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SECTIONS

Critique of Intelligent Design

Evolution vs. Creationism

The Art of ID Stuntmen

Faith vs Reason

Anthropic Principle

Autopsy of the Bible code

Science and Religion

Historical Notes

Counter-Apologetics

Serious Notions with a Smile

Miscellaneous

Letter Serial Correlation

Mark Perakh's Web Site

New Book Is Available

Posted April 19, 2004

Discussion

A book titled Unintelligent Design by Mark Perakh is now available from Amazon.com online bookstore ($22.40 plus SH) and is expected to be available in bookstores shortly. Here is the editorial review:

From the Inside Flap

Spurred on not only by the quasi-scientific agenda of the so-called intelligent design theorists, who seek to prove the existence of God mathematically, but also by his personal contact with otherwise rational scientists, physicist Mark Perakh sets out to reveal the falsity of the claims of neocreationism with a thorough, carefully detailed series of arguments aimed at the very heart of those who would see evolutionary theory discarded. Perakh strips away the reader-unfriendly "mathematizing" present in the neocreationist theses in order to reveal their flawed logic and their meaninglessness.

His work is divided into three parts: first, an attack on the specifics of intelligent design, a theory spearheaded by the writings of William Dembski (THE DESIGN INFERENCE, INTELLIGENT DESIGN, NO FREE LUNCH), Michael Behe (DARWIN'S BLACK BOX), and Phillip Johnson (DARWIN ON TRIAL, THE WEDGE OF TRUTH, DEFEATING DARWINISM BY OPENING MINDS); second, a critical dismantling of several arguments closely related to the intelligent design movement, such as attempts to "harmonize" the Bible with modern scientific understanding of the universe, the anthropic principle, and nonrandom evolution; and finally, a discussion of proper scientific method and probability theory, as well as an infamous account of science gone bad for the sake of religion--the Bible code theory propagated by Doron Witztum, Eliyahu Rips, and Yoav Rosenberg.

This thoughtful and incisive critique from a veteran scientist genuinely concerned about the integrity of the scientific enterprise wastes no diplomacy on those who would see its purpose twisted to ideological ends. Perakh successfully ties his opponents' arguments together by demonstrating how most of them are based on the same mistaken view of probability theory and the same disregard for impartial objectivity in testing hypotheses. This is a must-read for anyone interested in separating scientific facts from religion masquerading as science.

About the Author

Mark Perakh is professor emeritus of physics at California State University, Fullerton. A native of the Soviet Union, he taught and conducted research in Israel, Germany, and England before coming to the United States. Perakh has published four books and nearly three hundred scientific articles, and has received a number of prizes for his work, including one from the Royal Society of London.


Unintelligent Design
By Mark Perakh
ERRATA

(1) Necessary changes in Internet links

All links to Mark Perakh's website which are in the form www.nctimes.net/~mark/ should be replaced with http://members.cox.net/marperak/ ; more specifically, links to articles dealing with the Bible code should be changed to the form http://members.cox.net/mkarep ; links to short stories in English by Mark Perakh should be changed to http://members.cox.net/marperak/Engstories/ ; links to Mark Perakh's short stories in Russian should be changed to http://members.cox.net/marperak/sixstories/ ; links to the articles on Letter Serial Correlation authored either by Brendan McKay and Mark Perakh, or by Mark Perakh and Brendan McKay, or by Mark Perakh alone, which are in the form www.nctimes.net/~mark/Texts/filename.htm, should be changed to http://members.cox.net/marperak/Texts/filename.htm .

(2) Misprints and other errors

Page

Line

Printed

Must be

20

1st from the bottom

…professor of philosophy Philip Kitcher8

Peter Godfrey-Smith8

51

16th from the top

(p.136).

(p. 136)).

105

6th from the bottom

Robert D. Schneider

Thomas D. Schneider

105

8th from the bottom

Philip Kitcher

Peter Godfrey-Smith

107

Ref 8

Philip Kitcher. “Born Again Creationism.”

Peter Godfrey-Smith. “Information and the Argument From Design.”

118

14th from the bottom

… that of all…

…that all of…

167

18th from the bottom

…defy…

…defies…

202

10th from the top

-men

-mem

207

13th from the bottom

…this…

…his…

210

21st from the bottom

…mention…

…mentions…

245

9th from the bottom

…chapter 1)

…chapter 2)

245

10th from the bottom

…chapter 2)

…chapter 1)

253

18th from the bottom

…defect…

…defects…

303

11th from the top

…108 meters…

108 meters…

327

22nd from the bottom

…Antonic…

…Antony…

328

13th from the bottom

…philosopher…

….physiologist…

369

4th from the top

…price…

…prize…

435

Before reference to Gray

Insert: Godfrey-Smith, Peter. “Information and the Argument From Design.” In Robert Pennock, ed. Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics: Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives. Pages 575-596.  Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2001.

436

Delete reference to Philip Kitcher

451

Delete the entry for Kitcher, Philip

456

Delete the entry for Schneider, Robert D.

456

9th from the bottom

…Thomas D., 21

…Thomas D., 21, 105

Discussion