No Free Lunch [Review of New Dembski Book on Intelligent Design]

Boston Review ^ | August 23, 2002 | H. Allen Orr

[dighton]

some MO of the darn EVO taliban...missing dove---appearing rabbit!Fool!

Then came some SPLIT SCHIZOPHRENIA/PSYCHO-EVO/NWO Soviet-LIBERAL-Socialist some Youth Center ---

some post-modern age of switch-flip-spin-DEFORMITY-cancer...I pity the fool!

Atheist secular materialists through ATHEISM/evolution CHANGED-REMOVED some foundations...demolished the darn wall(separation of state/religion)--trampled some TRUTH-The T Almighty...built a satanic temple/SWAMP-MALARIA/RELIGION( cult of darwin-marx-satan ) over them---made these absolutes subordinate--relative...Kill those suckas!

REDACTING them

and calling/CHANGING---

all the ...When I get finished with 'em, they're gonna be really big on pain. residuals (technology/science) === TO evolution via schlock/s MUCK IDEOLOGY/lies/bias...

to substantiate/justify/validate their efforts--claims...social engineering--PC--atheism...The fool's crazy!

anti-The Almighty T/Truth RELIGION( USSC monopoly )---

and declared a crusade/WAR--JIHAD--INTOLERANCE/TYRANNY( breaking some establishment clause )...I'm gonna hit you so hard I'm gonna knock you into next week!

against The Almighty T--man--society/SCIENCE( religious oath-TEST for office )!!

18

[AndrewC]

Dawkins little weazel fraud was exposed years ago btw. Of course it can always be fun to confuse the casual reader with a rehash.

This is a seminal moment in the evo debate. Here Mr. Orr uses a form of the dreaded opossum attack, he drops dead then blames the attacker for not killing him.

More precisely, the proper conclusion isn't that the NFL theorems derail Darwinism. The proper conclusion is that evolutionary algorithms are flawed analogies for Darwinism.⁹

The astonishing thing is that Dembski knows all this. In a remarkable revelation—and one that follows two hundred pages of technical mumbo-jumbo—Dembski suddenly announces that Darwinists won't find his NFL objection terribly relevant. And why not? For the very reason I just gave. Dembski even quotes Richard Dawkins at length, who, it turns out, warned all along that his METHINKS… example is misleading in important ways. One of these is that, in each generation of selective "breeding," the mutant "progeny" phrases were judged according to the criterion of resemblance to a distant ideal target, the phrase METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL. Life isn't like that. Evolution has no long-term goal. There is no long-distance target, no final perfection to serve as a criterion for selection….In real life, the criterion for selection is always short-term, either simple survival or, more generally, reproductive success.10

So in essence Dawkins weasel argument was a fraud(as you also rightly claim) and he blames Dembski for that fraud.

[medved]

Two places to go for the cure for evolutionism:

The Bearfabrique Evolution page

Another page which lays out all the problems

The problems with evolution have nothing to do with religion. Reasonable people have no difficulty reconciling religion with real science.

[f.Christian]

The MO(magic) of the EVO taliban...

missing/mudered dove(TRUTH/SCIENCE)---

appearing rabbit(RATS)!

Then came the SPLIT SCHIZOPHRENIA/PSYCHO-EVO/NWO Soviet-LIBERAL-Socialist America---

the post-modern age of switch-flip-spin-DEFORMITY-cancer...

Atheist secular materialists through ATHEISM/evolution CHANGED-REMOVED the foundations...demolished the wall(separation of state/religion)--trampled the TRUTH-GOD...built a satanic temple/SWAMP-MALARIA/RELIGION(cult of darwin-marx-satan) over them---

made these ABSOLUTES subordinate--relative...REDACTING them

and calling/CHANGING---

all the... residuals(technology/science) === TO evolution via schlock/sMUCK IDEOLOGY/lies/bias...

to substantiate/justify/validate their efforts--claims...social engineering--PC--atheism...

anti-God/Truth RELIGION(USSC monopoly)---

and declared a crusade/WAR--JIHAD--INTOLERANCE/TYRANNY(breaking the establishment clause)...

against God--man--society/SCIENCE(religious oath-TEST for office/employment)!!

[gore3000]

Darwinism thus chokes when confronting a biological world that's so baroque. This is an ancient argument and the replies to it are equally old. Even if selection favors simplicity, note that the history of life must show a trend of increasing complexity. The reason is this history starts at zero complexity. On average it can only go up (where we cannot see the descendants of lineages that crashed and burned back into zero complexity).

This is a totally false argument. It is purely tautological. It presuposes that evolution is true and at the same time is used for proof of evolution. His last statement is also false, if a species is bred too far from its original it will eventually end up becoming sterile. This has happened in dog breeding, so yes some lineages will 'crash and burn into zero complexity' (extinction). In fact one of the most common reasons for the extinction of species is overspecialization. A species can become so adapted to its environment that it will not be able to withstand any change to it.

[gore3000]

An irreducibly complex system can be built gradually by adding parts that, while initially just advantageous, become—because of later changes—essential. The logic is very simple. Some part (A) initially does some job (and not very well, perhaps). Another part (B) later gets added because it helps A. This new part isn't essential, it merely improves things. But later on, A (or something else) may change in such a way that B now becomes indispensable. This process continues as further parts get folded into the system. And at the end of the day, many parts may all be required.15

This is perhaps the biggest problem with evolution - if you can make up a story for something, it then becomes a 'proven' fact. In this way evolution by making up stories explaining away problems makes up its own 'evidence'. This is not science, this is bunk.

[gore3000]

Then came the SPLIT SCHIZOPHRENIA/ZOMBIE/BRAVE-NWO 1984 America---

Any suggestions here?

Seems to me, you have taken f.christian's quote above out of context. It needs to be read according to the line that preceded it:

Evolution...Atheism-dehumanism---TYRANNY...

It then is very clear - that materialism, the destruction of the Godliness of man leads to disrespect for humanity, human rights, and life itself.

[gore3000]

What's wrong with teaching the controversy? Maybe it will improve their learning skills.

This is a great point! Education is about learning to learn, not about rote memorization. The development of critical skills is essential and by not allowing different viewpoints such skills remain undeveloped.

[Heartlander]

“The subtext of Orr's review, though unintended, is that Darwinism is not a solution to the problem of biological complexity but an exercise in delusion by which evolutionary biologists convince themselves that they've solved the problem when in fact we haven't.”
-Dembski
Full response…