ID's postmodern Trojan horse

Amazon Review
Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology

by William A. Dembski

This summary of Dembski's design arguments comes mixed with a revealingly confused discussion of modernism, the course of modern theology, and a futile effort to resurrect the category of the miraculous. Who will save us from Kant but his epigone Schleiermacher? A confused plug for some kind of postmodern revival of the premodern struggles with the author's advanced mathematics to find resolution in the hopeless muddle of methodology created. It is very difficult to see how anyone can change gears between advanced statistics and a naive acceptance of Old Testament literalism. Is the author totally unacquainted with several centuries of Biblical Criticism starting with the very Spinoza he finds so objectionable? This kind of treatment of cultural history shows why the Intelligent Design initiative is all too likely to sow confusion rather than clarity about the limits of Darwinism. In any case, the Intelligent Design theorists apparently expect us to take their technical arguments seriously but leave criticism aside when it comes to Biblical history. To that, in the spirit of Philip Johnson's Darwin on Trial we should add the Bible on Trial, and be clear that consistent discussion may as well start with a debriefing of Christian mythology. This isn't backup for design uncertainties wavering on the borderline of misplaced faith. This treatment shows what would happen if the design movement ever took over the schools, the result would be a truly contradictory muddle of techical education encapsulated in theological conditioning.