You bastards!


You’ve hurt little Billy Dembski’s feelings! You keep promoting negative reviews of his book!

The Design of Life has 13 five-star reviews and 4 one-star reviews. None of the one-star reviews give evidence of the reviewer having read the book. Yet the three reviews placed front and center by Amazon are the one-star reviews and none of the five-star reviews appear there. That’s because the Darwinists keep voting up the negative reviews and voting down the positive reviews. Please go to the link right now, look at the reviews, and vote on them (toward the bottom of a review are “yes” and “no” buttons for whether a review was helpful).

Now Denyse O’Leary is urging all of her minions (“Fly, my pretties, fly!”) to rush over to Amazon and correct this deplorable situation. Why?

Like intelligent design? Hate it? No matter. This is a blow for civilization.

Gosh. I like civilization. Civilization is important. I scurried right over and voted the stupid reviews down and the smart ones up. I hope you do, too.

It is civilization’s only hope; our culture hangs by a thread on our ability to make thin-skinned Billy Dembski cry.


Uh-oh. The dembskyites noticed that all of their reviews were getting panned and that a host of new negative reviews have shown up. After Dembski had the gall to exhort his fellow creationists to get over there and pack the voting, after O’Leary begged them to help save civilization by skewing the Amazon reviews, they discover that their own ploy has rebounded against them and we get this amazing example of irony from the UncommonDescent commenters:

My suggestion is that we leave Amazon alone and let these guys freely post all the evidence any intelligent person needs to decide whether that line has been crossed. I’ve always found it deeply asinine and comical that such as Kwok consider the Amazon reviews to be so important. I don’t have any deep interest in joining them in any of their nursery school games. Victorious at Amazon? Only a loser would care.

Such deep, self-referential irony that my irony meter did not explode — it had an orgasm instead. Now it’s lying there snoring and absolutely useless.


That didn’t take long — I knew a poke at his ego would get poor tissue-thin-skinned Dembski fuming.

THE DESIGN OF LIFE is being shamelessly manipulated by the Darwinists at Amazon. Not only are they posting negative reviews that give no indication that the reviewers have read the book but they are also voting up their negative reviews so that these are the first to be seen by potential buyers.

Wait a minute…Dembski himself shamelessly urges his acolytes to rush off and manipulate the reviews because he doesn’t like the one-star reviews his book is getting, and now he shamelessly protests because we called attention to his shameless manipulation? My poor exhausted irony meter is stirring again.

Although I do think it’s pretty funny that the IDists can intentionally try to flog the vote, and all it takes is a casual mention of their games here to launch a juggernaut that easily overwhelms their efforts.

Is civilization safe yet?

Comments

  1. zer0 says

    I wish there was a an option to vote a review as ignorant, or lacking basic understanding of science.

  2. Ichthyic says

    It is civilization’s only hope; our culture hangs by a thread on our ability to make thin-skinned Billy Dembski cry.

    meh, i fought that war already in WWI: Billy boy tries to play “Street Theatre”.

    if he has any tears left after all the bitchslaps he’s (deservedly) gotten over the last 5 years, they should dissect his tear glands for science.

  3. Steve LaBonne says

    Little Billy sold his good name long ago and has been laughing all the way to the bank ever since.

  4. Steve LaBonne says

    By the way, while mocking Little Billy for other things let us not forget to pause and admire the abject stupidity of pretending that a supposed contribution to the scientific literature is to be judged by its Amazon.com reviews!

  5. David Wilford says

    Now if Dembski could also get creationists to promote more favorable peer reviews for his work, civilization would be even further advanced!

  6. says

    It’s no surprise that moron BarryA is the first 5 star reviewer on there.

    The Design of Life promises to be epochal, marking a watershed event in the history of science. William Dembski and Jonathan Wells’s new book provides a comprehensive overview of the evidence supporting scientific design theory. In doing so, it is both timely and groundbreaking. Dembski and Wells are eminently qualified to write this book. Both hold multiple earned doctorates, and both would be in the top five of any list of the world’s leading intelligent design (ID) theorists.

    /retch

  7. TomDunlap says

    Amazon should let us vote on their “editorial” reviews too, and there should be a “NO STAR” choice.

  8. True Bob says

    I am surprised (maybe not – maybe disappointed) that Amazon allows reviews by people with an obvious conflict of interest.

  9. says

    It’s also no surprise that half of the 5-star reviewers have reviewed only one book.

    And I love the Denyse O’Leary “Denyse.” Hi, my name’s Denyse – that’s Denyse to my friends. But just call me Denyse.

    Got it.

  10. Sarcastro says

    Not just any regular civilization… NO!

    In the final assault of Darwinism against mind-based civilization, the Darwinists are revealing that they do not think that they have minds.

    “Mind-based”? As in, “In the fevered imagination of a moronic twit”? Ah, thought so.

    I’d pay good money to see zombie-Julian Jaynes eat her little bicameral “mind”.

  11. Dawn says

    I really loved that most of the 5 star posts are from DI people (Luskin, O’Leary…) Thanks, I’ll keep my money for a WORTHWHILE book to read. If I want to read trash, I’ll buy The Star at the grocery checkout desk. Just as informative, more amusing, and less money.

  12. David Wilford says

    In the final assault of Darwinism against mind-based civilization, the Darwinists are revealing that they do not think that they have minds.

    As if “mind” is some kind of disembodied thing. Really now. Can’t we drive a stake through such Zombie Dualism once and for all? The phrase “state of mind” is closer to the mark of what’s going on in the brain, IMO.

  13. Jim Jordan says

    Dembski is bad enough, but that Wells cretin is another
    case. Several times I have watched a debate between
    Michael Shermer and Jonathan Wells on Book TV that I had
    recoreded last year on my cable TV DVR box. Held at the Cato Institute in October of 2006. The debate, titled
    “Why Darwin Matters”, was Shermer’s new book, and which
    was ripe for the likes of the insane moron Wells to try
    and pick apart. Good grief, that Wells idiot is an
    incredible religion soaked piece of shit. I wish I had been
    in the audience and called to ask a question. My question
    would have been put in such a way that he would realize
    that he was being shown to be the brain-dead crud that he
    truly is. I have watched this clown in other debates and
    talks and he is ripe for the most vitriolic sleaze we can
    throw at him.

  14. says

    Interestingly, the book doesn’t show up on the UK Amazon site unless you explicitly search for the ISBN number; and even then it’s not in stock, and unlikely to ever be in stock.

    I did, however, note that he has a book called “Intelligent Design: The bridge between science and theology”. But I thought Intelligent Design had nothing to do with theology; what with the “intelligent agent” not being god ‘n all…

  15. says

    Steve LaBonne wrote:

    Little Billy sold his good name long ago and has been laughing all the way to the bank ever since.

    You hit the nail on the head, Steve.

    Billy isn’t doing science, he’s selling books to the credulous.

  16. Billy says

    book provides a comprehensive overview of the evidence supporting scientific design theory

    So, the pages within the book are, uh, blank?

  17. lylebot says

    You know, the 5-star reviews are helpful, at least to me. They inform me that this is a book that I won’t have the slightest inclination to read, since my views are negatively correlated with those of the 5-star reviewers.

  18. tacitus says

    “Dembski and Wells are eminently qualified to write this book. Both hold multiple earned doctorates, and both would be in the top five of any list of the world’s leading intelligent design (ID) theorists.”

    There are five “leading ID theorists”?

    Who knew?

  19. Sastra, OM says

    David Wilford #15 wrote:

    As if “mind” is some kind of disembodied thing. Really now. Can’t we drive a stake through such Zombie Dualism once and for all?

    But Michael Egnor, the distinguished brain surgeon, has opened hundreds of brains and never saw a “thought” or “value” fall out of one and roll across the floor like a marble. This refutes materialism, since that is what reductionism would predict! Atheists are such clumsy literalists, believing our minds are made up of Thought Marbles. There are no such things, so Material Reductionists are stymied.

    Bottom line, you just can’t see love with a microscope, Mr. Smarty-Pants Scientist. Those with a more rarified, sophisticated understanding of mind realize that it’s made of out spirit, it works by magic, and God is a disembodied Mind which creates things ex-nihilio just by imagining them into existence. Atheists can’t account for things so neatly.

  20. says

    Here’s another suggestion for those concerned about Amazon’s treatment of Bill Dembski, which is to say those who are concerned it isn’t sufficiently harsh. You can suggest a phrase to the autobots that will tend to link people to Bill Dembski’s work. I entered ‘intellectual fraud’ and the autobot prompts you for a brief (250 characters) explanation as to why said phrase would be appropriate. I wrote:

    “The author, a mathematician, deliberately misrepresents the work of others in his field as evaluative of scientific theories, all the while concealing his real motivation, which is religious. Yet, when others point out this flaws, he affects a pose of martyrdom. Sounds fraudulent to me!”

    So, let’s bombard the Amazon system with links that suggest how we really feel about Dembski, and why. Some will end up sticking, and then he’ll have publicity that he never bargained for.

  21. Natasha Yar-Routh says

    Oh that was fun, I even got to demote Denyse O’Leary’s review. I love being part of the evil Darwinist conspiracy as much as being part of the evil Homosexual conspiracy and the evil Atheist conspiracy. I hope the IDiot’s fawning reviews get demoted so far down their little heads explode. Messy I know but very fun to watch.

  22. Deepsix says

    “The reader will find no signs of intelligence in either biological systems or the author…”

    Priceless.

  23. fardels bear says

    THis is a fascinating glimpse into what it must be like to be Dembski. He’s entire self-image apparently turns on reviews posted to Amazon. Who raised this boy? That he gets a sense of love and belonging from reviews of his book on Amazon? That is really sad.

  24. Julius says

    Incidentally, has anyone looked at (or does anyone want to ‘fess up to tweaking…) the “tags customers associate with this product”? Number one is “breathtaking inanity”. Genius! This is what tag clouds are for, I suppose…

  25. 386sx Santa!! says

    I did, however, note that he has a book called “Intelligent Design: The bridge between science and theology”. But I thought Intelligent Design had nothing to do with theology; what with the “intelligent agent” not being god ‘n all…

    It could be god. Or it could be aliens or something. It doesn’t have to be a god or gods. It’s all about detecting the design, not the deigner.

    So it should read like this: “Intelligent Design: Maybe the bridge between science and theology, or maybe not. We really don’t care. We just know it’s designed, that’s all.”

    Probably a typo!!

  26. slpage says

    Gee, I wonder who wrote the 5 star reviews – let’s see…

    A sockpuppet of Billy… a few DI minions… SOme UD rejects…

  27. Gingerbaker says

    #27:
    “So, let’s bombard the Amazon system with links that suggest how we really feel about Dembski, and why. Some will end up sticking, and then he’ll have publicity that he never bargained for.”

    Excellent idea. I dubbed it “Junk Science”, and ended with “laughingstock” :D

  28. says

    How pathetic. Advance copies were sent to pro-IDists, not to anti-IDists like Elsberry, then paid liars like Casey Luskin wrote “reader reviews” on Amazon (I don’t actually blame Amazon for that, since they can’t prevent Casey’s sock puppet which no doubt would appear if he didn’t–but I do blame charlatans like Dembski and Luskin).

    So unsurprisingly, the first negative reviews were obviously not well-informed by the book, if the authors had read it at all (like we didn’t all know what it said without reading it). Dimski squeals like the well-greased pig that he is, and gets John Kwok’s negative review taken off (this is good inference, we don’t have the official story). And then for a short while, all we have are the orchestrated lies from the ID side as “reviews”.

    Irons wrote his review, complaining about the loss of Kwok’s review. I don’t know when, but eventually Kwok’s review did return. And gee, the soapy rhetoric of the paid and unpaid liars gets less votes than do the honest (except perhaps for the reading of the book part, not trivial, but not the most important aspect of ID book review honesty) reviews. And civilization is threatened because the orchestration of sublime blather in favor of abject repeated dishonesty has been warded off for the time being.

    There is nothing that ID touches that doesn’t become imprinted with their filth and slime.

    Glen D
    http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7

  29. says

    Sorry, I ended up saying “no” to all the negative reviews. That’s because the question was, “Was this review helpful to you?” If it had been “Without having read the book, do you agree with this review?” I would have voted differently. But it didn’t sound like anyone on either side had actually read it either. At least the ones who gave it five stars often had a blurb about what’s actually in the book – no doubt given to them directly by the authors, but that’s still more helpful than someone who hasn’t read it telling other people not to read it either.

    How is that different from, say, calling a boycott on a movie you haven’t seen?

  30. MikeM says

    It’s not just that the “editorial review” is so lame, it’s also who wrote it: Behe.

    Thus proving that it’s still safe to share back-scratchers.

    That is such a clear and obvious conflict of interest that I think amazon should remove it from the book’s web page.

  31. MyaR says

    Scott — better to choose a tag that people will actually search for as well. I’m kind of in favor of ‘apologetics’. To direct the right people to it, y’know. And the O’Leary minions don’t seem to be too savvy on the interwebs stuff — they’re clearly not adding tags (except for someone, probably Billy, who added about 100). Or maybe there just aren’t any aside from the ones who’ve already posted their 5-star reviews.

  32. MikeM says

    And, gee, I completely missed the deal with Dean Kenyon.

    Conflict of interest on conflict of interest. Just bolsters my case.

  33. MartinM says

    As entertaining as tags can be, the first thing anyone’s going to see is the ‘3.5 out of 5 stars’ at the top. The most useful thing you can do is write a new review, really.

  34. peter irons says

    Epistaxis (#41): I wrote a one-star review, and actually read the book. So don’t jump to conclusions. There are now hundreds of people voting on the “helpful-not helpful” buttons (my review has 745 votes) and I doubt if many on either side have read the book (which Amazon doesn’t even stock right now). BTW, there are now 7 one-star reviews at the top, thanks (I suspect) to PZ. As they used to say, “vote early and often.” And as I’ve said, this is silly, but it’s fun to bait O’Leary and Dumbski.

  35. John Phillips, FCD says

    Scott: that wasn’t very xian of you but well deserved by Be-hee-hee, obviously hanging out around here is making an evilutionist of you, MWAHAHAA :)

  36. Sven DiMilo says

    Hi, my name’s Denyse – that’s Denyse to my friends. But just call me Denyse.

    p.s. Buy my book, too!

  37. says

    Ya know the easy way to marginalize these nuts is to link them to the UFO nuts. Sure, life on earth was intelligently designed!! By the greys! They came from Mars and seeded earth so they could use us as food.

    That is what Dembski’s arguing, right?

  38. CalGeorge says

    My favorite:

    130 of 132 people found the following review helpful:
    1.0 out of 5 stars Total Bunk

    Painful to even try to distort reality enough to make sense of this. If its approached as Fiction, it might be entertaining. Other than that, its a bizarre glimpse into a demented mind.

    Also worthy:

    The reader will find no signs of intelligence in either biological systems or the author while reading this waste of what could have been fine toilet paper.

  39. Rey Fox says

    O’Leary really ought to focus her efforts on the really important issues. Like griefers on YouTube.

  40. says

    Doesn’t amazon also support “reading list” features?? Someone needs to put up a reading list of “pseudoscientific garbage” so whenever people go to one of these books they’ll see it on listmania.

  41. MyaR says

    I think someone should also point out that it’s essentially a vanity publication, too, not from a real publisher.

  42. Dave S. says

    Hmmmm….27 reviews (so far), of which 14 are 1 star (lowest possible) and 13 are 5 star (highest possible), and nothing in between. I can’t imagine anything else put out by Amazon that would elicit such diametrically opposite responses!

  43. says

    Wells and Dembski, together in one volume?

    Girl Scouts all over the world are fainting. The flag is drooping. Even apple pie tastes flat.

    With both of them on the project, I suppose every fact fled the book in self defense.

  44. David Wilford says

    How is that different from, say, calling a boycott on a movie you haven’t seen?

    Posted by: Epistaxis

    Well, it’s different because creationism is just utter bunk to begin with, just as astrology, phlostigon and ectoplasm have no scientific validity whatsoever. This isn’t a matter of mere taste ala your favorite rock band sucks. It’s a matter of a creationist like Dembski trying to again pull a fast one.

    If Uri Geller came out with a new book claiming he could bend spoons using telekinesis, would you read it? Or would you just recall what P.T. Barnum once said about the birth rate of suckers?

  45. pcs says

    Question. How can anyone write 401 pages on intelligent design? I guess it must help to be a Moonie.

  46. Pyre says

    John Pieret @ 63: So now I’m looking for the “No” button on my keyboard, to do the same thing. So far no luck.

  47. JimC says

    Any vote against this book is a vote FOR education and will even remotely keep the trash out of the hands of people who may not know better.

  48. Chance says

    I think this is one of the most humorous things I have seen on a blog in some time. He is getting trounced over there.

  49. tyaddow says

    PZ, don’t worry- this is a blow FOR civilization. I hate to agree with such a half-wit. I didn’t realize she had changed her position. Indeed, that’s one more point for rational people who won’t let trite nonsense in the guise of scientific-sounding language and vacuous hypotheses claim the credibility of empirical research and sound methodology. Go team!

  50. Todd says

    Thanks danley!

    For a mathematician Berlinski doesn’t seem to use a whole lot of…well…math.

  51. Jim Jordan says

    Great fun reading all those negative reviews of morons
    Dembski and Wells on Amazon! I wonder if the crazed duo
    are following the glowing reviews, or if Amazon has quietly
    suppressed those reviews to save the idiots embarrassment
    from being compared to toilet paper. We all know that
    dreck book will sell to the millions of deranged cretins
    who sop up this mindless drivel. I like civilization also,
    no matter what battering and debasement it is subjected to
    by the insane religious rabble.

  52. lone pilgrim says

    Don’t mess with the Amazon ratings, you’re interfering with Wedge Strategy Phase II (Phase I was canceled due to lack of science).

  53. Fred says

    Denyse O’Leary just posted this in the comments section over at post-darwinist, in response to somebody who suggested she might want to edit her review to admit her role in contributing to the book:

    “It is of no consequence to me if Amazon ditches my review. I wrote the index for the book (and thus read the manuscript, obviously) and contributed a small amount of information to the End notes, mainly re animal counting abilities, et cetera. I currently post items of interest to the Design of Life blog – but I presume you know that.”

    Yet, just before this she had her knickers all in a twist that people were voting down the reviews. Maybe it’s finally dawned on her how silly and trivial this really is…but as somebody pointed out they really do ask for all the baiting!

  54. jba says

    “Maybe it should just be tagged as what it is: ‘fiction’.

    Posted by: True Bob ”

    Subtle, I like it. In fact, I’m going to do it. I’m going to do it for the lulz.

  55. says

    PZ, #62:

    Why does Epistaxis hate civilization?

    I don’t hate it; I just define it differently. My version doesn’t include suppressing the voices of those who disagree with me.

    &lt/sanctimony&gt

    Don’t worry, I’m not really taking this more seriously than anyone else. Still, it would be nice if the people who’ve actually bit the bullet and read the book (like Peter Irons, #49) would give the rest of us a little preview of what’s in it, with or without a play-by-play rebuttal. Except for the ethical quandary of actually paying for them, sometimes it’s handy to have creationist books around as references.

  56. David Wilford says

    From a review of Dembski’s book:

    For years the intelligent design ‘movement’ has been plagued by lack of a single book that outlines the case for design in a comprehensive manner for the layman.

    Oh. Come. On. All the IDers have to show the world their case for ID are single books. There is no scientific case that’s been made for intelligent design, as shows by the lack of actual peer-reviewed research. The the book reviewer above is willing to insult the intelligence of others by pretending there’s a ‘movement’ out there that’s been plagued by the lack of a book like Dembski’s shows that the only case being made for ID is a bogus one.

  57. Bobby says

    Don’t knock it until you’ve read it. This might be the one that finally reveals all the science they’ve been doing, in secret.

    [snicker]

  58. Steve in MI says

    My favorite Amazon comment:

    it’s sort of the reaction that one would get for a book called, “I was abudcted by little green men” when the commenters were the Abduction Survivors Group on the one hand and the Psychiatrists’ Association on the other.

  59. says

    In accordance with Lex Anthony Flew, a victory for the IDiotists on Amazon would probably have made them proclaim the site to be the single most important media outlet in recorded history.

  60. Larry says

    Sorry, but this is a pointless exercise. A bunch of anonymous reviews on a website are absolutely meaningless.

  61. Fred says

    I just checked Amazon again. Looks like Denyse O’Leary’s review got zapped. I’m sure Amazon would have kept it had she come clean and stated her contribution to the book, and looks like somebody on her blog tried to get her to do this, but I guess she is above taking other people’s advice.

  62. says

    Uncommon Descent must also be unaware of Amazon’s explicit condemnation of vote packing- to the extent, that when they find out, they remove those votes.

  63. rp says

    I just went looking on Amazon.ca, and again you have to use the ISBN to find it – searching on either title or author doesn’t show it. Looks like they’re going to have to get their minions up here to actually buy copies in order to get it to show up. Maybe they should buy 10 each and really boost sales.

  64. Jim Jordan says

    I just finished reading for the second time those hilarious
    reviews of dembski and well’s crappy book, provided by the
    great reviewers of this site. I had tears in my eyes and
    could barely control my unmitigated laughing! Our great
    and illustrious reviewers should be honored by such rave
    reviews of this ravenously insane book.
    To all who have not read the “reviews”, please do so and
    be prepared for uncontrolable laughter. The best example
    of “unbiased” reviewing to fully explain the mindless
    crud of this piece of crap. The dembskiyites found us out
    at the beginning of page 3 and are trying to stem the tide
    with a broadside of their own pathetic insane reviews!
    Again, if you have not read our reviews, do so and prepare
    to howl! Love it!

  65. Nathan says

    When future intellectual historians list the books that toppled Darwin’s theory, THE DESIGN OF LIFE will be at the top. –Michael Behe, biochemist, Lehigh University

    I’m sold.

  66. says

    Thing is, too, under Amazon’s new review posting system, the quickest link to the review will list the most helpful positive review and the most helpful negative review. No amount of votes will change that.

    And even the most helpful reviews at the bottom of the page change only slowly, and are not completely linked to how many positive votes they get. They’re also linked to the current phase of the moon and certain spells by Harry Potter. Least, that’s our best guess for how it works.

  67. David Marjanović, OM says

    Don’t mess with the Amazon ratings, you’re interfering with Wedge Strategy Phase II (Phase I was canceled due to lack of science).

    LOL!

    I wrote the index for the book

    Erm… in Microsoft Word there’s a function for this. It was already there in Word 6.0, so…

    I’m just saying.

    Do Androids dream of electric sheep?

    Do cdesign proponent[s]ists cry irreducibly complex tears?

    ROTFL!

  68. David Marjanović, OM says

    Don’t mess with the Amazon ratings, you’re interfering with Wedge Strategy Phase II (Phase I was canceled due to lack of science).

    LOL!

    I wrote the index for the book

    Erm… in Microsoft Word there’s a function for this. It was already there in Word 6.0, so…

    I’m just saying.

    Do Androids dream of electric sheep?

    Do cdesign proponent[s]ists cry irreducibly complex tears?

    ROTFL!

  69. says

    Thank you for the correction, David. I had a timer going off as I was posting and I had a small brain fart about the actual spelling of ‘proponentsist’ and couldn’t double check before posting.

  70. Phoenician in a time of Romans says

    There are five “leading ID theorists”?

    Human ones. The sixth ranking ID theorist is, in fact, a chicken that was designed to play tic-tac-toe…

  71. says

    Scott: that wasn’t very xian of you but well deserved by Be-hee-hee, obviously hanging out around here is making an evilutionist of you, MWAHAHAA :)

    Oh, I dunno. I was kind of hoping it would make me a better Christian. At any rate, I don’t condemn Dembski or Behe as people. I just think that they shouldn’t mislead people deliberately, or (as some old book says) otherwise bear false witness.

  72. woozy says

    Like intelligent design? Hate it? No matter. This is a blow for civilization.

    Maybe it’s time for a truce between creationists and evolutionists and time to mutually admire our innate talents.

    Evolutionists do not have a monopoly on rationality; we just do it so very much better. Likewise, creationists don’t have a monopoly on hyperbole; they just do it so much better.

    Giving a negative review on Amazon is a blow for civilization? I admit it; I’m out of my league. I will never attempt an argument in hyperbole with a creationist and will give in that, by default, they are the natural masters in that particular rhetoric.

    Now if only they’d concede the same about us and rationality.

  73. afarensis, FCD says

    Epistaxis (#41) I too wrote a one star review about the book. I am still in the process of reading it and was careful to discuss only the chapters I have read. Given the fact that FTE is actively trying to prevent any but the ID proponents from getting review copies I’m not surprised that some are stretching the truth. How is that different, though, from the ID proponents who haven’t read it (other than the blurb supplied by the publisher) but still wrote a review?

  74. Ric says

    Arcturus, I’d put it at zero percent. A better question is what is the percent of fundies who claim to be atheists (like DaveScot) who support ID.

  75. ao9news says

    Haha, I never could have imagined I’d be a part of some flame war at freaking Amazon.com. I buy most of my stuff there. I’ve never posted a review of anything. They are worthless, but what the hell. We’ll see how it goes.

  76. Torbjörn Larsson, OM says

    @ Todd, comment #69:

    For a mathematician Berlinski doesn’t seem to use a whole lot of…well…math.

    That is due to Berlinski not being a … well … mathematician.

    Mathematical physicist Peter Woit reviews Berlinski’s book review of The Mathematician’s Brain by David Ruelle:

    The New York Sun recently published a review of The Mathematician’s Brain by David Berlinski. It’s one of the great mysteries of the popular science book business why anybody publishes the writings of Berlinski. His recent claim to fame is as an affiliate of the Discovery Institute, critic of Darwinism and proponent of Intelligent design, but he has also authored various popular books, including some on mathematics. Some web-sites claim that he has a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton, but it appears that the truth of the matter is that he was in the philosophy department there, writing a doctoral thesis on Wittgenstein. His writings on math and science that I’ve seen over the years have always struck me as singularly incoherent and confused.

    Berlinski actually doesn’t do that bad a job with the Ruelle review, picking up on one of the things that might interest mathematicians and physicists about the book, the part about Alexandre Grothendieck (I confess to skimming some of the material explaining what mathematicians do, since I spend far too much of my life watching them do it). …

    Berlinski appears in the comments:

    I have never claimed to have a Ph.D in mathematics from Princeton University. My Ph.D. from Princeton is in philosophy. This is what my resume says; it is how I am described at the DI website; and it is how I am described on the dust jacket of my books. If there is a website that claims otherwise, I revile and denounce it. As long as I am correcting misapprehensions, I might add that I am a critic of intelligent design and not one of its supporters. In this regard, you might consider my essay “Has Darwin met his Match,” in the December 2002 issue of Commentary. It is devoted perceptively to attacking Johnson, Behe and Dembski. I cannot say that my friends at the DI were pleased to see what I wrote, but they were made wiser by reading it. My feelings toward intelligent design remain what they have always been: Warm but skeptical. Nonetheless, I regard the general hysteria about these issues as intellectually disgusting. As for the question why so many editors are interested in publishing what I write, I suspect that this is because so many readers are interested in reading it.

    Btw, I note that philosopher Berlinski (not) denounces ID. His stated ambivalence mirrors the confusion about facts and methods Woit describes. And it is readily apparent in the ID essays he has published.

  77. Torbjörn Larsson, OM says

    @ Todd, comment #69:

    For a mathematician Berlinski doesn’t seem to use a whole lot of…well…math.

    That is due to Berlinski not being a … well … mathematician.

    Mathematical physicist Peter Woit reviews Berlinski’s book review of The Mathematician’s Brain by David Ruelle:

    The New York Sun recently published a review of The Mathematician’s Brain by David Berlinski. It’s one of the great mysteries of the popular science book business why anybody publishes the writings of Berlinski. His recent claim to fame is as an affiliate of the Discovery Institute, critic of Darwinism and proponent of Intelligent design, but he has also authored various popular books, including some on mathematics. Some web-sites claim that he has a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton, but it appears that the truth of the matter is that he was in the philosophy department there, writing a doctoral thesis on Wittgenstein. His writings on math and science that I’ve seen over the years have always struck me as singularly incoherent and confused.

    Berlinski actually doesn’t do that bad a job with the Ruelle review, picking up on one of the things that might interest mathematicians and physicists about the book, the part about Alexandre Grothendieck (I confess to skimming some of the material explaining what mathematicians do, since I spend far too much of my life watching them do it). …

    Berlinski appears in the comments:

    I have never claimed to have a Ph.D in mathematics from Princeton University. My Ph.D. from Princeton is in philosophy. This is what my resume says; it is how I am described at the DI website; and it is how I am described on the dust jacket of my books. If there is a website that claims otherwise, I revile and denounce it. As long as I am correcting misapprehensions, I might add that I am a critic of intelligent design and not one of its supporters. In this regard, you might consider my essay “Has Darwin met his Match,” in the December 2002 issue of Commentary. It is devoted perceptively to attacking Johnson, Behe and Dembski. I cannot say that my friends at the DI were pleased to see what I wrote, but they were made wiser by reading it. My feelings toward intelligent design remain what they have always been: Warm but skeptical. Nonetheless, I regard the general hysteria about these issues as intellectually disgusting. As for the question why so many editors are interested in publishing what I write, I suspect that this is because so many readers are interested in reading it.

    Btw, I note that philosopher Berlinski (not) denounces ID. His stated ambivalence mirrors the confusion about facts and methods Woit describes. And it is readily apparent in the ID essays he has published.

  78. says

    There is something wrong with creationist brains. Between John A. Davison, who thinks a blog is one article into which he masturbates, and Denyse O’Leary, who creates a new blog every time she has to tinkle and then writes nothing but empty entries that tell you to go read one of her other blogs, it’s clear that they don’t understand the medium at all.

  79. Sven DiMilo says

    Denyse O’Leary, who creates a new blog every time she has to tinkle and then writes nothing but empty entries that tell you to go read one of her other blogs,

    And to buy her book. Don’t forget the touch.

  80. MyaR says

    Well of course they don’t understand the medium — it’s all about information. Since they clearly have no grasp at all on information theory, they’ll always fail at anything involving information. Now, PR and propaganda…

    Speaking of information, while it’s fun to go make sure the stupid books have tags like “breathtaking inanity” on Amazon, it would also be good to make sure the good books have good tags, so if you look for “intelligent design” you’ll get the response books back as well as the drivel. (You can also vote to remove tags like ‘evo-devo’ from the drivel books.) Not that it makes much difference at this point, since there’s really very little tagging of any books going on.

  81. Gilmore says

    Between John A. Davison, who thinks a blog is one article into which he masturbates,

    Again with your hostility to self-pleasure. Who traumatized the poor young PZ?

  82. Paul Flocken says

    So, the pages within the book are, uh, blank?

    Pages? There are pages? What pages? The entirety of ID theory would fit in an empty dust jacket.

  83. Ichthyic says

    There is something wrong with creationist brains.

    lot’s of evidence to indicate this is so.

    even basic psych 101 course teaches one to recognize the signs of an underlying psychological malady. namely the two primary defense mechanisms employed by them:

    projection (darwinists are the cult)
    denial (there is no evidence for evolution)

    I took basic psych over 20 years ago, and still recall the basic lessons in how to recognize such things as the defense mechanisms they are.

    I still think the most productive approach to moving around the roadblock that creationists represent will be from a psychological standpoint.

  84. John Kwok says

    Hi Everyone,

    For those of you who didn’t read my Panda’s Thumb posts, I thought I’d briefly summarize what transpired. After Bill had Amazon.com “delete” my review, I wrote him an e-mail ultimatum stating that he should have Amazon.com reinstate it by NOON EST 12/7/07 or else suffer the consequences (I posted a copy of my e-mail towards the end of the comments section following my Amazon.com review.). Hope you will vote yea on behalf of this review at Amazon.com and encourage others to do so, since I want to give Bill a good case of heartburn (or worse) before Christmas.

    Appreciatively yours,

    John Kwok

  85. J-Dog says

    This is the Newest and Bestest 5-start review of Dembski’s new book. I think the reviewer nails it perfectly, and has made both Billy D and The Bay Jesus both cry.

    ” 2nd Best Book Ever, December 23, 2007
    By The Spinozanator

    I must reluctantly admit, I was teetering on the brink of being seduced by Satan’s evil theory of evolution. Then I read Dembski’s and Wells’s inspired book, which ranks right up there with astrology in exposing science and its ridiculous reliance on evidence and the outdated fuddy duddy scientific method; instead of the Bible and other privileged sources.

    None of my friends down at the Church of the Divine Sepulchre of Spiritual Holiness believe in that stupid ape story either. Among the high spots in this fine book was the sensitive support given in the bibliography to Santa Claus, Mother Goose, and the Stork. Those 100% of Nobel prize winners and 99% of other scientists who believe evolution’s hogwash are most certainly going straight to Hell. Top Notch! ”

    This is really a 5-star review. Thank you, whoever you are.