Intelligent Design | Page 110 | Discovery Institute

^{William A. Dembski
August 18, 2009
Intelligent Design}

Conservation of Information in Search

_{William A. Dembski
August 18, 2009
Intelligent Design}

Abstract: Conservation of information theorems indicate that any search algorithm performs, on average, as well as random search without replacement unless it takes advantage of problem-specific information about the search target or the search-space structure. Combinatorics shows that even a moderately sized search requires problem-specific information to be successful. Computers, despite their speed in performing queries, are completely inadequate for resolving even moderately sized search problems without accurate information to guide them. We propose three measures to characterize the information required for successful search: 1) endogenous information, which measures the difficulty of finding a target using random search; 2) exogenous information, which measures the difficulty that remains in finding a target once a search takes advantage of problem-specific information; and 3) active information, which, as the difference between endogenous and exogenous information, measures the contribution of problem-specific information for successfully finding a target. This paper develops a methodology based on these information measures to gauge the effectiveness with which problem-specific information facilitates successful search. It then applies this methodology to various search tools widely used in evolutionary search.

A “Heretic” in Jewish Terms? Someone Who Denies Intelligent Design

_{David Klinghoffer
August 12, 2009
Intelligent Design}

Last week some readers of this blog had a hard time accepting that the rabbinic term “apikoros,” a kind of heretic, denotes someone who rejects — if I may use the contemporary term — intelligent design. One fellow, by a rigorous Google search, even believed he’d found Internet-based proof that an apikoros designates a Christian! Um, no. The Mishnah uses Read More ›

^{Ben Stein
August 10, 2009
Intelligent Design}

Expelled From the New York Times

_{Ben Stein
August 10, 2009
Intelligent Design}

My sister nailed it many years ago when she said, “Your basic human is not such a hot item.”

Keep that filed in your head as I tell my little tale.

About five or six years ago, roughly, I was solicited to write a column every two weeks for the Sunday New York Times Business Section. I was really thrilled. I have written for the Washington Post (when I was a teenager), for the Wall Street Journal edit page under the legendary Bob Bartley, for Barron’s, under the really great Alan Abelson and Jim Meagher, for my beloved American Spectator, under the great Bob and Wlady, and now having a regular column at the Times was going to be great stuff.

The column went well. I got lots of excellent fan mail and fine feedback from my editors, who, however, kept changing.

The first real super problem I had was when the movie I narrated and co-wrote, Expelled — No Intelligence Allowed, was in progress. A “science writer” for the Times blasted the movie on the front page and noted that I, whom she repeatedly called “…a freelance writer…” (not a columnist) for the Times, was somehow involved. That was followed by a really fantastically angry blast against the movie by a reviewer who really hated it a lot. (I note that the Times also disliked Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Hmm.)

Expelled was a plea for open discussion of the possibility that life might have started with an Intelligent Designer. This idea, that freedom of academic discussion on an issue as to which there is avid scientific disagreement has value, seems obvious to me. But it drives the atheists and neo-Darwinists crazy and they responded viciously.

New Video Shows DNA Evidence for Intelligent Design

_{Discovery Institute
August 10, 2009
Intelligent Design}

A new video, Journey Inside The Cell, launched today at www.SignatureInTheCell.com dramatically illustrates the evidence for intelligent design within DNA, as described in Stephen C. Meyer’s book, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperOne 2009). Read More ›

^{Discovery Institute
August 5, 2009
Intelligent Design}

Journey Inside The Cell

_{Discovery Institute
August 5, 2009
Intelligent Design}

This animation shows how the digital information encoded in DNA directs protein synthesis inside the cell and provides a unique look at the evidence for intelligent design as described in Dr. Stephen C. Meyers book Signature in the Cell. For more information visit http://www.signatureinthecell.com

Portrait of a samurai in armor in attack position

^{John G. West
August 1, 2009
Intelligent Design}

Samurai Bioethics

_{John G. West
August 1, 2009
Intelligent Design}

Because they are trying to avoid the stigma of being associated with “fundamentalists”, a number of conservative intellectuals appear all too willing to postpone indefinitely the serious questions raised by Darwinism. Read More ›

^{Stephen C. Meyer and Bruce Chapman
July 21, 2009
Intelligent Design}

Signature in the Cell – Book Release Party

_{Stephen C. Meyer and Bruce Chapman
July 21, 2009
Intelligent Design}

Dr. Stephen Meyer lectures on his book Signature in the Cell in which he argues that the information in DNA and the query of the origin of life points to an intelligent source. The book came out on the bicentennial of Darwin’s birth and and the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of On the Origin of Species.

^{The Center for Science and Culture
July 21, 2009
Intelligent Design}

Signature in the Cell Book Release Party

_{The Center for Science and Culture
July 21, 2009
Intelligent Design}

Book release party for Signature in the Cell 7pm, July 21st at Plestcheeff Auditorium at the Seattle Art Museum. REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED, BUT WE HAVE SPACE FOR UP TO 50 PEOPLE AT THE DOOR ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASISDoors open at 6:30pm for Walk-ins In Signature in the Cell (HarperOne, June 23rd), CSC Director Stephen Meyer presents Read More ›

Declaration of independence 4th july 1776 close up

^{Stephen C. Meyer
July 15, 2009
Intelligent Design}

Did Founding Father Thomas Jefferson Support Intelligent Design?

_{Stephen C. Meyer
July 15, 2009
Intelligent Design}

In the battle over how to teach evolution in public schools, Thomas Jefferson’s demand for a “separation between church and state’’ has been cited countless times. Many argue that the controversial alternative to Darwinian evolution, intelligent design, is an exclusively religious idea and therefore cannot be discussed under the Constitution. By invoking Jefferson’s principle of separation, many critics of intelligent Read More ›

^{Bruce Chapman
July 8, 2009
Intelligent Design}

Collins Appointment May Stir Unexpected Controversy

_{Bruce Chapman
July 8, 2009
Intelligent Design}

The President’s nomination of former Human Genome Project head Francis Collins to lead the National Institutes of Health must have seemed like a felicitous decision at the White House. Collins lately has been a popular speaker on science and religion around the country, assuring Christians that there is no problems linking faith in God and faith in Darwinian evolution. But Read More ›