Glenn Branch has pointed out that there is now a paper in the philosophy literature reviewing William Dembski and Winston Ewert’s 2nd edition of “The Design Inference”. It is written by Joseph K. Cosgrove, a philosopher of science at Providence College.

It will be found here: Joseph K. Cosgrove. 2024. Order, organization, and randomness: on the mathematical formulation of life. Synthese 204 (6): 1-17 where there is open access.

Let me try to summarize these issues.

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Photograph by Joel Eissenberg.

Photography Contest, Honorable Mention.

The fifth anniversary of the Ark Park came up in July, 2021, and the Northern Kentucky Tribune announced in a headline, Ark Encounter marks fifth anniversary with record crowds, announcement of new attractions to come. The claim was not exactly true then – attendance actually began to fall in the fourth year – and William Trollinger, writing this week on the Righting America blog, proclaims in a headline, Sinking Further and Further Below Their Projections: The Facts of Ark Encounter Attendance. Using data provided by the “indefatigable” Dan Phelps, Dr. Trollinger shows that, relative to initial projections, Ark Park attendance has dropped monotonically from 50 % in the first full year of operation to 26 % in the most recent.

As Dr. Trollinger dryly remarks, Williamstown “has not enjoyed the economic benefits that it hoped would come from subsidizing the Ark.”

Photograph by David Young.

Photograph by Al Denelsbeck.

Photography Contest, Honorable Mention.