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Entry: A Matter of Degrees Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/a_matter_of_degrees#16636 Post contents: Professor Sietz: I enjoy your well written commentary and your rather biting letters that you occasionally send to The American Spectator. I pretty much agree with your comments presented here but I feel it is necessary to call out your gratuitous swipe at Intelligent Design Theory. Proponents of the theory like molecular biologist Michael Behe and mathematician William Dembski are hardly bible thumping yahoos. They have a particular point of view and use science and mathematics to argue their positions. They are no different the proponents of String Theory which, as Lee Smollin points out, propose a theory that cannot be proven by normal empirical scientific methods. Just because the biblical literalists have latched on to Behe and Dembski ideas doesn’t validate your summary dismissal of their arguments. I don’t hold a particular brief for Intelligent Design Theory but I do acknowledge that their theory raises some interesting questions that are beyond the ability of science to fully address at least at this time. It is true that ID or String Theory are not science as we have know it in the past but both seek to explain things that may be beyond our ability to understand. Your unwillingness to take ID as seriously as I assume you take String Theory is a product of the same mindset that you condemn here. Awaiting your biting reply. Sent at: 2009 01 08