William A. Dembski | |
|---|---|
 Dembski in 2006 | |
| Born | July 18, 1960 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Education | University of Illinois at Chicago (BA, MS, PhD) University of Chicago (MS, PhD) Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv) |
| Known for | Intelligent design Specified complexity |
| Notable work | The Design Inference (1998) |
| Website | BillDembski.com |
William Albert Dembski (born July 18, 1960) is an American mathematician, philosopher and theologian. He was a proponent of intelligent design (ID) pseudoscience,[1] specifically the concept of specified complexity, and was a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture (CSC).[2] On September 23, 2016, he officially retired from intelligent design, resigning all his "formal associations with the ID community, including [his] Discovery Institute fellowship of 20 years".[3] A February 2021 interview in the CSC's blog Evolution News announced "his return to the intelligent design arena".[4]
In 2012, he taught as the Phillip E. Johnson Research Professor of Science and Culture at the Southern Evangelical Seminary in Matthews, North Carolina, near Charlotte.[5]
Dembski has written books about intelligent design, including The Design Inference (1998), Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology (1999), The Design Revolution (2004), The End of Christianity (2009), and Intelligent Design Uncensored (2010).
Intelligent design is the argument that an intelligent cause is responsible for the complexity of life and that one can detect that cause empirically.[6] Dembski postulated that probability theory can be used to prove irreducible complexity (IC) and what he called "specified complexity."[7] The scientific community sees intelligent design—and Dembski's concept of specified complexity—as a form of creationism attempting to portray itself as science.[8]
- ^ Boudry, Maarten; Blancke, Stefaan; Braeckman, Johan (December 2010). "Irreducible Incoherence and Intelligent Design: A Look into the Conceptual Toolbox of a Pseudoscience" (PDF). The Quarterly Review of Biology. 85 (4): 473–482. doi:10.1086/656904. hdl:1854/LU-952482. PMID 21243965. S2CID 27218269. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Article available from Universiteit Gent
- ^ "William A. Dembski, Senior Fellow - CSC". Discovery Institute. Seattle, WA: Discovery Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
A mathematician and philosopher, William A. Dembski is Senior Fellow with Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture.
- ^ "Official Retirement from Intelligent Design". September 23, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2016.
- ^ "William Dembski: Why I'm Returning to the Front Lines of Intelligent Design". Evolution News. February 16, 2021. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
- ^ "William Dembski". Southern Evangelical Seminary. Matthews, NC: Southern Evangelical Seminary. Archived from the original on July 3, 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- ^ Dembski, William A. (1996). "The Explanatory Filter: A three-part filter for understanding how to separate and identify cause from intelligent design" ("An excerpt from a paper presented at the 1996 Mere Creation conference, originally titled 'Redesigning Science.'"). Retrieved September 27, 2009. See Chapter 4 of Mere Creation (1998), "Redesigning Science".
- Wallis, Claudia (August 7, 2005). "The Evolution Wars". Time. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- "A War on Science". Science & Nature: TV & Radio Follow-up. London: BBC. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
- "A War on Science". Horizon. Series 42. Episode 13. January 26, 2006. BBC.
- Heeren, Fred (November 2000). "The Lynching of Bill Dembski". The American Spectator. Arlington, VA: American Spectator Foundation. Archived from the original on November 16, 2000. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
- ^ Dembski 1999, pp. 10, 107
- ^ Young & Edis 2004, pp. 1–19, 107–138, 185–196