Intelligent Design and statistics - a troubled alliance

This is a guest appearance by Peter Olofsson. I have not contributed anything to this essay and am posting it as a courtesy to Peter. Professor of mathematics Olofsson is the author of two excellent books on probability and related subjects, of which one is a textbook used by universities.

Here starts Peter’s text:

William Demsbki’s “explanatory filter” is a proposed method to infer intelligent design in nature. While it has been criticized from many points of view, there seems to have not yet been a comprehensive treatment within the framework of mathematical statistics. In this article I argue that even if many of Dembski’s assumptions are accepted, the filter still runs into serious trouble when it comes to biological applications.

Continue reading A troubled alliance at Talk Reason