The ID Report

Post details: Part 1: First, how and why did intelligent design get started and why did it grow so quickly?

10/23/06

by Denyse O'Leary 08:09:15 pm, Categories: Commentary -Events, 395 words

Part 1: First, how and why did intelligent design get started and why did it grow so quickly?

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

Forget every conspiracy theory you know on the subject.

Either you think the universe is

- top down, in which case mind comes first and creates matter. (Intelligent design, theism, traditional Eastern philosophy, and perennial philosophy are all in this camp.)

- bottom up, in which case mind accidentally arises from matter (Darwinism, universal Darwinism, and materialism are in this camp.)

Note that the two positions are not strictly identical to theism vs. atheism. It is true that the great majority of top downers are either theists or adherents of traditional non-theist religions such as Buddhism.

A very high proportion of the bottom uppers are atheists, compared with the general population.

Bottom up has been aggressively promoted since the late 19th century, even though the science evidence is mixed at best.

Note: Go here for the audio.

Atheists who insist that the evidence for bottom up is "overwhelming" are overwhelmed by the force of their own convictions. They mistake rock-like conviction for rock-solid evidence.

Top down has always been viable in science, but in recent decades it has not been popular. It is now making a comeback.

Not surprisingly, interpretations of the history of life that include design are emerging.

The intelligent design (ID) theorists speak the language of information theory , and information is not a material concept. That drives materialists crazy. Their main response from the materialist majority so far has been hostility and suppression.

(Note: You will occasionally hear materialists bellyaching that ID is merely the "new creationism" and that it got started because US courts have ruled that materialism but not fundamentalism can be taught in publicly funded schools. Such an explanation demonstrates the depth of the materialists' conviction that the public school system should finance their views from tax money.

The resultant growth in support for top down approaches to life is thus seen as a conspiracy and not as the natural development that it in fact is.

Go to Part 2: How do US media interpret the controversy over ID?

Toronto-based Canadian journalist Denyse O'Leary (www.designorchance.com) is the author of the multiple award-winning By Design or by Chance? (Augsburg Fortress 2004), an overview of the intelligent design controversy. She was named CBA Canada's Recommended Author of the Year in 2005 and is co-author, with Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, of the forthcoming The Spiritual Brain (Harper 2007).

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Evolution has become a favorite topic of the news media recently, but for some reason, they never seem to get the story straight. The staff at Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture started this Blog to set the record straight and make sure you knew "the rest of the story".
Intelligent Design Network (IDNet)
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A blogger from New England offers his intelligent reasoning.
International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design (ISCID)
Telic Thoughts
We are a group of individuals, coming from diverse backgrounds and not speaking for any organization, who have found common ground around teleological concepts, including intelligent design. We think these concepts have real potential to generate insights about our reality that are being drowned out by political advocacy from both sides. We hope this blog will provide a small voice that helps rectify this situation.
The Design Inference - The Writings of William A. Dembski
The Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center (IDEA)
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Website dedicated to comparing scenes from the "Inherit the Wind" movie with factual information from actual Scopes Trial. View 37 clips from the movie and decide for yourself if this movie is more fact or fiction.

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A Brief View of Time and Those That Live There
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Creation/Evolution Quotes
Australian biologist Stephen E. Jones maintains one of the best origins "quote" databases around. He is meticulous about accuracy and working from original sources.
CreationEvolutionDesign
Most guys going through midlife crisis buy a convertible. Austrialian Stephen E. Jones went back to college to get a biology degree and is now a proponent of ID and common ancestry.
Darwinian Fairytales by David Stove
Complete zipped downloadable pdf copy of David Stove's devastating, and yet hard-to-find, critique of neo-Darwinism entitled "Darwinian Fairytales"
ID The Future
Intelligent Design The Future is a multiple contributor weblog whose participants include the nation's leading design scientists and theorists: biochemist Michael Behe, mathematician William Dembski, astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, philosophers of science Stephen Meyer, and Jay Richards, philosopher of biology Paul Nelson, molecular biologist Jonathan Wells, and science writer Jonathan Witt. Posts will focus primarily on the intellectual issues at stake in the debate over intelligent design, rather than its implications for education or public policy.
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A Philosopher's Journey: Political and cultural reflections of John Mark N. Reynolds. Dr. Reynolds is Director of the Torrey Honors Institute at
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