William Albert "Bill" Dembski (born July 18, 1960) is an American proponent of
intelligent designIntelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
, well known for promoting the concept of
specified complexitySpecified complexity is an argument proposed by William Dembski and used by him and others to promote intelligent design. According to Dembski, the concept is intended to formalize a property that singles out patterns that are both specified and complex...
. He is currently a Research Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Cultural Engagement at the
Southwestern Baptist Theological SeminarySouthwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is a private, non-profit institution of higher education, associated with the Southern Baptist Convention...
at Fort Worth, Texas, and a senior fellow of the
Discovery InstituteThe Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
's
Center for Science and CultureThe Center for Science and Culture , formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture , is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States...
. He is the author of a number of books about intelligent design, including
The Design InferenceThe Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities is a book by American philosopher William A. Dembski, a proponent of intelligent design, which sets out to establish a mechanism by which evidence of intelligent design in nature could be inferred...
(1998),
Intelligent Design: The Bridge between Science and TheologyIntelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology is a controversial 1999 book by William A. Dembski in which he presents an argument in support of the conjecture of intelligent design...
(1999),
The Design RevolutionThe Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions about Intelligent Design is a book written by William A. Dembski in 2004 which argues for a number of points supporting intelligent design, the controversial conjecture that certain features of the universe and of living things are best...
(2004),
The End of Christianity (2009), and
Intelligent Design Uncensored (2010).
The concept of intelligent design involves the argument that an intelligent mind is responsible for the complexity of life, and that it can be detected empirically. Dembski postulates that
probability theoryProbability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with analysis of random phenomena. The central objects of probability theory are random variables, stochastic processes, and events: mathematical abstractions of non-deterministic events or measured quantities that may either be single...
can be used to prove
irreducible complexityIrreducible complexity is an argument by proponents of intelligent design that certain biological systems are too complex to have evolved from simpler, or "less complete" predecessors, through natural selection acting upon a series of advantageous naturally occurring, chance mutations...
, or what he calls specified complexity. Intelligent design—and Dembski's concept of specified complexity—are seen by the scientific community as a form of conservative Christian
creationismCreationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...
, attempting to portray itself as science.
Biography
Dembski was born in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
,
IllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, the only child of
CatholicThe word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
parents, his mother an
art dealerAn art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art. Art dealers' professional associations serve to set high standards for accreditation or membership and to support art exhibitions and shows.-Role:...
and his father a college professor and lecturer. His father held a
D.ScDoctor of Science , usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D. or Dr.Sc., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries Doctor of Science is the name used for the standard doctorate in the sciences, elsewhere the Sc.D...
in biology from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and taught evolutionary biology; while growing up Dembski was neither particularly religious nor did he question the
theory of evolutionEvolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
. He attended an all-male Catholic preparatory school in Chicago. Dembski finished
high schoolHigh school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
a year early, excelling in math and finishing a
calculusCalculus is a branch of mathematics focused on limits, functions, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. This subject constitutes a major part of modern mathematics education. It has two major branches, differential calculus and integral calculus, which are related by the fundamental theorem...
course in one summer. After high school he attended the
University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. There, Dembski experienced educational and personal difficulties, struggling with the advanced courses and finding the unfamiliar social milieu of college challenging. Dembski dropped out of school and worked at his mother's art business while reading works on
creationismCreationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...
and the
BibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. Finding the creationist works interesting in their challenge of evolution but their literal interpretations lacking, Dembski returned to school at the
University of Illinois at ChicagoThe University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, near the Chicago Loop...
, studying
statisticsStatistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
. It was in 1988 at a
conferenceAn academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.-Overview:Conferences are usually composed of various...
on
randomnessRandomness has somewhat differing meanings as used in various fields. It also has common meanings which are connected to the notion of predictability of events....
that Dembski began to believe that there was purpose, order, and design in the universe due to the intervention of God. Remaining in academia, Dembski ultimately completed an
undergraduate degreeA Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in
psychologyPsychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
(1981,
University of Illinois at ChicagoThe University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, near the Chicago Loop...
) and
masters degreesA Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...
in statistics, mathematics, and philosophy (1983, University of Illinois at Chicago; 1985, University of Chicago; 1993, University of Illinois at Chicago respectively), two
PhDsDoctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
, one in mathematics and one in philosophy (1988, University of Chicago; 1996, University of Illinois at Chicago respectively), and a
Master of DivinityIn the academic study of theology, the Master of Divinity is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America...
in
theologyTheology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
at the
Princeton Theological SeminaryPrinceton Theological Seminary is a theological seminary of the Presbyterian Church located in the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey in the United States...
(1996).
At the Princeton Theological Seminary, Dembski met his future wife Jana. Dissatisfied with what he called the "free-swinging academic style" of the school, Dembski also was involved a group known as the "
Charles HodgeCharles Hodge was the principal of Princeton Theological Seminary between 1851 and 1878. A Presbyterian theologian, he was a leading exponent of historical Calvinism in America during the 19th century. He was deeply rooted in the Scottish philosophy of Common Sense Realism...
Society". Based on the works of the 19th century thinker Charles Hodge, the group was devoted to strengthening the faith of students faced with what members believed to be the "theological disarray" of the times, and to providing an example of how to oppose "false and destructive ideas." It published a journal (a recreation of the
Princeton Theological ReviewPrinceton Theological Review ran from 1903 until 1929 when the trustees of Princeton Theological Seminary discontinued its subsidization. It was the final incarnation of Biblical Repertory, which had been its initial title when begun under Princeton Theological Seminary graduate and professor...
) and met with considerable opposition on the campus, facing two
lawsuitA lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
s, threats of violence, accusations of racism and sexism; being denied funding; and hearing that membership "jeopardized their academic advancement".
Dembski and Jana have one daughter and two sons. One of his sons is
autisticAutism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
and Dembski has attributed some of his son's problems to vaccines.
Early opposition to evolution
Dembski holds that his knowledge of statistics and his skepticism concerning evolutionary theory led him to believe that the extraordinary diversity of life was statistically unlikely to have been produced by
natural selectionNatural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
. He presented these thoughts in his 1991 paper 'Randomness by Design', which appeared in the journal
NoûsNoûs is a philosophy journal published four times per year by Blackwell Publishing. It was founded by Hector-Neri Castañeda and is currently edited by Ernest Sosa...
. These ideas led to his notion of
specified complexitySpecified complexity is an argument proposed by William Dembski and used by him and others to promote intelligent design. According to Dembski, the concept is intended to formalize a property that singles out patterns that are both specified and complex...
, which he developed in
The Design InferenceThe Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities is a book by American philosopher William A. Dembski, a proponent of intelligent design, which sets out to establish a mechanism by which evidence of intelligent design in nature could be inferred...
, a revision of his PhD dissertation in philosophy.
Lawyer
Phillip E. JohnsonPhillip E. Johnson is a retired UC Berkeley law professor and author. He became a born-again Christian while a tenured professor and is considered the father of the intelligent design movement...
's first book
Darwin on TrialDarwin on Trial is a 1991 book about the theory of evolution and the creation-evolution debate. It was written by Harvard graduate and University of California, Berkeley law professor emeritus Phillip E. Johnson...
(published in 1991) attracted a group of scholars who shared his view that the exclusion of
supernaturalThe supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
explanations by the
scientific methodScientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
was unfair and had led to the
Edwards v. AguillardEdwards v. Aguillard, was a legal case about the teaching of creationism that was heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987. The Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools, along with evolution, was unconstitutional because the law...
ruling that teaching
creation scienceCreation Science or scientific creationism is a branch of creationism that attempts to provide scientific support for the Genesis creation narrative in the Book of Genesis and disprove generally accepted scientific facts, theories and scientific paradigms about the history of the Earth, cosmology...
in public schools was unconstitutional. Dembski was part of that group at a symposium at
Southern Methodist UniversitySouthern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
in Dallas in March 1992, before they came to call themselves "
The WedgeThe wedge strategy is a political and social action plan authored by the Discovery Institute, the hub of the intelligent design movement. The strategy was put forth in a Discovery Institute manifesto known as the Wedge Document, which describes a broad social, political, and academic agenda whose...
". In 1987, the phrase "
intelligent designIntelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
" replaced "creation science" in drafts of a book,
Of Pandas and PeopleOf Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics...
that was intended for secondary-school students. The phrase referred to the idea that life was created through unspecified processes by an intelligent but unidentified designer. The book asserted that there was a logical need for such a designer because of the appearance of design in biological organisms. This replacement was intended to evade the
Edwards v. AguillardEdwards v. Aguillard, was a legal case about the teaching of creationism that was heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987. The Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools, along with evolution, was unconstitutional because the law...
ruling. The book was published in 1989 amidst campaigning by the publisher for the introduction of "intelligent design" into school science classes.
Biochemist
Michael BeheMichael J. Behe is an American biochemist, author, and intelligent design advocate. He currently serves as professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and as a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture...
, another member of "The Wedge", contributed the argument that he subsequently called "
irreducible complexityIrreducible complexity is an argument by proponents of intelligent design that certain biological systems are too complex to have evolved from simpler, or "less complete" predecessors, through natural selection acting upon a series of advantageous naturally occurring, chance mutations...
" (IC) to a subsequent edition of
Pandas in 1993. The book contained concepts which Dembski later elaborated in his treatment of "
specified complexitySpecified complexity is an argument proposed by William Dembski and used by him and others to promote intelligent design. According to Dembski, the concept is intended to formalize a property that singles out patterns that are both specified and complex...
" (SC).
Discovery Institute
After completing graduate school in 1996, Dembski was unable to secure a university position; from then until 1999 he received what he calls "a standard academic salary" of $40,000 a year as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the
Discovery InstituteThe Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
's
Center for Science and CultureThe Center for Science and Culture , formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture , is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States...
(CSC). "I was one of the early beneficiaries of Discovery largess," says Dembski.
As of 2008, Dembski serves as a senior fellow at the CSC, where he plays a central role in the center's extensive public and political campaigns advancing the concept of intelligent design and its teaching in public schools through its "
Teach the ControversyTeach the Controversy is the name of a Discovery Institute campaign to promote intelligent design, a variant of traditional creationism, while attempting to discredit evolution in United States public high school science courses...
" campaign as part of the institute's
wedge strategyThe wedge strategy is a political and social action plan authored by the Discovery Institute, the hub of the intelligent design movement. The strategy was put forth in a Discovery Institute manifesto known as the Wedge Document, which describes a broad social, political, and academic agenda whose...
.
Michael Polanyi Center controversy
In 1999, Dembski was invited by
Robert B. SloanRobert Bryan Sloan, Jr. is an American academic and theologian, currently serving as president of Houston Baptist University.-Education and background:...
, President of
Baylor UniversityBaylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...
, to establish the
Michael Polanyi CenterThe Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University was the first center at a research university exclusively dedicated to intelligent design study. It was founded in 1999 "with the primary aim of advancing the...
at the university. Named after the Hungarian physical chemist and philosopher
Michael PolanyiMichael Polanyi, FRS was a Hungarian–British polymath, who made important theoretical contributions to physical chemistry, economics, and the theory of knowledge...
(1891–1976), Dembski described it as "the first intelligent design think tank at a research university". Dembski had known Sloan for about three years, having taught Sloan's daughter at a Christian study summer camp not far from
Waco, TexasWaco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....
. Sloan was the first
BaptistBaptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
minister to serve as Baylor's president in over 30 years, had read some of Dembski's work and liked it; according to Dembski, Sloan "made it clear that he wanted to get me on the faculty in some way".
The Polanyi Center was established without much publicity in October 1999, initially consisting of two people — Dembski and a like-minded colleague,
Bruce L. GordonBruce L. Gordon is a Canadian philosopher of science , metaphysician and philosopher of religion.-Early life and education:Gordon was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1963....
, who were hired directly by Sloan without going through the usual channels of a search committee and departmental consultation. The vast majority of Baylor staff did not know of the center's existence until its website went online, and the center stood outside of the existing religion, science, and philosophy departments.
The center's mission, and the lack of consultation with the Baylor faculty, became the immediate subject of controversy. The faculty feared for the university's reputation – it has historically been well regarded for its contributions to mainstream science – and scientists outside the university questioned whether Baylor had "gone fundamentalist". Faculty members pointed out that the university's existing interdisciplinary Institute for Faith and Learning was already addressing questions about the relationship between science and religion, making the existence of the Polanyi Center somewhat redundant. In April 2000, Dembski hosted a conference on "naturalism in science" sponsored by the
Templeton FoundationSir John Marks Templeton was an American-born British stock investor, businessman and philanthropist.-Biography:...
and the hub of the intelligent design movement, the
Discovery InstituteThe Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
, seeking to address the question "Is there anything beyond nature?". Most of the Baylor faculty boycotted the conference.
A few days later, the Baylor faculty senate voted by a margin of 27–2 to ask the administration to dissolve the center and merge it with the Institute for Faith and Learning. President Sloan refused, citing issues of censorship and academic integrity, but agreed to convene an outside committee to review the center. The committee recommended setting up a faculty advisory panel to oversee the science and religion components of the program, dropping the name "Michael Polanyi" and reconstituting the center as part of the Institute for Faith and Learning. These recommendations were accepted in full by the university administration.
In a subsequent press release, Dembski asserted that the committee had given an "unqualified affirmation of my own work on intelligent design", that its report "marks the triumph of intelligent design as a legitimate form of academic inquiry" and that "dogmatic opponents of design who demanded that the Center be shut down have met their Waterloo. Baylor University is to be commended for remaining strong in the face of intolerant assaults on freedom of thought and expression."
Dembski's remarks were criticized by other members of the Baylor faculty, who protested that they were both an unjustified attack on his critics at Baylor and a false assertion that the university endorsed Dembski's controversial views on intelligent design. Charles Weaver, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor and one of the most vocal critics of the Polanyi Center, commented: "In academic arguments, we don't seek utter destruction and defeat of our opponents. We don't talk about Waterloos."
President Sloan asked Dembski to withdraw his press release, but Dembski refused, accusing the university of "intellectual
McCarthyismMcCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
" (borrowing a phrase that Sloan himself had used when they first tried to dissolve the center). He declared that the university's action had been taken "in the utmost of bad faith ... thereby providing the fig leaf of justification for my removal." Professor Michael Beaty, director of the Institute for Faith and Learning, said that Dembski's remarks violated the spirit of cooperation that the committee had advocated and stated that "Dr. Dembski's actions after the release of the report compromised his ability to serve as director." Dembski was removed as the center's director, although he remained an associate research professor until May 2005. He was not asked to teach any courses in that time and instead worked from home, writing books and speaking around the country. "In a sense, Baylor did me a favor," he said. "I had a five-year sabbatical."
Seminary teaching
From 1999 to 2005, he was on the faculty of
Baylor UniversityBaylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...
, where he was a focus of attention and controversy. During the academic year 2005-6, he was briefly the Carl F. H. Henry Professor of Theology and Science at the
Southern Baptist Theological SeminaryThe Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , located in Louisville, Kentucky, is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention . The seminary was founded in 1859, at Greenville, South Carolina. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to Louisville...
in
Louisville, KentuckyLouisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, as well as the first director of the school's new Center for Theology and Science (since replaced by prominent creationist
Kurt WiseKurt Patrick Wise is an American young earth creationist who serves as the Director of Creation Research Center at Truett-McConnell College. He has a PhD in geology from Harvard University.-Biography:...
). The seminary teaches creationism but its professors vary on the details, with most adhering to the
Young Earth creationistYoung Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...
viewpoint of a relatively recent creation which occurred literally as described in Genesis; Dembski does not hold to Young Earth creationism. On his position at Southern, Dembski also remarked that "Theology is where my ultimate passion is and I think that is where I can uniquely contribute." He left Southern in May 2006. Starting in June 2006 he became a professor in philosophy at
Southwestern Baptist Theological SeminarySouthwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is a private, non-profit institution of higher education, associated with the Southern Baptist Convention...
in
Fort Worth, TexasFort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
. Since taking up a position within Southwestern's School of Theology in June 2006, Dembski has taught a number of courses within its Department of Philosophy of Religion. For some of his courses, he requires that his students promote Intelligent Design on "hostile" websites for course credit. The
Southern Baptist ConventionThe Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...
operates both seminaries.
In September 2007, the SWBTS hosted a conference on 'Intelligent Design in Business Practice', presented by Dembski, Acton Institute theologian
Jay RichardsJay Wesley Richards is an American analytic philosopher and advocate of Intelligent Design. He is the Director of Acton Media and a Research Fellow at the Acton Institute, and Program Director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture , which has as its primary role the advocacy...
, and three business academics presently or formerly teaching at universities in the Southern United States.
Mims–Pianka controversy
On April 2, 2006, Dembski stated on his blog that he reported
Eric PiankaEric Rodger Pianka is an American biologist, whose work includes herpetology and evolutionary ecology. His textbook, Evolutionary Ecology is considered a classic, and his writings for the general public and television appearances have made him an influential figure.-Youth:Pianka was born in...
to the Department of Homeland Security because he and fellow Discovery Institute Fellow
Forrest MimsForrest M. Mims III is an amateur scientist, magazine columnist, and author of the popular Getting Started in Electronics and Engineer's Mini-Notebook series of instructional books that was originally sold in Radio Shack electronics stores. Mims graduated from Texas A&M University in 1966 with a...
felt that Pianka's speech while accepting the Texas Academy of Sciences Distinguished Scientist of the Year award in 2006 fomented
bioterrorismBioterrorism is terrorism involving the intentional release or dissemination of biological agents. These agents are bacteria, viruses, or toxins, and may be in a naturally occurring or a human-modified form. For the use of this method in warfare, see biological warfare.-Definition:According to the...
. This resulted in the
Federal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
interviewing Pianka in Austin. On April 5 Dembski wagered that Pianka's popularity would drop if the full text of his speech to the Texas Academy of Sciences was made public.
Baylor Evolutionary Informatics Lab controversy
Subsequently in July and August 2007, Dembski played a central role in the formation of the
Evolutionary Informatics LabThe Evolutionary Informatics Lab is a cyberspace entity created in 2007 by Baylor University professor Robert J. Marks II conducting research on mathematical details of evolutionary computation and purported to underlie intelligent design It defines evolutionary informatics and serves as a showcase...
(EIL), formed by
Baylor UniversityBaylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...
Engineering Professor
Robert J. Marks IIRobert Jackson Marks II is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University and proponent of intelligent design. From 1977 to 2003, he was on the faculty of the University of Washington in Seattle...
. According to Baylor administration, the EIL website hosted at Baylor was deleted because it violated university policy forbidding professors from creating the impression that their personal views represent Baylor as an institution. Dembski says the website was removed because it dealt with
intelligent designIntelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
. Baylor said they would permit Marks to repost his website on their server, provided a 108 word disclaimer accompany any intelligent design-advancing research to make clear that the work does not represent the university's position. The site
now resides on a third-party server and still contains the material advancing intelligent design. Dembski's participation was funded by a $30,000 grant from the Lifeworks Foundation, which is controlled by researcher Brendan Dixon of the
Biologic InstituteThe Biologic Institute is a tax-exempt organization with offices in Redmond, Washington and laboratories in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It is funded by the Discovery Institute with the stated purpose of doing biological research...
(which has close ties to the
Discovery InstituteThe Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
).
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary flood controversy
While serving as a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dembski wrote
The End of Christianity (2009), which argued that a Christian can reconcile an old earth creationist view with a
literal readingBiblical literalism is the interpretation or translation of the explicit and primary sense of words in the Bible. A literal Biblical interpretation is associated with the fundamentalist and evangelical hermeneutical approach to Scripture, and is used almost exclusively by conservative Christians...
of
Adam and EveAdam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...
in the Bible by accepting the
scientific consensus of a 4.5 billion year of EarthThe age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years This age is based on evidence from radiometric age dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples...
. He further wrote that "Noah’s flood likely was limited to the Middle East rather than being global in scope." This caused controversy and Dembski's reading of the Bible was criticized by Tom Nettles, a young Earth creationist, in
The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, Southern Seminary’s official theological journal. In 2010, Southwestern’s School of Theology Dean, "released a White Paper through the seminary’s Center for Theological Research defending Dembski as within the bounds of orthodoxy and critiquing Nettles for misunderstanding the book. The paper included Dembski’s statement admitting error regarding Noah’s flood." Southwestern Seminary president
Paige PattersonL. Paige Patterson is the eighth president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.- Education :*B.A. - Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, Texas*Th.M. - New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary...
, a young Earth creationist, "said that when Dembski’s questionable statements came to light, he convened a meeting with Dembski and several high-ranking administrators at the seminary. At that meeting, Dembski was quick to admit that he was wrong about the flood."
Public advocacy
In December 2001, Dembski launched the
International Society for Complexity, Information and DesignThe International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design was a non-profit professional society that promoted intelligent design...
(ISCID), of which he is Executive Director. Dembski is also the editor-in-chief of ISCID's journal,
Progress in Complexity, Information, and Design (PCID), which appears to have ceased publication with its November 2005 issue. He has several more books in preparation as well as producing a string of Flash animations mocking his detractors. He is also a member of
American Scientific AffiliationThe American Scientific Affiliation is a Christian religious organization of scientists and people in science-related disciplines. The stated purpose is "to investigate any area relating Christian faith and science." The organization publishes a journal, Perspectives of Science and Christian Faith...
, the
Evangelical Philosophical SocietyEvangelical Philosophical Society is an organization devoted to the study of ethics, theology, and religion from an evangelical perspective. The organization is open to professional scholars with associate membership available to laypersons and students...
, and the
American Mathematical SocietyThe American Mathematical Society is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards and prizes to mathematicians.The society is one of the...
, and is a senior fellow of the Wilberforce Forum.
Dembski frequently gives public talks, principally to religious, pro-ID groups, and creationists.
Barbara ForrestBarbara Carroll Forrest is a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. She is a critic of intelligent design and the Discovery Institute.- Biography :...
and
Paul R. GrossPaul R. Gross is a biologist and author, perhaps best known to the general public for Higher Superstition , written with Norman Levitt. Gross is the University Professor of Life Sciences at the University of Virginia; he previously served the university as Provost and Vice-President...
noted that Dembski has not been hesitant in associating with young Earth creationists, such as attending conferences with
Carl BaughCarl Edward Baugh is an American young earth creationist. Along with others, Baugh has said he discovered human alongside dinosaur footprints near the Paluxy River in Texas. Baugh is a national television host, purporting to present science supporting creationism on the program Creation in the...
. His lectures have been met with criticism by scientists for being half-hearted, lackluster, containing numerous errors and distortions, lacking positive evidence for intelligent design, and for evading questions.
Dembski, along with fellow Discovery Institute associates
Michael BeheMichael J. Behe is an American biochemist, author, and intelligent design advocate. He currently serves as professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and as a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture...
and
David BerlinskiDavid Berlinski is an American educator and author of several books on mathematics. Berlinski is a Senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, the hub of the intelligent design movement. Though he criticizes the theory of evolution, Berlinski who is an agnostic,...
, tutored
Ann CoulterAnn Hart Coulter is an American lawyer, conservative social and political commentator, author, and syndicated columnist. She frequently appears on television, radio, and as a speaker at public events and private events...
on science and evolution for her book
Godless: The Church of LiberalismGodless: The Church of Liberalism is a book by best-selling author and conservative columnist Ann Coulter, published in 2006. The book is an argument against American liberalism, which Coulter regards as so anti-scientific and faith-based that it amounts to a "primitive religion" which she claims...
. Approximately one-third of the book is devoted to polemical attacks on
evolutionEvolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
, which Coulter, as Dembski often does, terms "
DarwinismDarwinism is a set of movements and concepts related to ideas of transmutation of species or of evolution, including some ideas with no connection to the work of Charles Darwin....
".
Dembski participated in the film
Expelled: No Intelligence AllowedExpelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a 2008 documentary film, directed by Nathan Frankowski and hosted by Ben Stein. The film contends that the mainstream science establishment suppresses academics who believe they see evidence of intelligent design in nature and who criticize evidence supporting...
, released in 2008. Dembski told the
Southern Baptist Texan that those who need to see the movie are the "parents of children in high school or college, as well as those children themselves, who may think that the biological sciences are a dispassionate search for truth about life but many of whose practitioners see biology, especially evolutionary biology, as an ideological weapon to destroy faith in God." Dembski has appeared on several television shows, including a 2005 interview with
Jon StewartJon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...
on
The Daily ShowThe Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
with
Edward LarsonEdward John Larson is a North American historian and legal scholar. He is University Professor of history and holds the Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University, he was formerly Herman E. Talmadge Chair of Law and Richard B. Russell Professor of American History at the University...
and Ellie Crystal where he said he accepted religion before science.
Writing
In 1998, Dembski published his first book,
The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities, which became a
Cambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
bestselling philosophical monograph.
In 2002, Dembski published his book
No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence. Dembski's work, however, was strongly criticized within the scientific community, which argued that there were a number of major logical inconsistencies and evidential gaps in Dembski's hypothesis. David Wolpert, co-creator of the
No free lunch theoremIn mathematical folklore, the "no free lunch" theorem of Wolpert and Macready appears in the 1997 "No Free Lunch Theorems for Optimization." Wolpert had previously derived no free lunch theorems for machine learning...
on which Dembski based his book, characterised his arguments as "fatally informal and imprecise," "written in jello," reminiscent of philosophical discussion "in art, music, and literature, as well as much of ethics" rather than of scientific debate.
Mathematician
Mark PerakhMark Perakh , born in in Kiev, Ukraine, is a professor emeritus of Mathematics and statistical mechanics at California State University, Fullerton in Fullerton, California....
has stated he believes Dembski overemphasizes his own self importance in his writing.
Peer-review controversy
One of the common objections to intelligent design being accepted as valid science is that ID proponents have published no scientific papers in the peer-reviewed scientific literature in support of their conjectures. The ruling in the 2005 Dover trial,
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School DistrictTammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design...
, found that intelligent design had not been tested by the process of being published in a peer-reviewed
scientific journalIn academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. There are thousands of scientific journals in publication, and many more have been published at various points in the past...
and was not supported by any peer-reviewed research, data or publications. Despite the Dover trial ruling, the Discovery Institute lists Dembski's 1998 book
The Design Inference under the heading "Peer-Reviewed Scientific Books Supportive of Intelligent Design Published by Trade Presses or University Presses". The Discovery Institute describes Dembski as a mathematician and philosopher, who includes in his credentials postdoctoral work in physics and in computer science, and a B.A. in psychology.
Computer scientistA computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
and
number theoristNumber theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers. Number theorists study prime numbers as well...
Jeffrey ShallitJeffrey Outlaw Shallit is a computer scientist, number theorist, a noted advocate for civil liberties on the Internet, and a noted critic of intelligent design. He is married to Anna Lubiw, also a computer scientist....
states in an
expert reportAn expert report is a study written by one or more experts that states findings and offers opinions.In law, expert reports are generated by expert witnesses offering their opinions on points of controversy in a legal case, and are typically sponsored by one side or the other in a litigation in...
that despite common claims in the popular and religious press, Dembski is not a scientist by any reasonable standard, has not published any experimental or empirical tests of his claims, submitted his claims to the scrutiny of his peers or published in a scientific journal. In a footnote Shallit states that he does not consider mathematics to be science. Shallit describes Dembski's published mathematical output as "extremely small" for a research mathematician, and remarks that "it is very unlikely that his meagre output would merit tenure at any major university".
Since Shallit's statement, as of May 2010, Dembski has published four peer reviewed papers in
information theoryInformation theory is a branch of applied mathematics and electrical engineering involving the quantification of information. Information theory was developed by Claude E. Shannon to find fundamental limits on signal processing operations such as compressing data and on reliably storing and...
venues associated with the IEEE professional society. The papers deal with
active information in the context of
searchIn computer science, a search algorithm is an algorithm for finding an item with specified properties among a collection of items. The items may be stored individually as records in a database; or may be elements of a search space defined by a mathematical formula or procedure, such as the roots...
for solutions to problems. Quantified active information is introduced in "Conservation of Information in Search: Measuring the Cost of Success." A second paper,"Evolutionary Synthesis of Nand Logic: Dissecting a Digital Organism", claims to deconstruct the evolution simulation
AvidaAvida is an artificial life software platform to study the evolutionary biology of self-replicating and evolving computer programs . Avida is under active development by Charles Ofria's Digital Evolution Lab at Michigan State University and was originally designed by Ofria, Chris Adami and C. Titus...
by uncovering the sources of active information in the program.
A third paper discusses the role of Jacob Bernoulli's
principle of indifferenceThe principle of indifference is a rule for assigning epistemic probabilities.Suppose that there are n > 1 mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive possibilities....
in the analysis of evolution. The most recent paper, "Efficient Per Query Information Extraction from a Hamming Oracle,"
calculates the performance of various search algorithms which use the
Hamming distanceIn information theory, the Hamming distance between two strings of equal length is the number of positions at which the corresponding symbols are different...
to search for a single string of a certain length in the set of all strings of this length.
Dembski states that his 1998 book
The Design Inference has also been peer reviewed. Dembski says: "This book was published by Cambridge University Press and peer-reviewed as part of a distinguished monograph series, Cambridge Studies in Probability, Induction, and Decision Theory". In his expert report, Shallit states, "I know that book manuscripts typically do not receive the same sort of scrutiny that research articles do. ...it is not uncommon for a 10-page paper to receive 5 pages or more of comments whereas a book manuscript of 200 pages often receives about the same number...". In addition, Mark Isaak claims that Dembski's book was reveiewed by philosophers and not biologists.
'The Inner Life of the Cell' copyright controversy
In November, 2007, a graduate student named S. A. Smith brought an apparent case of wholesale academic misuse of unlicenced content to public attention. She noticed that a video used by Dembski in his lecture was identical to
The Inner Life of the CellThe Inner Life of the Cell is an 8.5-minute 3D computer graphics animation illustrating the molecular mechanisms that occur when a white blood cell in the blood vessels of the human body is activated by inflammation...
animation created by
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and a company called XVIVO. The audio track giving a scientific explanation was stripped off and the video was used with an alternative narration. The matter was brought to the attention of Harvard and XVIVO.
David BolinskyDavid Bolinsky is a former lead medical illustrator at Yale. He is a co-founder of , which produced the movie The Inner Life of the Cell....
, creator of the video, wrote that Dembski was warned about using the video without permission.
In response to the allegations, Dembski has claimed that he downloaded the video from the Internet, and added a voiceover narration that he deemed appropriate for his audience. According to Dembski, the downloaded version omitted the opening credits but contained the closing credits, which were shown to the audience. However, Smith later documented several instances where images from the Harvard/XVIVO animation were apparently removed from his book
The Design of Life but the related footnotes and references were not. indicating that Dembski was already aware that permission had been denied for him to use the animation when he delivered his presentation at the
University of OklahomaThe University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
.
On April 9, 2008
Expelled: No Intelligence AllowedExpelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a 2008 documentary film, directed by Nathan Frankowski and hosted by Ben Stein. The film contends that the mainstream science establishment suppresses academics who believe they see evidence of intelligent design in nature and who criticize evidence supporting...
, a movie Dembski appears in, was given a
cease-and-desistA cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....
by XVIVO accusing Premise Media, the
Expelled producers, of
plagiarismPlagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
concerning the same video. A June 2008 Premise Media press release announced Premise Media and XVIVO, LLC. "reached an agreement" noting "XVIVO has agreed that the Premise Media documentary does not infringe on any of XVIVO's intellectual property rights."
Evolution
Dembski's views on evolution have been a source of considerable controversy within both the mainstream scientific and creationist communities. Dembski does not accept
universal common descentIn evolutionary biology, a group of organisms share common descent if they have a common ancestor. There is strong quantitative support for the theory that all living organisms on Earth are descended from a common ancestor....
. His mainstream scientific critics have accused him of dishonesty in his representation of scientific facts and writing, and he has also been criticised by the traditional
creationistCreationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...
community for not supporting the
young earthYoung Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...
creationist position, though he is also defended on other grounds by the same creationist community.
Science vs. naturalism
Dembski objects to the presence of the theory of evolution in a variety of disciplines, presenting intelligent design as an alternative to reductionist materialism that gives a sense of purpose that the unguided evolutionary process lacks and the ultimate significance of ID is its success in undermining materialism and
naturalismNaturalism commonly refers to the philosophical viewpoint that the natural universe and its natural laws and forces operate in the universe, and that nothing exists beyond the natural universe or, if it does, it does not affect the natural universe that we know...
. Dembski has also stated that ID has little chance as a serious scientific theory as long as methodological naturalism is the basis for science. Although intelligent design proponents (including Dembski) have made little apparent effort to publish peer-reviewed scientific research to support their hypotheses, in recent years they have made vigorous efforts to promote the teaching of intelligent design in schools. Dembski is a strong supporter of this drive as a means of making young people more receptive to intelligent design, and said he wants "to see intelligent design flourish as a scientific research program" among a "new generation of scholars" willing to consider the theory and textbooks that include it.
Intelligent designer
Dembski has so far failed to explain the origin of the intelligent designer that created the universe, something he argues as unnecessary since such an intelligent designer is likely outside the dimensions of space and time, or to have any of his pro-intelligent design articles published in the peer-reviewed mainstream scientific journals. While intelligent design proponents often claim that such failure to get articles published is due to an alleged pro-evolution bias or conspiracy, Dembski himself has said that he prefers to disseminate his ideas in non-peer-reviewed media: "I've just gotten kind of blase about submitting things to journals where you often wait two years to get things into print. And I find I can actually get the turnaround faster by writing a book and getting the ideas expressed there. My books sell well. I get a royalty. And the material gets read more."
In December 2007, Dembski told
Focus on the FamilyFocus on the Family is an American evangelical Christian tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1977 by psychologist James Dobson, and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s...
that "The Designer of intelligent
design is, ultimately, the Christian God."
Specified complexity
Specified complexity is an argument proposed by Dembski and used by him in his works promoting
intelligent designIntelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
. According to Dembski, the concept is intended to formalize a property that singles out patterns that are both specified and complex. Dembski states that specified complexity is a reliable marker of design by an intelligent agent, a central tenet to intelligent design and which Dembski argues for in opposition to modern evolutionary theory. The concept of specified complexity is widely regarded as mathematically unsound and has not been the basis for further independent work in
information theoryInformation theory is a branch of applied mathematics and electrical engineering involving the quantification of information. Information theory was developed by Claude E. Shannon to find fundamental limits on signal processing operations such as compressing data and on reliably storing and...
,
complexity theoryComplexity theory and organizations, also called complexity strategy or complex adaptive organization, is the use of Complexity theory in the field of strategic management and organizational studies.- Overview :...
, or
biologyBiology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
. Specified complexity is one of the two main arguments used by intelligent design proponents, the other being
irreducible complexityIrreducible complexity is an argument by proponents of intelligent design that certain biological systems are too complex to have evolved from simpler, or "less complete" predecessors, through natural selection acting upon a series of advantageous naturally occurring, chance mutations...
.
Intelligent design and Christianity
Dembski's position on intelligent design's relationship with Christianity has been inconsistent. He has suggested that the "intelligent designer" was not necessarily synonymous with God: "It could be space aliens. There are many possibilities" but has on several occasions been explicit in labelling the designer the Christian God and linking ID with a Christian revival through which Christianity can be restored to its formerly pre-eminent place in society, supplanting "materialist" science. In his book
Intelligent Design; the Bridge Between Science and Theology he states "The conceptual soundings of the [intelligent design] theory can in the end only be located in Christ". On the pro-intelligent design website designinference.com Dembski said that intelligent design enables
materialismIn philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
to be replaced with Christianity.
Dembski has also spoken of his motivation for supporting intelligent design in a series of Sunday lectures in the Fellowship Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, the last of which took place on Sunday, March 7, 2004. Answering a question, Dembski said it was to enable God to receive credit for creation.
Intelligent design movement
Dembski sees intelligent design as being a popular movement as well as a scientific hypothesis and claims that it is in the process of dislodging evolution from the public imagination. At the Fourth World Skeptics Conference, held on June 20–June 23, 2002 in
Burbank, CaliforniaBurbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
, he told the audience that "over the next twenty-five years ID will provide the greatest challenge to skepticism". He asserted that "ID is threatening to be mainstream", and that polls show 90 percent support for the hypothesis, indicating that it has "already becom[e] mainstream within the public themselves". "The usual skeptical retorts are not going to work against ID" and ID "turns the tables on skepticism". Evolution, in his view, "is the ultimate status quo" and "squelches dissent". Young people, who "love rebellion" see that and are attracted to ID as a result. "The public supports intelligent design. The public is tired of being bullied by an intellectual elite". He contends that skeptics resort to rhetoric and "artificially define ID out of science," allowing in only material matters. ID "paints the more appealing world picture", whereas skepticism works by being negative, which "doesn't set well with the public... To most people evolution doesn't provide a compelling view".
Bible code
Dembski has also indicated an interest in the
Bible codeThe Bible code , also known as the Torah code, is a purported set of secret messages encoded within the text Hebrew Bible and describing prophesies and other guidance regarding the future. This hidden code has been described as a method by which specific letters from the text can be selected to...
. In a favorable book review of Jeffrey Satinover's
Cracking the Bible Code, Dembski wrote that "The philosopher
Bertrand RussellBertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
was once asked why he didn’t believe in God. He replied, 'Not enough evidence.' Satinover’s fascination with the Bible Code is that it may provide evidence for God’s existence that would have convinced even a Bertrand Russell."
Faith healing
Dembski once took his family to a meeting conducted by
Todd BentleyTodd Bentley is a Canadian Christian evangelist. He was the key figure of the Lakeland Revival. After a brief period of retirement connected with the breakdown of his marriage and subsequent re-marriage, he has returned to ministry....
, a
faith healerFaith Healer is a play by Brian Friel about the life of faith healer Francis Hardy as monologued through the shifting memories of Hardy, his wife, Grace, and stage manager, Teddy.-Synopsis:...
, in hopes of receiving a "miraculous healing" for his son, who is
autisticAutism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
. In an article for the
Baptist Press he recalled disappointment with the nature of the meeting and with the prevention of his son and other attendees from joining those in wheelchairs who were selected to receive prayer. He then concluded, "Minimal time was given to healing, though plenty was devoted to assaulting our senses with blaring insipid music and even to Bentley promoting and selling his own products (books and CDs)." He wrote that he did not regret the trip and called it an "education," which showed "how easily religion can be abused, in this case to exploit our family."
Responses to critics
Dembski previews material on the Internet in order to gain advance notice of objections and address them prior to publication, allowing him to get "the last word in the exchange". Dembski's style in response to his critics (particularly of his mathematical papers) is polemical. For instance, in reply to a critique of the "law of conservation of information" posted on talkreason.org, Dembski states: "I'm not and never have been in the business of offering a strict mathematical proof for the inability of material mechanisms to generate specified complexity".
Books by Dembski
Sole author
- William A. Dembski, The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities
The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities is a book by American philosopher William A. Dembski, a proponent of intelligent design, which sets out to establish a mechanism by which evidence of intelligent design in nature could be inferred...
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-521-62387-1
- William A. Dembski, Intelligent Design: The Bridge between Science and Theology
Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology is a controversial 1999 book by William A. Dembski in which he presents an argument in support of the conjecture of intelligent design...
. Downer's Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8308-2314-X
- William A. Dembski, No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence. (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.) ISBN 0-7425-5810-X
- William A. Dembski, The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions about Intelligent Design
The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions about Intelligent Design is a book written by William A. Dembski in 2004 which argues for a number of points supporting intelligent design, the controversial conjecture that certain features of the universe and of living things are best...
. Downer's Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8308-2375-1
- William A. Dembski, The End of Christianity: Finding a Good God in an Evil World. Nashville, Tennessee: B&H Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8054-2743-1
Co-author
- William A. Dembski, Jay Richards
Jay Wesley Richards is an American analytic philosopher and advocate of Intelligent Design. He is the Director of Acton Media and a Research Fellow at the Acton Institute, and Program Director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture , which has as its primary role the advocacy...
, George GilderGeorge F. Gilder is an American writer, techno-utopian intellectual, Republican Party activist, and co-founder of the Discovery Institute...
, Ray Kurzweil, Thomas S. RayThomas S. Ray is an ecologist who created and developed the Tierra project, a computer simulation of artificial life.In 1975, he and Donald R...
, John SearleJohn Rogers Searle is an American philosopher and currently the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.-Biography:...
, and Michael DentonMichael John Denton is a British-Australian author and biochemist. In 1973, Denton received his PhD in Biochemistry from King's College London.-Biography:...
. Are We Spiritual Machines?: Ray Kurzweil vs. the Critics of Strong A.I. (Discovery Institute, June 6, 2001) ISBN 0-9638654-3-9
- William A. Dembski, Jonathan Wells, Percival Davis
See also Clifford Grey, whose real name was Percival Davis.Percival William Davis, also known as Bill Davis, is an American author, young earth creationist, and intelligent design proponent.-Education and career:...
, and Dean Kenyon. The Design of Life: Discovering Signs of Intelligence in Biological Systems. Dallas: Foundation for Thought and Ethics, November 19, 2007 ISBN 0-9800213-0-8 (401 pages)
- William A. Dembski and Benjamin Wiker
-Biography:He obtained his PhD in ethics from Vanderbilt University and then came to teach at a variety of institutions including Marquette University, Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, Thomas Aquinas College, and the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Wiker came to attention in 2002 with...
. Moral Darwinism: How We Became Hedonists (InterVarsity Press, July 2002) ISBN 0-8308-2666-1
- William A. Dembski and James M. Kushiner, Signs of Intelligence: Understanding Intelligent Design. Brazos Press (March 1, 2001) ISBN 1-58743-004-5
- William A. Dembski and Jay Wesley Richards
Jay Wesley Richards is an American analytic philosopher and advocate of Intelligent Design. He is the Director of Acton Media and a Research Fellow at the Acton Institute, and Program Director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture , which has as its primary role the advocacy...
. Unapologetic Apologetics: Meeting the Challenges of Theological Studies. Downer's Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8308-1563-5
- William A. Dembski and Sean McDowell, Understanding Intelligent Design: Everything You Need to Know in Plain Language. (Harvest House Publishers, July 1, 2008) ISBN 0-7369-2442-6
- William A. Dembski and Jonathan Wells. How to be an Intellectually Fulfilled Atheist (Or Not). (Intercollegiate Studies Institute
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Inc., or ', is a non-profit educational organization founded in 1953 as the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists...
, October 28, 2008) ISBN 1-933859-84-9
- William A. Dembski and Jonathan Witt, Intelligent Design Uncensored. (IVP Books, May 2010) ISBN 978-0830837427
As editor or contributor
- William A. Dembski and Michael Ruse (eds), Debating Design: From Darwin to DNA. ISBN 0-521-82949-6
- William A. Dembski (ed). Mere Creation. (Downer's Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1998.) ISBN 0-8308-1515-5
- William A. Dembski and Bruce Gordon. The Nature of Nature: Examining the Role of Naturalism in Science (Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books, 2009).
- William A. Dembski, Michael J. Behe and Stephen C. Meyer
Stephen C. Meyer is an American scholar, philosopher and advocate for intelligent design. He helped found the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute , which is the main organisation behind the intelligent design movement. Before joining the DI, Meyer was a professor at...
, Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe, Proceedings of the Wethersfield Institute, vol. 9 San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000. ISBN 0-89870-809-5
- Geoffrey Simmons
Geoffrey Simmons is a medical doctor, author, lecturer, trainer and intelligent design advocate from Eugene, Oregon. He has a BS in biology from the University of Illinois and received an M.D. from the University of Illinois Medical School in 1969...
(Foreword by William Dembski), What Darwin Didn't Know: A Doctor Dissects the Theory of Evolution.(Harvest Publishers, January 1, 2004) ISBN 0-7369-1313-0
- William A. Dembski, Wayne J. Downs, Fr. Justin B.A. Frederick, The Patristic Understanding of Creation: An Anthology of Writings from the Church Fathers on Creation and Design. (Erasmus Press, June 11, 2008) ISBN 0-9815204-0-5
External links
Official
Reviews/Analysis of Dembski
- Probability, Statistics, Evolution, and Intelligent Design by Peter Olofsson in Chance, 2008
- Intelligent Design and Mathematical Statistics: A Troubled Alliance by Peter Olofsson in Biology and Philosophy, 2008
- Review of No Free Lunch by Jeffrey Shallit
Jeffrey Outlaw Shallit is a computer scientist, number theorist, a noted advocate for civil liberties on the Internet, and a noted critic of intelligent design. He is married to Anna Lubiw, also a computer scientist....
in biosystems
- A free lunch in a mousetrap by Mark Perakh
Mark Perakh , born in in Kiev, Ukraine, is a professor emeritus of Mathematics and statistical mechanics at California State University, Fullerton in Fullerton, California....
- William Dembski's treatment of the No Free Lunch theorems is written in jello, a harsh critique of No Free Lunch by David Wolpert, one of the co-originators of the No Free Lunch theorems
- Critique of No Free Lunch by H. Allen Orr
H. Allen Orr is University Professor and Shirley Cox Kearns Professor of Biology at the University of Rochester.- Education and career :He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Philosophy from the College of William and Mary and his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Chicago. At...
from the Boston ReviewBoston Review is a bimonthly American political and literary magazine. The magazine covers, specifically, political debates, literature, and poetry...
- Jeffrey Shallit's pre-trial statement on Dembski from Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design...
- Dembski’s mathematical achievements Jeffrey Shallit
Jeffrey Outlaw Shallit is a computer scientist, number theorist, a noted advocate for civil liberties on the Internet, and a noted critic of intelligent design. He is married to Anna Lubiw, also a computer scientist....
, May, 2004
- How Not To Detect Design: A Review of William A. Dembski's The Design Inference Elliot Sober, 1999
- The Advantages of Theft Over Toil, Wilkins, John S, and Wesley R Elsberry, 2001, unedited version of a paper published in Biology and Philosophy 16 (November):711-724.
Biographical Information