Gonzalez, Textbooks, and Research

Posted by Mike Dunford on June 1, 2007 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Yesterday, Casey Luskin posted yet another article outlining still more of the Discovery Institute’s complaints about the Iowa State decision to deny tenure to DI Fellow and ID proponent Guillermo Gonzalez. This one complains about the characterization of Gonzalez as “having slowed down considerably” and “not started new things.” (That characterization appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education last week.)

I have no intention of getting into a debate over the precise merits of Dr. Gonzalez’s case, for a number of reasons. First of all, I’m one of those who believes that the effort that Gonzalez has put into undermining quality science education in the primary and secondary public schools is something that should be considered when looking into tenure decisions. Second, I am not an astronomer and am not qualified to judge the quality of his scientific work either before or after he joined the Iowa State faculty. Finally, I am not a member of his department, and I do not know what was involved in the tenure decision in this case.

I am, however, someone who has enough reading comprehension skill to recognize when someone is playing word games, and enough of a sense of integrity to be offended when it happens. In the case of this latest Gonzalez article, that’s exactly what Casey has done. Three times.

Read more (at The Questionable Authority):

Potentially Habitable Planet Found

Posted by Steve on April 24, 2007 | Comments (73) | TrackBack (0)

Are you getting bored with Earth? Maybe you should consider a move to 581 c:

For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for “life in the universe.”

The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a “red dwarf,” is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun.

But don’t pack your bags just yet…

There’s still a lot that is unknown about the new planet, which could be deemed inhospitable to life once more is known about it. And it’s worth noting that scientists’ requirements for habitability count Mars in that category: a size relatively similar to Earth’s with temperatures that would permit liquid water.

Still, it’s a neat find. No word yet if the planet is “designed for discovery”, but presumably anyone living there would have discovered those things that are easy to discover, and will therefore conclude that the planet must be situated just right for discovery. At least if their species has creationists.

Below the fold I’ll add some more excerpts from the article. Or you can just read the whole thing.

Continue reading  “Potentially Habitable Planet Found”

film review by Charles G. Lambdin: Creationism by Any Other Name

Posted by Pim van Meurs on June 3, 2006 | Comments (19)

In Creationism by Any Other Name, Charles G. Lambdin reviews the Privileged Planet film and describes it as ‘a contemporary classic of pseudoscience’.

I have written many postings on the Privileged Planet. Lambdin is similarly not very impressed by the correlation of ‘one’ or coincidences argued to be ‘evidence for design’.

Lambdin wrote:

The thesis of The Privileged Planet is no different than the classic case of Presidential coincidences: Abraham Lincoln was elected to congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to congress in 1946. Lincoln was elected President in 1860, Kennedy in 1960. Both of their last names have seven letters. Both of their wives experienced the loss of child in the White House. Both were shot in the head on a Friday. Both were assassinated by Southerners and succeeded by Southerners. Lincoln was succeeded by Andrew Johnson, who was born in 1808. Kennedy was succeeded by Lyndon Johnson, who was born in 1908. Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, has 15 letters in his name. Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, has 15 letters in his name. Both assassins were known by three names. Booth was born in 1839, Oswald in 1939. As I am unable to imagine otherwise, these coincidences are too great to have occurred due to chance alone, so there must be some Intelligent Assassin behind it. Thus runs the reasoning throughout The Privileged Planet.

Continue reading  “film review by Charles G. Lambdin: Creationism by Any Other Name”

"Intro to ID" by Gonzalez at U of Northern Iowa

Posted by Tara Smith on September 29, 2005 | Comments (211)

Things were hoppin’ last night in Cedar Falls for DI fellow Guillermo Gonzalez’s talk. I have about 6 pages of notes from the lecture and subsequent Q&A period here, so if yu’re interested in the nitty-gritty, read below. For anyone who just wants the newspaper version, I’ll try to provide a link to the story when it’s published. My thoughts are in italics below.

Edited to add: Not chance, but design, ISU professor says from the Des Moines Register (thanks, Jason Spaceman); ISU professor argues for intelligent design, from the Ames Tribune.

Additionally, wanted to add that the next Sigma Xi lecture, Thursday, Oct. 27, will present the other side of the ID argument, when John Staver, professor of science education and director of the Center for Science Education at Kansas State University, will speak on “Evolution vs. Intelligent Design: It’s Time to Saddle Up and Draw a Hard Line.”

Continue reading  “"Intro to ID" by Gonzalez at U of Northern Iowa”

Privileged Planet: designed to help us understand the world?

Posted by Pim van Meurs on May 31, 2005 | Comments (3)

Jonathan Witt aruges that:

There is a factual error in the story’s headline and lead sentence. They suggest that the science documentary makes a case against biological evolution. In fact, the film doesn’t even touch on the subject.

The Privileged Planet focuses on cosmology and astronomy, and on Earth’s place in the universe. One could be a strict Darwinist and still agree with the argument in The Privileged Planet. In fact, that accurately describes at least two of the prominent scientists who endorsed the book upon which the documentary is based.

Continue reading  “Privileged Planet: designed to help us understand the world?”

Privileged Planet: Law and chance eliminated?

Posted by Pim van Meurs on May 30, 2005 | Comments (2)

Gonzalez said this common charge isn’t true and reflects mistaken beliefs about science by its critics.

“They come from a specific philosophical point of view,” he said. “Any explanation apart from law and chance is not permitted in science.”

October 12, 2004 A universal debate By Lucas Grundmeier Daily Staff Writer

What else is there other than law and chance? Ignorance?

Also remember that in Privileged Planet, Gonzalez et al do not eliminate chance and law, only chance. In other words, they accept that laws can explain the universe.
Why is it that ID proponents have no problem accepting front loading in astronomy but insist on intervention in biology?

Privileged Planet: The puddle and the hole

Posted by Pim van Meurs on May 27, 2005 | Comments (140)

It’s rather like a puddle waking up one morning— I know they don’t normally do this, but allow me, I’m a science fiction writer— A puddle wakes up one morning and thinks: “This is a very interesting world I find myself in. It fits me very neatly. In fact it fits me so neatly… I mean really precise isn’t it?… It must have been made to have me in it.” And the sun rises, and it’s continuing to narrate this story about how this hole must have been made to have him in it. And as the sun rises, and gradually the puddle is shrinking and shrinking and shrinking— and by the time the puddle ceases to exist, it’s still thinking— it’s still trapped in this idea that— that the hole was there for it. And if we think that the world is here for us we will continue to destroy it in the way that we have been destroying it, because we think that we can do no harm.

Douglas Adams

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The Privileged Planet: Single data points and naive falsification

Posted by Pim van Meurs on August 26, 2004 | Comments (79)

Now that the DVD for ‘Privileged Planet’ has been announced, it is time to remind the readers of why I believe that the Privileged Planet makes for a very poor scientific argument. Although I do believe that the argument serves well as an apologetic and rhetorical tool, which may help explain why it is given such a ‘privileged’ position at the DDD-V conference or creationist websites.

So why do I believe that the Privileged Planet approach is wrong? To quote Xia-Li Meng at the 2004 ENAR Spring Meeting in Pittsburgh PA on statistics:

“If you have not seen all the data, how can you estimate how much you haven’t seen? But, as statisticians, we can do anything!”

Continue reading  “The Privileged Planet: Single data points and naive falsification”

Privileged Planet: Amazon Review

Posted by Pim van Meurs on August 4, 2004 | Comments (1)

The following review of Privileged Planet was also submitted to Amazon

  Gonzalez et al appeal to Dembski’s _Design Inference_ to show how the correlation of habitability and measurability shows evidence of `purpose’ in the universe. Various people such as Wein, or various authors on Talkreasons.org, have already shown what is wrong with the _Design Inference_ argument. I will limit my comments to the claims by Gonzalez et al to show that their appeal to the _Design Inference_ is inappropriate. In addition I will show that their use of correlation to support ‘purpoe’ suffers from poorly defined and thus poorly quantifiable terms, that it is based on a single observation of what they call a ‘constrained optimum’ (the earth), that it is biased towards earth-like planets, and that it is based on cherry picking of examples that support the thesis. In other words, from a scientific perspective their claims are meaningless.
  Which of course does not mean that their book does not make for a useful apologetic tool (hence my two stars). For people who need their faith to be supported by some impressive sounding but scientifically poorly supported claims, this book serves its purpose. If one is hoping that this book will present a scientific argument for _Intelligent Design_ then one will be quite disappointed.

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Icons of ID: Privileged Planet Authors respond to 'unnamed' critic

Posted by Pim van Meurs on August 4, 2004 | Comments (5)

The authors of Privileged Planet have posted the following response at Discovery’s  Center for the renewal of science and culture Was Starlight Deflection Important for the Acceptance of General Relativity? A Response to Critics

I find it interesting as to what critics the authors are referring? Because in the first paragraph they mention a single criticism posted to various places. Surely the authors do understand the difference between a single datapoint counted many times and multiple independent data pojnts? Or perhaps not as I intend to show.

For earlier reviews of Privileged Planet see:

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The Privileged Wedge

Posted by Pim van Meurs on July 31, 2004 | Comments (3)

Not surprisingly the Discovery Institute is getting a good mileage out of Gonzalez’s thesis. Next I will explore the link between Privileged Planet, Rare Earth and the Intelligent Design movement.
The book “Privileged Planet” presents a very poorly supported design argument in which the authors make claims about measurability and habitability which cannot be supported. In fact, when the authors try to link their ideas with Dembski’s ideas, they only accept chance as an alternative to ‘design’ implicitly accepting that regularities (laws of nature) can in fact be ‘designers’. Rather than strengthening the design inference, the authors have managed to undermine the design inference. The observed coincidences (can we say cherry picking) leading to a claim of correlation are not scientifically supported but do make for some interesting apologetic tools.

Recently the book was reviewed in Nature: “Bright Blue Dot” by Douglas A. Vakoch in Naturel Vol 24 p 808-809

Continue reading  “The Privileged Wedge”

Privileged Planet: The fallout starts

Posted by Pim van Meurs on April 29, 2004 | Comments (7)

Gonzalez and Richards have posted a response to some of the objections by Kyler Kuehn raised to their Privileged Planet argument.

While I intend to address in more detail Gonzalez et al’s claims in the near future (I am recovering from a nasty cold) I would like to comment on some of their claims directed at Kyler Kuehn

The authors comment how Kyler Kuehn presented his arguments during the 2003 ASA meeting but then continue:

But Kuehn has since posted essentially the same critical response online, and presented on the subject at at least one public conference. Thus, a brief response is appropriate.

Kyler Kuehn’s response has been online for quite some time. I am not sure as to which public conference the authors are refering but since I used Kyler Kuehn’s excellent arguments in my rebuttals of the Privileged Planet I feel partially responsible for these “accusations”. If Kyler Kuehn’s posting of his powerpoint is a reason for rebuttal then why did Gonzalez and Richardson wait until now? The webpage mentions that it was ‘Last Updated by Kyler Kuehn, August 11, 2003 ‘

Continue reading  “Privileged Planet: The fallout starts”

The purpose of life is a beach part 2

Posted by Pim van Meurs on April 20, 2004 | Comments (2)

This morning, on my way to work, I listened to NPR. One of the guests, Ebbesmeyer described his recent work on tracking items found by beach combers. Once again I came to realize how the beach provides us not just with pleasurability but also measurability. Without beaches we would not be able to track Rubber duckies.

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The Purpose of Life is a Beach Part 1

Posted by Pim van Meurs on April 18, 2004 | Comments (17)

I am starting what I intend to be a regular contribution in which I will share some of my almost spiritual experiences and insights gained when I was on the beach.

It was this unforgettable moment late summer, the first time that I realized how special the beach really is.

Continue reading  “The Purpose of Life is a Beach Part 1”

The Privileged Planet Part 3: The Anthropic principle

Posted by Pim van Meurs on April 17, 2004 | Comments (16)

Anthropic Principle

My claim is that it is exactly in areas where life and science develop were expect to see science discover a correlation between habitability and measurability. Without habitability we would not have been here, without measurability we would not have science to lead us to this conclusion. Does this mean that there was purpose involved, or just a matter of fact statement?

Continue reading  “The Privileged Planet Part 3: The Anthropic principle”

The Privileged Planet Part 2: The failure of the 'Design Inference'

Posted by Pim van Meurs on April 11, 2004 | Comments (12)

The Design Inference

Gonzalez et al appeal Dembski’s Design Inference to show how the correlation of habitability and measurability shows evidence of ‘purpose’ in the universe. Various people such as Wein, or various authors on Talkreasons.org, have already shown what is wrong with the design inference. I will limit my comments to the claims by Gonzalez et al to show that their appeal to the design inference is inappropriate.

Continue reading  “The Privileged Planet Part 2: The failure of the 'Design Inference'”

Where purpose and function meet

Posted by Pim van Meurs on April 10, 2004 | Comments (1)

Benjamin Wiker, who was recently heard accusing Darwinists of being in panic over ‘specified complexity’, seems to continue his wishful thinking in this article in Crisis Magazine. There seems to be indeed a crisis but contrary to Wiker’s suggestions, the crisis seems to be in the ID camp where ID’s failure to deliver scientifically relevant contributions seems to have cause much confusion.


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The Privileged Planet Part 1: Where Purpose and Natural Law freely Mix Part 1

Posted by Pim van Meurs on April 10, 2004 | Comments (14)

Guillermo Gonzalez, assistant professor in astronomy and fellow at the Center for (the Renewal of) Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute and Jay Richards, formerly a fellow in philosophy and theology and vice president and senior fellow at the Center for (the Renewal of) Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute recently published a book called “Privileged Planet” in which they argue for purpose in the Universe. Their arguments are very similar to those found in “Rare Earth” by Ward and Brownlee and for good reasons, Gonzalez used to work at the same University of Washington where Ward and Brownlee work and was closely involved in the development of their thesis an aspect I intend to further address in a future posting. The main difference between the two books is that in “Privileged Planet” the authors argue for ‘purpose’ based on the “Rare Earth” argument of probability and additionally a novel argument based on a correlation between habitability and measurability. The combination of low probability and specification (correlation) implies, using Dembski’s “Design Inference”, design.

Gonzalez et al’s presentation at the “Who is the Designer: Reasons to Believe 2003” conference was critically reviewed during the Conference at the American Scientific Affiliation 2003 Annual Meeting “The Heavens Declare the Glory of God”. Kyler Kuehn presented a critical analysis of the Privileged Planet hypothesis (PPT).

In a series of “Privileged Planet” postings I intent to present, explore and critique their arguments.

In part 1 I describe a lecture by Gonzalez et al on April 8th 2004 in the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. A day earlier Gonzalez et al had presented their arguments at the University of Washington. Both events were co-sponsored by the Discovery Institute. I regret that I was not present during their presentation at the UW since it would be interesting to hear the opinions from astronomers and especially Ward and Brownlee.

Andrea Bottaro wrote some earlier comments on the Privileged Planet on this blog.

Continue reading  “The Privileged Planet Part 1: Where Purpose and Natural Law freely Mix Part 1”