By
William A. Dembski
With
Addendum by Jonathan Wells
Mike Gene and I used
to be quite active on a private listserve some years back. I even arranged for
him to give a keynote address at a private ID conference in the fall of 1997.
When we were on that listserve together, I used to keep many of his posts
because I thought that they were so insightful (unfortunately many were lost
when a computer virus chewed up my email program). In all that time I do not
recall ever taking sharp exception to him. But this time it's happened. My beef
centers on Mike's comments on my exchange with Scott and Branch.
Scott and Branch write:
"Thus, school board members and administrators would be ill-advised to
include ID in the public school science curriculum. If the scholarly aspect of
ID becomes established–if ID truly becomes incorporated into the scientific
mainstream–then, and only then, should school boards consider whether to add it
to the curriculum."
I had in my response remarked that Scott and Branch's comment about my work and
that of Michael Behe not having fared well in the scientific community was
besides the point because it had not been refuted. In response to this Mike
Gene remarked:
"S&B raise the most compelling reason to keep ID out of the schools.
And it doesn't even have to be in the 'mainstream.' The simple fact that ID has
not established itself in the scientific community is all we need to deny ID's
entry into a high school curriculum. The counter-argument about ID not being
refuted is weak. We don't teach kids things 'as long as they have not been
refuted.' If we are to teach them science, we must teach them the facts,
theories, and hypotheses used by scientists. And I'm afraid that the appeal to
the few places where ID is discussed in the scientific literature (as mentioned
by Dembski) don't counter S&B's claims. They point out that these ideas
'have not [been] applied' 'in researching scientific problems.' Yes, there was
the mention of the JMB paper. But unless we can be specific and open about it,
it hardly amounts to a reason to teach ID in schools. And yes, in a strange
way, Thornhill and Ussery do apply the concept of IC as an impetus to outline
possible mechanisms of evolutionary change. But they are simply trying to
counter the 'IC means it can't evolve' claim. They were not using it as a true
guide to research a biological phenomena (although I think it can be done, as
explained on Brainstorms)."
To this Mike Gene then added:
"I'm in strong agreement with Scott and Branch on this point."
Indeed, we do not teach things in science simply because they have not been
refuted. But I do not view my work on the design inference or Michael Behe's
work on irreducible complexity of biochemical systems in the same category of
"nonrefuted" as the claim that "gnomes and goblins have not
refuted because no one has definitively shown that they do not exist." Our
ideas are under intense discussion and we have many supporters in the
scientific community (including experts in our respective disciplines), though
certainly the majority is not with us at this point.
Now, what does all this say about the teaching of ID? Mike, along with S&B,
takes the "high road" that ID must first be developed further as a
scientific and scholarly program before it may be legitimately taught in public
school science curricula. Before the dissolution of my ID think tank at Baylor,
my sentiments were largely the same. But I've come to reject this view
entirely. Here are the relevant considerations from my end:
(1) Evolutionary biology has been so hugely unsuccessful as a scientific theory
in accounting for the origin of life and the emergence of biological complexity
that it does not deserve a monopoly regardless what state of formation ID has
reached.
(2) ID is logically speaking the only alternative to evolutionary biology.
Either material mechanisms can do all the work in biological origins or some
telic process is additionally required.
(3) Why should ID supporters allow the Darwinian establishment to indoctrinate
students at the high school level, only to divert some of the brightest to
becoming supporters of a mechanistic account of evolution, when by presenting
ID at the high school level some of these same students would go on to careers
trying to develop ID as a positive research program? If ID is going to succeed
as a research program, it will need workers, and these are best recruited at a
young age. The Darwinists undestand this. So do the ID proponents. There is a
sociological dimension to science and to the prospering of scientific theories,
and this cannot be ignored if ID is going to become a thriving research
program.
My response to Scott and Branch was a puff piece -- a bit of rhetorical
posturing to balance out their rhetorical posturing. The NCSE, of which they
are a part, is best considered a group of paid advocates for the Darwinian
establishment (and no, the same cannot be said for me on the ID side -- I'm not
receiving any Discovery Institute funding, and when my contract at Baylor is
up, I'll need to find another academic job).
It's all very convenient for Mike Gene to adopt a pseudonymous persona and
discuss the appropriate time for ID to be introduced into the high school
biology curriculum. In the neat and sanitized world of Internet discussions,
this works just fine, and Mike and keep his coterie of hangers-on happy by
taking the "high road." But come out of the shadows long enough to
feel the brunt of the Darwinian establishment, and things look very different.
=-=-=-=-=-
Bill Dembski wrote:
>
> Evolutionary biology has been so hugely unsuccessful as a scientific
> theory in accounting for the origin of life and the emergence of
> biological complexity that it does not deserve a monopoly
> regardless what state of formation ID has reached.
>
I agree.
In fact, the ONLY reason Darwinian evolution enjoys its present status is
that it can claim to be the best naturalistic theory of life's origin and
biological complexity. (Indeed, this may be the only completely truthful
claim Darwinism makes). Any reasonably objective evaluation of the
evidence, however, quickly reveals that at most levels Darwinian theory is
not just unsupported -- it has been falsified.
For example, modern Darwinists predict that a living cell can arise
spontaneously from non-living chemicals. This prediction has never been
even remotely supported by experiments, no matter how sophisticated. If I
put a living cell into an ideal buffer solution in a clean test tube and
poke a hole in it, its contents will leak out, and I will have in hand ALL
the complex molecules and structures necessary to make a living cell; but
every biologist knows I won't be able to do it. Even with all of modern
technology at my disposal, I can't put humpty-dumpty back together again.
Why any rational person thinks such complex molecules could originate
spontaneously and then assemble themselves into a living cell is beyond me.
I could list other examples: At the level of the animal phyla, the more we
learn about the fossil record the worse it is for Darwin's theory; the more
we learn about genetics the worse it is for neo-Darwinism's theory that
changes in gene frequencies lead to evolutionary changes in anatomy (except
perhaps the LOSS of morphological features); and the more we learn about
complex intracellular structures the more they look like things we KNOW to
be designed.
Of course Darwin's theory works within species (for example, in the
acquisition of bacterial antibiotic resistance, or minor and reversible
changes in finch beaks). Above the species level, however, Darwin's theory
has met with so little success that if it had been a theory in physics or
chemistry it would have been discarded long ago.
I have read in several textbooks that "creation science" (i.e. young-earth
creationism, or YEC) has been empirically refuted, so it should not be
taught in science classes. One does not need to take a position on the
validity of YEC to see that this same criterion, when applied to the larger
claims of Darwinian evolution, would also justify its exclusion from the
science classroom -- if it were not for the fact that it remains the best
naturalistic account. The persistence of Darwinism is not due to its
success as empirical science, but (as Phillip Johnson has often said) its
usefulness as applied naturalistic philosophy.
Nevertheless, ID proponents are not arguing that the larger (and largely
falsified) claims of Darwinian evolution should be dropped from the
curriculum. Instead, ID proponents are merely arguing (1) that the evidence
be presented honestly, so students can use their perfectly good minds to
decide whether the theory works or not; and (2) that Darwinian theory (like
every other scientific theory) be required to compete evidentially with a
reasonable alternative -- even if that alternative happens NOT to be driven
by naturalistic philosophy. Darwinists resist both these options as though
the whole scientific enterprise were at stake.
And indeed it is -- but not for the reasons Darwinists trumpet. The future
of the scientific enterprise is at stake because (in biology, at least) it
is currently held hostage by a relatively small number of dogmatists.
Darwinists achieved their monopoly over biological science by systematically
distorting the evidence and by ruthlessly expelling dissidents (why else
would Mike B. Gene feel the need to write under a pseudonym?). Not
surprisingly, this biological equivalent of the dictatorship of the
proletariat wants to exclude from the curriculum ALL challenges to its
power.
I say: Keep up the pressure on them, by all truthful and ethical means
necessary. At stake is not just the future of science, but (as Ben Wiker's
new book, Moral Darwinism clearly shows) the future of our civilization.
Jonathan Wells
Discovery Institute