Uncommon Dissent
Encyclopedia
Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing is a 2004 anthology edited by William Dembski in which fifteen intellectuals, eight of whom are leading intelligent design
proponents associated with the Discovery Institute
's Center for Science and Culture
(CSC) and the International Society for Complexity, Information and Design
(ISCID), criticise "Darwinism
" and make a case for intelligent design. It is published by the publishing wing of the paleoconservative Intercollegiate Studies Institute
. The foreword is by John Wilson, editor of the evangelical Christian magazine Christianity Today
. The title is a pun on the principle of biology known as common descent
. The Discovery Institute is the engine behind the intelligent design movement
.
Phillip E. Johnson's contribution is a reprint of his 1990 First Things
essay "Evolution as Dogma". Marcel-Paul Schützenberger's "The Miracles of Darwinism" is a reprint of a 1996 interview with La Recherche
. David Berlinski's "The Deniable Darwin" is a reprint of a 1996 Commentary
essay, along with his responses to critics. The other contributions were specifically commissioned for Uncommon Dissent.
In a 2004 review on its Web site, the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture describes Uncommon Dissent as "a summary of the widespread attack upon Darwinism by some of today’s leading intellectuals." Mathematics professor and intelligent-design critic Jason Rosenhouse points out that the subtitle says "intellectuals", not "scientists", and adds that "[v]ery few of the contributors hold PhD's in any field related to biology. ... The ID folks are constantly telling us that evolution is failing as a scientific paradigm, and that scientists are jumping ship in droves. But when they have a chance to put together an anthology of testimonials authored by people who dissent from modern evolutionary theory, they have to resort to philosophers, lawyers or scientists who do not work in any field related to biology."
The book's introduction characterizes Darwinism by the "central claim" that "an unguided physical process can account for the emergence of all biological complexity and diversity".
Contributor James Barham argues that "it is incorrect to simply equate Darwinism with belief in evolution." He distinguishes empirical Darwinism ("the idea that the formation of new species is due to random changes in individual organisms that happen to be 'selected' by the environment") from metaphysical Darwinism (the claim that "the theory of natural selection has successfully reduced all teleological and normative
phenomena to the interplay of chance and necessity, thus eliminating purpose and value from our picture of the world"). For Barham, the "real problem with the evolution debate" is not empirical Darwinism, but a sort of "theory creep" in which a "bold but circumscribed scientific claim" (empirical Darwinism) becomes conflated with "a much more sweeping philosophical claim" (metaphysical Darwinism).
Robert C. Koons says in Uncommon Dissent that "if evolution is defined broadly enough, there's little doubt that it has occurred." He sees the "defining differential element" of the modern synthesis as the view that "the probability of the occurrence of any mutation
is unrelated to its prospective contribution to the functionality of any structure, present or future", and argues that "the natural presumption about the cause of life" lies against this view, and instead with a teleological "intelligent agency position".
Contributor Edward Sisson sees the key question in the debate over biological evolution as whether all life is "the result of chance events occurring in DNA
(or perhaps elsewhere) that are then 'selected' in some fashion without the need of any guiding intelligence", thereby undergoing "unintelligent evolution", or whether at least some of the diversity of life on earth can be explained only through "intelligent evolution", in which "an intelligent designer (or designers)" causes preexisting species to undergo designed changes in DNA. His view is that "no data has been found that amounts to real evidence for unintelligent evolution as the explanation for the diversity of life", that "science is ignorant of how the diversity of life came to be", and that "an intelligent cause is necessary to explain at least some of the diversity of life as we see it".
, and that community rejects intelligent design, with critics such as Barbara Forrest
and Paul R. Gross
saying that design proponents seek to destroy evolution and that they employ intentional ambiguity and conflation
in using "Darwinism" synonymously with evolution.
Of Uncommon Dissent computational physicist and an assistant professor of physics Taner Edis writes:
The testimony of Barbara Forrest in the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
trial contributed to the ruling that intelligent design is not science and essentially religious in nature. In her expert witness report Forrest presented Nancy R. Pearcey's section in Uncommon Dissent as evidence of that religious nature.
Evolutionary and historical researcher John M. Lynch describes Uncommon Dissent:
Of the fifteen intellectuals in the book he says:
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
proponents associated with the Discovery Institute
Discovery Institute
The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
's Center for Science and Culture
Center for Science and Culture
The Center for Science and Culture , formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture , is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States...
(CSC) and the International Society for Complexity, Information and Design
International Society for Complexity, Information and Design
The International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design was a non-profit professional society that promoted intelligent design...
(ISCID), criticise "Darwinism
Darwinism
Darwinism is a set of movements and concepts related to ideas of transmutation of species or of evolution, including some ideas with no connection to the work of Charles Darwin....
" and make a case for intelligent design. It is published by the publishing wing of the paleoconservative Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Inc., or ', is a non-profit educational organization founded in 1953 as the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists...
. The foreword is by John Wilson, editor of the evangelical Christian magazine Christianity Today
Christianity Today
Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...
. The title is a pun on the principle of biology known as common descent
Common descent
In evolutionary biology, a group of organisms share common descent if they have a common ancestor. There is strong quantitative support for the theory that all living organisms on Earth are descended from a common ancestor....
. The Discovery Institute is the engine behind the intelligent design movement
Intelligent design movement
The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the idea of "intelligent design," which asserts that "certain features of the universe and of living things are...
.
Contributors
The fifteen "dissenting intellectuals" are:- William A. DembskiWilliam A. DembskiWilliam Albert "Bill" Dembski is an American proponent of intelligent design, well known for promoting the concept of specified complexity...
, mathematician, philosopher, theologian, leading intelligent design proponent, CSC Senior Fellow, ISCID Founder - Robert KoonsRobert KoonsRobert Koons is a professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas . Koons has advocated for academic freedom and courses on Western civilization...
, philosopher, theologian, Christian apologist, CSC Fellow, ISCID Fellow - Phillip E. JohnsonPhillip E. JohnsonPhillip E. Johnson is a retired UC Berkeley law professor and author. He became a born-again Christian while a tenured professor and is considered the father of the intelligent design movement...
, law professor, Christian apologist, "father" of the intelligent design movement, CSC Program Advisor - late Marcel-Paul SchützenbergerMarcel-Paul SchützenbergerMarcel-Paul "Marco" Schützenberger was a French mathematician and Doctor of Medicine. His work had impact across the fields of formal language, combinatorics, and information theory...
, mathematician - Nancy R. Pearcey, Christian apologist, CSC Fellow
- Edward Sisson, attorney
- J. BudziszewskiJ. BudziszewskiJ. Budziszewski is professor of government at the University of Texas, Austin, where he has taught since 1981. He specializes in ethics, political philosophy and the interaction of these two fields with religion and theology....
, philosopher, CSC Fellow, ISCID Fellow - Frank J. TiplerFrank J. TiplerFrank Jennings Tipler is a mathematical physicist and cosmologist, holding a joint appointment in the Departments of Mathematics and Physics at Tulane University. Tipler has authored books and papers on the Omega Point, which he claims is a mechanism for the resurrection of the dead. It has been...
, mathematical physicist, ISCID Fellow - Michael J. Behe, biochemist, leading intelligent design proponent, CSC Senior Fellow, ISCID Fellow
- Michael John Denton, biochemist
- James Barham, independent scholar
- Cornelius G. Hunter, biophysicist, CSC Fellow, ISCID Fellow
- Roland F. Hirsch, analytical chemist
- Christopher Michael LanganChristopher Michael LanganChristopher Michael Langan is an American autodidact whose IQ was reported by 20/20 and other media sources to have been measured at between 195 and 210. Billed by some media sources as "the smartest man in America", he rose to prominence in 1999 while working as a bouncer on Long Island...
, ISCID Fellow - David BerlinskiDavid BerlinskiDavid Berlinski is an American educator and author of several books on mathematics. Berlinski is a Senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, the hub of the intelligent design movement. Though he criticizes the theory of evolution, Berlinski who is an agnostic,...
, popular mathematics author, CSC Senior Fellow
Phillip E. Johnson's contribution is a reprint of his 1990 First Things
First Things
First Things is an ecumenical journal focused on creating a "religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society". The journal is inter-denominational and inter-religious, representing a broad intellectual tradition of Christian and Jewish critique of contemporary society...
essay "Evolution as Dogma". Marcel-Paul Schützenberger's "The Miracles of Darwinism" is a reprint of a 1996 interview with La Recherche
La Recherche
La Recherche is a monthly French language popular science magazine covering recent scientific news. It is published by the Société d'éditions scientifiques , a subsidiary of Financière Tallandier....
. David Berlinski's "The Deniable Darwin" is a reprint of a 1996 Commentary
Commentary (magazine)
Commentary is a monthly American magazine on politics, Judaism, social and cultural issues. It was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945. By 1960 its editor was Norman Podhoretz, a liberal at the time who moved sharply to the right in the 1970s and 1980s becoming a strong voice for the...
essay, along with his responses to critics. The other contributions were specifically commissioned for Uncommon Dissent.
In a 2004 review on its Web site, the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture describes Uncommon Dissent as "a summary of the widespread attack upon Darwinism by some of today’s leading intellectuals." Mathematics professor and intelligent-design critic Jason Rosenhouse points out that the subtitle says "intellectuals", not "scientists", and adds that "[v]ery few of the contributors hold PhD's in any field related to biology. ... The ID folks are constantly telling us that evolution is failing as a scientific paradigm, and that scientists are jumping ship in droves. But when they have a chance to put together an anthology of testimonials authored by people who dissent from modern evolutionary theory, they have to resort to philosophers, lawyers or scientists who do not work in any field related to biology."
Topics addressed
The book contains four sections: Part I: A Crisis of Confidence; Part II: Darwinism's Cultural Inroads; Part III: Leaving the Darwinian Fold; and Part IV: Auditing the Books. Part I, consisting of three essays, offers opinions on why Darwinism is questioned by the public at large. Part II, consisting of four essays, discusses the authors' opinions on the effects Darwinism has had on society and culture. Part III, consisting of three essays, deals with the personal intellectual journeys of contributors Behe, Denton, and Barham, whose attitudes toward Darwinism have changed through their lives. Part IV, consisting of four essays, presents the authors' opinions on the consistency and scope of Darwinism.The book's introduction characterizes Darwinism by the "central claim" that "an unguided physical process can account for the emergence of all biological complexity and diversity".
Contributor James Barham argues that "it is incorrect to simply equate Darwinism with belief in evolution." He distinguishes empirical Darwinism ("the idea that the formation of new species is due to random changes in individual organisms that happen to be 'selected' by the environment") from metaphysical Darwinism (the claim that "the theory of natural selection has successfully reduced all teleological and normative
Norm (philosophy)
Norms are concepts of practical import, oriented to effecting an action, rather than conceptual abstractions that describe, explain, and express. Normative sentences imply “ought-to” types of statements and assertions, in distinction to sentences that provide “is” types of statements and assertions...
phenomena to the interplay of chance and necessity, thus eliminating purpose and value from our picture of the world"). For Barham, the "real problem with the evolution debate" is not empirical Darwinism, but a sort of "theory creep" in which a "bold but circumscribed scientific claim" (empirical Darwinism) becomes conflated with "a much more sweeping philosophical claim" (metaphysical Darwinism).
Robert C. Koons says in Uncommon Dissent that "if evolution is defined broadly enough, there's little doubt that it has occurred." He sees the "defining differential element" of the modern synthesis as the view that "the probability of the occurrence of any mutation
Mutation
In molecular biology and genetics, mutations are changes in a genomic sequence: the DNA sequence of a cell's genome or the DNA or RNA sequence of a virus. They can be defined as sudden and spontaneous changes in the cell. Mutations are caused by radiation, viruses, transposons and mutagenic...
is unrelated to its prospective contribution to the functionality of any structure, present or future", and argues that "the natural presumption about the cause of life" lies against this view, and instead with a teleological "intelligent agency position".
Contributor Edward Sisson sees the key question in the debate over biological evolution as whether all life is "the result of chance events occurring in DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
(or perhaps elsewhere) that are then 'selected' in some fashion without the need of any guiding intelligence", thereby undergoing "unintelligent evolution", or whether at least some of the diversity of life on earth can be explained only through "intelligent evolution", in which "an intelligent designer (or designers)" causes preexisting species to undergo designed changes in DNA. His view is that "no data has been found that amounts to real evidence for unintelligent evolution as the explanation for the diversity of life", that "science is ignorant of how the diversity of life came to be", and that "an intelligent cause is necessary to explain at least some of the diversity of life as we see it".
Reception by the scientific community
Evolution has broad acceptance within the scientific communityScientific community
The scientific community consists of the total body of scientists, its relationships and interactions. It is normally divided into "sub-communities" each working on a particular field within science. Objectivity is expected to be achieved by the scientific method...
, and that community rejects intelligent design, with critics such as Barbara Forrest
Barbara Forrest
Barbara Carroll Forrest is a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. She is a critic of intelligent design and the Discovery Institute.- Biography :...
and Paul R. Gross
Paul R. Gross
Paul R. Gross is a biologist and author, perhaps best known to the general public for Higher Superstition , written with Norman Levitt. Gross is the University Professor of Life Sciences at the University of Virginia; he previously served the university as Provost and Vice-President...
saying that design proponents seek to destroy evolution and that they employ intentional ambiguity and conflation
Conflation
Conflation occurs when the identities of two or more individuals, concepts, or places, sharing some characteristics of one another, become confused until there seems to be only a single identity — the differences appear to become lost...
in using "Darwinism" synonymously with evolution.
Of Uncommon Dissent computational physicist and an assistant professor of physics Taner Edis writes:
The testimony of Barbara Forrest in the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design...
trial contributed to the ruling that intelligent design is not science and essentially religious in nature. In her expert witness report Forrest presented Nancy R. Pearcey's section in Uncommon Dissent as evidence of that religious nature.
Evolutionary and historical researcher John M. Lynch describes Uncommon Dissent:
Of the fifteen intellectuals in the book he says:
External links
- "The Myths of Darwinism" - the book's introduction, by William Dembski
- "Evolution as Dogma: The Establishment of Naturalism" - Phillip E. Johnson's chapter
- "Refereed Journals: Do They Insure Quality or Enforce Orthodoxy?" - Frank Tipler's chapter
- Darwinian Evolutionary Theory and the Life Sciences in the 21st Century" - Roland F. Hirsch's chapter
- "The Deniable Darwin" - David Berlinksi's chapter
- Review of Uncommon Dissent by Jason Rosenhouse
- Review of Uncommon Dissent by John M. Lynch