at long last, a new entry!

I've been meaning to write about Intelligent Design for some months now. Guess my propensity for laziness has reached new heights. I mean, it's not like this is a paper I'm writing for class. I'm writing about the thing coz it's something of a revelation for me, a newfound passion, if you will. (Nuh-uh, you guys, I kid you not.) Problem is, I wanted it to be as comprehensive as a blog entry could be. But as evidenced time and again, dilly-dallying won't get you anywhere. And it doesn't assure perfection either. What is perfection anyway? A 50,000-word essay that was researched over the course of how long it takes the arithmetically challenged to graduate from Math 54?

Of course, I digress yet again. I'm not making any sense, I know.

Just a little tidbit. I remember telling my friend Abs one time about the pre-eminent atheist philosopher/academic Antony Flew, who's written tons about atheism over a period of, like, half a century or so. ("Girl, get yer facts right, why doncha?") So this Flew guy's like one of the cornerstones of atheist philosophy in the 20th century. In fact, if I remember correctly, he was THE man. Nuff said, you get the idea.

Anyway, late last year Flew did a 180 and conceded that indeed there exists a supreme being from which all things in the universe originated. You can imagine the ruckus this created within the atheist community. I can only wonder since the last time I visited RavingAtheist.com, I failed to check the thread on Flew. And thanks to the extreme slothfulness of yours truly (en este momento, anyway), I haven't taken it upon myself to do a thorough review of related lit. Not yet, anyway. I have my moments, mind you. And I'm not afraid to use them.

Seriously now. So I told Abs about Flew's radical conversion to thesim. Okay, I admit I may have had my reasons for sharing this, but it was mostly out of genuine awe. I mean, here's this 80-year old heavyweight in atheist philosophy, and he went over to the other side. At this point you ask, why? What gives?

Well, there's this theory-cum-movement that espouses the existence of God through the notion of Intelligent Design (ID). So what is it really? To quote from IntelligentDesignNetwork.org, ID maintains "that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection. (It) is thus a scientific disagreement with the core claim of evolutionary theory that the apparent design of living systems is an illusion."

The name of the theory itself would lead one to think that this might be a reincarnation of William Paley's 19th century design arguments (i.e., "the existence of a watch is tantamount to the existence of a watchmaker"), which were refuted by David Hume and Charles Darwin. But the current movement is different in that the arguments supporting it are on the whole more sound, philosophically or otherwise. Paley's arguments for design were fairly unrigorous as many of his ideas were rebutted through philosophy and theology, not science. William Dembski, the pioneer of ID, maintains that ID is a scientific theory devoid of the philosophical and theological commitments inherent in Paley's arguments. It should also be noted that there is data supporting it, the relative newness of which is indicated in the growing number of people—both from religious and non-religious inclinations—who have begun to take it seriously only in the past decade.

Anyway, so this stand-off has been going on for quite some time now. In the words of Karen R., it was a gray battlefield, and supporters from either side weren't letting up. Philosophers and scientists have provided the means with which contemporary critics endeavored to blast the theory out of the water. Abs first thought the topic a bit tired; there was nothing glaringly new about it that warranted a spirited discussion. (Or so he thought.)

In recent years, though, ID gained tremendous credence with the discovery of DNA…

Okay, time out, I hafta go. The Valero posse is leaving in a jiffy to go somewhere I'm not allowed to disclose at the moment. It's Friday night, after all. Woohoo for the weekend!

Sorry to be cutting it like this. I'll continue this next time (when the mood strikes, more like). Is there no end to this laziness.

Right. Jubert is threatening me already. GTG. Like now na.

Bon weekend, everyone!