Thursday, May 11, 2006
Was That "Critics" or "Crickets"?
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You may have seen John Rennie's post over at Scientific American's blog about the rigging of the supposed challenge to ID's superstars by "critics" that is scheduled to take place tomorrow, May 12th. Not only is it taking place at Biola (as in "Bible Institute of Los Angeles") University, already much associated with ID and presumably a friendly venue, but the critics are of doubtful ability. After noting that a number of the ID advocates, including Behe, Gonzalez and Wells, are scientifically trained and even Steve Meyer has some background in geophysics, Rennie compares that to the list of critics:
I have no reason to doubt the sincerity of the questioners, but am skeptical of their qualifications and readiness to participate in this event . . . [The] questioners, on the other hand, consist of one biochemist (Weber), a journalist, and three philosophers/theologians. The critics do not sound well qualified to push the scientific argument against ID, and if the ID panel responds with a lot of scientistic sophistry, I don't think they'll be called on it.
Today there is more information about how this panel of "critics" came to be. It seems that Michael Shermer, noted skeptic and someone who has already debated Dembski, Nelson, and Meyer at universities around the country, was asked by the organizer of this event if he would participate but he was told that he would have to sit in the audience and would only be allowed to ask one question. As Shermer puts it:
Yeah, like it comes as a surprise . . . .I again explained that not only have I debated all these guys, and have a book coming out in August that presents all of their arguments and all of the critiques of those arguments, but that I even have a powerpoint presentation ready to go that presents their arguments one by one, numbered, labeled, and with pretty pictures of flagella, which I had recently presented for the Caltech biology department. And I told him that I thought his so-called "critics" were hardly the A-list of ID skeptics. I even told him that I'd do it for free, and that Biola is less than an hour's drive from my home.
But no, he explained, I was not quite what they are looking for in a panelist. I'm quite sure I understand what he means....
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