{"id":88124,"date":"2020-09-16T10:20:38","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T16:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=88124"},"modified":"2020-09-20T22:39:43","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T04:39:43","slug":"the-design-inference-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/the-design-inference-part-3.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Design Inference\u201d (Part 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
It\u2019s scarcely coincidental that, if you scramble my name, \u201cDan,\u201d you get \u201cDNA.\u201d I\u2019m absolutely saturated with the stuff.\u00a0 (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Continued:<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to William Dembski, while both contingency and complexity are required for the inference of design to kick in, neither contingency nor complexity nor even a combination of the two is sufficient to fully justify<\/em> such an inference.\u00a0 Both<\/em> must be present. along with<\/em> what Dembski calls specificity<\/em> or specification<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If an object or an event is to be properly described as \u201cdesigned,\u201d he says, it must exhibit a pattern that is independent of mere improbability.\u00a0 Another way of putting this would be to say that the pattern of improbable and contingent factors in the event or object must be specified ahead of time, not merely fabricated after the fact.\u00a0 If, for example, you were to randomly throw a dart at the side of a barn, the dart would definitely land somewhere<\/em>.\u00a0 And its specific landing place would be, in a sense, improbable.\u00a0 After all, you had the entire barn wall in front of you, and the dart could have landed at virtually any place on that wall.\u00a0 So any specific place where it actually hit would be just one of many possible landing places.\u00a0 It would be random.\u00a0 But if, then, after your dart was already firmly stuck in the barn wall, you were to draw a circle around it and to begin to boast about your impressive dart-throwing prowess, given that you hit that particular place out of many possible others, that would be an after-the-fact fabrication.\u00a0 Only if you had told us in advance that you were going to hit, say, the apostrophe\u00a0in the faded sign on the barn wall for Professor Brown\u2019s Famous Elixir<\/em> \u2014 and only after you had<\/em> actually hit it \u2014 would you be in any position to boast.\u00a0 This would suggest real skill, and not mere luck.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The purpose of Dr. Dembki\u2019s \u201cdesign filter\u201d is to provide a considered and rigorous method for distinguishing instances of what he calls \u201cspecified complexity\u201d from the products of the mere interaction of chance and necessity.\u00a0 Specified complexity, he argues, is an indicator of the involvement, in the emergence of a given event or object, of intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So far, so good.\u00a0 So far, perhaps, not even very controversial.\u00a0 Where the (fierce) controversy ensues is when Dr. Dembski proposes to apply his \u201cdesign filter\u201d to objects or events in the natural world \u2014 to the macrocosm or universe at large and on the microcosmic level of the biological cell and the information content that it contains.\u00a0 To some, it appears, the very thought<\/em> of doing so is profoundly upsetting.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In outline, Dr. Dembski\u2019s application of the \u201cdesign filter\u201d goes as follows in a case where a designed object or event is successfully identified:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. X is either designed, or the result of random chance, or the result of necessity (natural law), or the result of a combination of chance and necessity.<\/li>\n
  2. X is not the result of chance or necessity or a combination of the two.<\/li>\n
  3. Therefore, X is the result of design.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    One of the examples of design that I gave in the first installment of this little mini-series<\/a> was Gutzon Borglum\u2019s famous array of sculpted presidential faces on Mount Rushmore, in South Dakota.\u00a0 Natural laws and random chance clearly explain Mount Rushmore itself.\u00a0 But the faces of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt that are carved into it cannot reasonably be explained as natural occurrences because of (1) their contingency, (2) their complexity, and (3) their independently-specified pattern \u2014 which is to say, the obvious fact that they were intended beforehand to depict four presidents of the United States of America.\u00a0 The sculptures on Mount Rushmore are, beyond reasonable dispute, products of intelligent design.\u00a0 And we would recognize this even if we were to stumble across them for the first time, seeing them from a sudden clearing in the trees and knowing nothing of either Gutzon Borglum or the history of the American presidency.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    To be continued.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u00a0 \u00a0 Continued: \u00a0 According to William Dembski, while both contingency and complexity are required for the inference of design to kick in, neither contingency nor complexity nor even a combination of the two is sufficient to fully justify such an inference.\u00a0 Both must be present. along with what Dembski calls specificity or specification. \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16619,9409,1152,1149,14551,4135,16233,16236,10253,71,8307,16196,16622,16193,16245,16239,984,10127,545,4619,677,123,16242,16483,16480,10130,16199],"class_list":["post-88124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ancient-scripture","tag-appearance-of-design","tag-brigham-young-university","tag-byu","tag-complex","tag-complexity","tag-contingency","tag-contingent","tag-cosmic","tag-cosmology","tag-cosmos","tag-dembski","tag-department-of-ancient-scripture","tag-design-inference","tag-event","tag-explanatory-filter","tag-fairmormon","tag-fine-tuned","tag-fine-tuning","tag-id","tag-intelligence","tag-intelligent-design","tag-object","tag-specification","tag-specificity","tag-universe","tag-william-dembski"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cThe 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