William A. Dembski : biography
In response to the allegations, Dembski has claimed that he downloaded the video from the Internet, and added a voiceover narration that he deemed appropriate for his audience. According to Dembski, the downloaded version omitted the opening credits but contained the closing credits, which were shown to the audience. However, Smith later documented several instances where images from the Harvard/XVIVO animation were apparently removed from his book The Design of Life but the related footnotes and references were not.Smith, S.A. 2007. Smith, S.A. 2007. indicating that Dembski was already aware that permission had been denied for him to use the animation when he delivered his presentation at the University of Oklahoma.
On April 9, 2008 Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a movie Dembski appears in, was given a cease-and-desist by XVIVO accusing Premise Media, the Expelled producers, of plagiarism concerning the same video., April 9, 2008 A June 2008 Premise Media press release announced Premise Media and XVIVO, LLC. "reached an agreement" noting "XVIVO has agreed that the Premise Media documentary does not infringe on any of XVIVO’s intellectual property rights.""EXPELLED/XVIVO Agreement: No Infringement," press release, Jul 24, 2008
Evolution
Dembski’s views on evolution have been a source of considerable controversy within both the mainstream scientific and creationist communities. Dembski does not accept universal common descent. His mainstream scientific critics have accused him of dishonesty in his representation of scientific facts and writing,, Matt Inlay, Jason Rosenhouse and he has also been criticised by the traditional creationist community for not supporting the young earth creationist position,, Jonathan Sarfati, Creation Ministries International though he is also defended on other grounds by the same creationist community., Royal Truman, Answers in Genesis, Royal Truman, Creation Ministries International, Answers in Genesis, October 28, 2000
Science vs. naturalism
Dembski objects to the presence of the theory of evolution in a variety of disciplines, presenting intelligent design as an alternative to reductionist materialism that gives a sense of purpose that the unguided evolutionary process lacks and the ultimate significance of ID is its success in undermining materialism and naturalism. Dembski has also stated that ID has little chance as a serious scientific theory as long as methodological naturalism is the basis for science. Although intelligent design proponents (including Dembski) have made little apparent effort to publish peer-reviewed scientific research to support their hypotheses, in recent years they have made vigorous efforts to promote the teaching of intelligent design in schools.Ruling, Kitzmiller v. Dover page 63-139 Dembski is a strong supporter of this drive as a means of making young people more receptive to intelligent design, and said he wants "to see intelligent design flourish as a scientific research program" among a "new generation of scholars" willing to consider the theory and textbooks that include it.
Intelligent designer
Dembski has not explained the origin of the intelligent designer that created the universe, which he argues is unnecessary, since such an intelligent designer is likely outside the dimensions of space and time, or to have any of his pro-intelligent design articles published in the peer-reviewed mainstream scientific journals. While intelligent design proponents often claim that such failure to get articles published is due to an alleged pro-evolution bias or conspiracy, Dembski himself has said that he prefers to disseminate his ideas in non-peer-reviewed media: "I’ve just gotten kind of blase about submitting things to journals where you often wait two years to get things into print. And I find I can actually get the turnaround faster by writing a book and getting the ideas expressed there. My books sell well. I get a royalty. And the material gets read more."The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 21, 2001
