Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism

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Book Reviews of Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism

Book Review: "Has the jury reached a verdict?"
Summary: 5 Stars

This is hardly a new exercise. Many authors have addressed the validity of ID, but the precision and expertise brought to bear by this group makes this collection unique. The various essayists dispassionately examine the ID contentions. Wisely avoiding the politics and polemics of the ID movement, the authors each consider elements on their merits. ID is considered here in its "scientific" and mathematical claims alone. Can "scientific creationism", an alias accepted by many ID adherents, be a valid approach to biology?

The editors note that after fitful beginnings, ID surged to public awareness with Michael Behe's 1996 book. Behe, who is a master at self-touting, claims his ideas should be "ranked as one of the greatest achievements in the history of science". However, the invitation to Stockholm has been noticeably missing. Behe's contentions have been refuted so many times by so many people, it seems redundant to review them here. His argument that certain features of life, flagellum, "the" eye and other mechanisms are "irreducibly complex" - take away one [of three!] part and the system fails. His unfortunate use of the mousetrap as a metaphor has resulted in some hilarious countering designs, the best of which remains Michael Ruse's single bent wire version. Far more significant, is Behe's expressed ignorance of evolutionary processes. As Matt Young and David Ussery point out in their respective essays, not only is the metaphor fallacious, Behe's use of the flagellum is a faulted example. Many of the components of the flagellum exist in certain microorganisms, busily doing other jobs. Behe simply overlooked what else the parts of his mousetrap might be good for. Ian Musgrave's account of the evolution of the bacterial flagellum is one of the more notable essays here.

Following Behe, the jury ponders the works of William Dembski. Dembski is the acknowledged "philosopher" of the ID movement. He's welcome to the title. Dembski's convoluted notions about the cosmos and life use arcane mathematical structures to "prove" "chance" cannot have generated either the universe nor life. Several essayists in "Why Intelligent Design Fails examine his contentions carefully. Dembski has argued for, but never presented evidence supporting, a "design inference". Taner Edis, Mark Perakh and Gary Hurd's essays address this and other pronouncements of Dembski's in detail. In brief, all of this "philosopher's" theses fail tests of logic and show no scientific foundation.

The nature of the subjects investigated in this collection and the scientific tests the authors apply, make this book a less than rapid read. The various authors must present the ID theses as best they can. Many of those notions beggar clear presentation since most are contrived and often self-contradictory within themselves. Even the later writings of ID proponents which might incorporate corrections have failed to explain or correct false ideas. As the concluding essay notes, all the ID writings are based on a dogma, to which information is attached. Since this is the reverse of normal scientific procedure, analysis is impaired. Yet, this jury has carefully considered the evidence. Their judgment is valid - ID is not science. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

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