Genesis 1:20
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life. - John 6:63
Jesus' Name is Word of God.
Moreover, there is no known naturalistic origin for information (Shannon, successful communication) in the cosmos. Nor do I see how a viable naturalistic theory could be proposed since a successful communication requires both a sender and a receiver as well as the message itself.
To God be the glory!
May God bless you always.
LOL :O)
I understand that. It implies it's all just an honest mistake. This particular mispercpetion has discussed and researched too much in that hundred years for misperceptions based on just that omission in his original works to be the sole basis.
The perception that TToE theorizes about the origin of life is being intentionally promogulated by people who cannot reasonably be assumed to know better.
Correction:
The perception that TToE theorizes about the origin of life is being intentionally promogulated by people who cannot reasonably be assumed to not know better.
Is that what happened, when the primordial soup got zapped, lol?
Evolution, the theory is called, more properly "The Origin of Species." That was Darwin's title.
Evolution requires change over a period of time. Time then, by deductive reasoning must also have a beginning.
The origin of life is essential to the theory of Evolution.
(Man did not come from apes... Man supposedly came from a common ancestor - the "missing link" Louis Leaky searched Olduvai Gorge 30 years in vain for...)
The singularity of all life is the DNA molecule. All living things have it. Like the singularity of the "big bang" theory, you make the inadvertent admission life is some sort of immaculate conception.
The flaw in your logic is that life did not come from the earth, because the earth came from somewhere else as well. Life came from somewhere else... There is no more evidence that any species evolved here on the earth than there is evidence it was delivered or engineered by extraterrestrials.
I have not theorized where life came from at all.
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