Not that war.

This war.

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Mike Gene often admits that his investigations involving his intelligent design hypotheses are not science, just his hobby.

I disagree. As I explained in a comment at another thread:
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Over at his blog, The Design Matrix, Mike Gene offers what he considers his top 10 posts of 2009. If someone wanted to acquaint themselves with what Mike's approach to ID is all about, reading these would provide a pretty good introduction. Read the rest of this entry »

In his book, The Design Matrix, Mike Gene makes a dichotomy between two approaches that proponents have to the question of Intelligent Design. He labels the first approach "The Traditional Template." Basically, it tries to prove that ID is true by establishing that a certain thing that looks designed (analogy) is too improbable (discontinuity) to have arisen through non-intelligent processes. As an example, Michael Behe tries to prove that it is too improbable for certain molecular machines to have come about without the aid of ID. Read the rest of this entry »

It's that time of the year again. No, not Spring. Not Easter. Not bunnies. It's candy sale time! I took my little girls door-to-door today so the oldest one could sell her school candy. And boy, are they good. Earlier, the oldest had her younger sister practicing what to say when people answered the door. They had that cuteness thing going for them big time.

We hit about 50 houses, but these days, most people aren't home or don't answer their doors. I'd guess about 20 answered and of those 20, the girls made 18 sales. As for the two misfires, one guy just didn't want any. But the other house has become a memory.

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Sheesh, things can get out of hand in cyberspace. Okay, peace has been restored just in time for the new week. Let's move on and get this behind us.

As many know, I do not think ID qualifies as science and neither do I think it functions well as apologetics. I view it is a potential explanation that merits investigating. But an investigation should be open-ended and the investigator should be as unbiased as possible (I speak about this in the book). Otherwise, the investigation is just an attempt to prove or disprove what one already believes and is thus prone to confirmation or disconfirmation bias.

Yet I am also a theist. So how can a theist investigate something as big as ID in a truly open-ended, open-minded manner?

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Since it won't be much longer before I'm signing books, I would like to take this moment to reflect a bit and express genuine gratitude. The last year has been a tremendously difficult one for me. Readers of this blog know all too well of my aggravation with my book's delay and you also know it was not the best of years in terms of my health. I have also been plagued by many other forms of stress that I can not share. It's difficult to explain, but because of all this, sometimes I have questioned whether I should have even bothered writing The Design Matrix. What has sustained me through this time is you people.

I cannot tell you how much I am encouraged by y'all. Your diversity of thought and views, your support, your open-mindedness and restraint, your willingness to ponder these issues without the baggage of the political sideshow, even your willingness to oblige my kooky sense of humor – all of this has been a source of encouragement for me. At a time when the larger culture stakes out polarized positions and defends them with malicious language, stereotypes and propaganda, many of you remind me daily that there are indeed people out there like me, people who thirst for an honest discussion and debate about these issues, people willing to stray from the beaten path to explore something new. You remind me daily why I wrote my book.

For this I say"¦.thank you.

Several months ago, I herniated an intervertebral disc in my neck. What that meant was simple "“ a world of PAIN. What began as excruciating pain became omnipresent pain. The only escape from the pain was sleep and the pain made sure such escape was short-lived; I was going on no more than four hours a sleep per night for well over a month. So pain teamed up with fatigue to define my life.

Of course, I know this is not the worse pain that can be experienced. But maybe its easy to say that now because I am healed. If you have never gone through this experience, imagine an intense tooth ache in your shoulder joint and elbow joint, such that you are always aware of its constant throbbing. Imagine someone taking the end of a broom handle, sticking it under the lower edge of your shoulder blade, and then pressing for weeks on end, causing every muscle in your upper back to tighten like bands of steel. If you have never experienced this pain, my words probably don't quite communicate the reality that I experienced. Which leads me to this post.

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When you consider all the sideshows and all the hostility, what is it that allows me to keep my eye on the ID ball? What is it that drives this ID conceptualization? There are four considerations.

1. There are data from the world that, from my perspective, function as genuine clues for the design of life and these clues spawn a genuine suspicion. Some of this will be spelled out more in first volume of The Design Matrix.

2. I don't see any data that push me into accepting a non-teleological origin of life. You would think that with all the tremendous advances in the biological sciences over the last 50 years, tremendous leaps in abiogenesis studies would also track with the rest of science. And when a leading scientist seriously contemplates multiverses to explain the origin of life by chance, that does not instill confidence on the non-teleological perspective.

3. My experience with scientific critics over the years has taught me that very few people know how to think about the possibility of the design of life. When we filter away all the political posturing, the methods people envision entail a robust database about the designer(s) and/or a need to see evolution disproved. Beyond that, there's not much there. Thus, if there is anything to my suspicions, I will get only minimal help by consulting conventional experts and their work.

4. The topic itself is actually quite fascinating to me, as I have explained before. What's more, the ID conceptualization has opened doors, allowing me to make connections I might not have noticed before.

Taken together, this is more than enough reason to keep my eye on the ID ball.

Over a year ago, I hosted the first MikeGene Complaints Dept. I guess it's time for another one.

Periodically, there are people in cyberspace who have a complaint about something they think I said. More often than not, such complaints are rooted in misunderstanding or taking things out of context. So if you have a complaint about me or about something I have written on the Internet, here is the chance to publicly air those complaints. Maybe your complaints are valid. If so, it will become apparent to most readers. As such, I can either apologize or dig myself deeper into the hole. On the other hand, maybe your complaints are rooted in misunderstanding. In that case, it would be helpful for me to explain the nature of this misunderstanding.

Have a complaint? Welcome to the MikeGene Complaints Dept. How can I help you?

Over at The Questionable Authority, Mike Dunford issues the following blanket statement:

The Intelligent Design folks, on the other hand, loudly declare that they are indifferent to religion every chance that they get. They have no choice. Their mission is to destroy good science education for every child in the public schools of America, and they can't do that if they are obviously driven by religious motives.

Since I'm often on the receiving end of such sloppy stereotypes, and I can only speak for myself, I thought I'd better clean up the mess and set the record straight.

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Don't say I didn't warn ya.

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Here, here and here.