Sunday, August 28, 2005

George Will Corrected on Intelligent Design by an Intelligent Agent

I've often discussed the false claims made about intelligent design by conservatives who are often right on other issues. William Dembski recently wrote a letter to George Will, regarding Will's false argument that intelligent design is untestable. I recommend reading the letter.

Will corrections from such knowledgeable sources change George Will's approach toward this issue? I don't know, but I'm skeptical that it will make much of a change. Proponents of intelligent design are criticized so much, and being out of step with popular scholarly and media beliefs on an issue like this can have a lot of negative consequences. The popularity of evolution in scholarly and media circles may be sufficient to keep somebody like George Will from saying much in criticism of evolution, even if somebody like William Dembski refutes Will's primary professed objection to intelligent design.