[extropy-chat] Intelligent Design -- take *this*...

[Dirk Bruere]

On 12/20/05, Robert Bradbury <robert.bradbury at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The relatively conservative Judge John E. Jones III has ruled in the
> Dover, PA case [1].  Basically I.D. is out in PA and presumably
> surrounding regions.  How this impacts Kansas will probably need to still
> play out in the courts.  The extractions from the ruling, quoted by CNN, are
> quite interesting -- somewhat suggesting that "we can see you standing
> behind the curtain without even pulling it aside" (to use a Wizard of Oz
> analogy).
>
> Going back to my previous comments in this area -- I stand by my
> statements that I.D. is worthy of scientific discussion, particularly if
> presented from the perspective of (a) incomplete explanations for "jumps" in
> biological complexity (RNA life -> DNA life, prokaryotic -> eukaryotic,
> etc.); (b) whether or not our solar system was "set up" to run a computation
> using elemental computronium (rather than a virtual/simulated reality); and
> (c) whether or not we are running in a simulation.  Given that both Nick
> Bostrom and Robert Freitas have written papers related to (c) I consider it
> to be difficult for anyone to assert an exploration of I.D. to be a topic
> unworthy of scientific discussion.  I (personally) find various amounts of
> handwaving done by string theorists and experts in quantum mechanics
> (particularly if they involve assertions which *cannot* be disproved) to be
> just as bad as those of the creationists.
>
> After reading the Wikipedia entry on the background Discovery Institute, I
> was forced to conclude that their current efforts pushing I.D. are indeed
> a front for a conservative agenda.  Interestingly they appear to have *not*
> supported the recent efforts to push I.D. into the classroom apparently
> for fear of receiving the rejection which has now taken place both by the
> electorate and the legal system.
>
> Robert
>
> 1. http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/12/20/intelligent.design.ap/index.htm
>
>
BTW, do any of the orgs pushing ID mention the Simulation Argument?

Dirk
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