View source for William A. Dembski

{{short description|American mathematician and proponent of intelligent design}}
{{pp|small=yes|indef=yes}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2012}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| name               = William A. Dembski
| image              = Dembski head shot.jpg
| image_size         = 
| alt                = photograph
| caption            = Dembski in 2006
| birth_name         = 
| birth_date         = {{birth date and age|1960|07|18}}
| birth_place        = [[Chicago|Chicago, Illinois]], U.S.
| nationality        = 
| known_for          = [[Intelligent design]]<br />[[Specified complexity]]
| television         = 
| education          = [[University of Illinois at Chicago]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[M.S.|MS]], [[PhD]])<br>{{nowrap|[[University of Chicago]] ([[Master of Science|MS]], [[PhD]])}}<br>[[Princeton Theological Seminary]] ([[Master of Divinity|MDiv]])
| notable_works      = ''[[The Design Inference]]'' (1998)
| awards             = 
| website            = [http://billdembski.com/ BillDembski.com]
}}

'''William Albert Dembski''' (born July 18, 1960) is an American [[mathematician]], [[philosopher]] and [[theologian]]. He was a proponent of [[intelligent design]] (ID) [[pseudoscience]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boudry |first1=Maarten |author-link1=Maarten Boudry |last2=Blancke |first2=Stefaan |last3=Braeckman |first3=Johan |author-link3=Johan Braeckman |date=December 2010 |title=Irreducible Incoherence and Intelligent Design: A Look into the Conceptual Toolbox of a Pseudoscience |journal=[[The Quarterly Review of Biology]] |volume=85 |issue=4 |pages=473–482 |doi=10.1086/656904 |pmid=21243965|url=https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/952482/file/6828579.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/952482/file/6828579.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |hdl=1854/LU-952482 |s2cid=27218269 |hdl-access=free }} Article available from [https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/952482 Universiteit Gent]</ref> specifically the concept of [[specified complexity]], and was a senior fellow of the [[Discovery Institute]]'s [[Center for Science and Culture]] (CSC).<ref name="Dembski_SF">{{cite web |url=http://www.discovery.org/p/32 |title=William A. Dembski, Senior Fellow - CSC |website=[[Discovery Institute]] |publisher=Discovery Institute |location=Seattle, WA |access-date=January 10, 2014 |quote=A mathematician and philosopher, William A. Dembski is Senior Fellow with Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture.}}</ref> On September 23, 2016, he officially retired from intelligent design, resigning all his "formal associations with the ID community, including [his] Discovery Institute fellowship of 20 years".<ref name="Official_Retirement">{{cite web |url=https://billdembski.com/personal/official-retirement-from-intelligent-design/ |title=Official Retirement from Intelligent Design |date=September 23, 2016 |access-date=September 26, 2016}}</ref> A February 2021 interview in the CSC's blog ''[[Evolution News]]'' announced "his return to the intelligent design arena".<ref name="Evolution News 2021">{{cite web | title=William Dembski: Why I'm Returning to the Front Lines of Intelligent Design | website=Evolution News | date=16 February 2021 | url=https://evolutionnews.org/2021/02/william-dembski-why-im-returning-to-the-front-lines-of-intelligent-design/ | access-date=30 June 2021}}</ref>

In 2012, he taught as the Phillip E. Johnson Research Professor of Science and Culture at the [[Southern Evangelical Seminary]] in [[Matthews, North Carolina]], near [[Charlotte, North Carolina|Charlotte]].<ref name="SEC_Faculty">{{cite web |url=http://ses.edu/academics/faculty/william-dembski |title=William Dembski |website=[[Southern Evangelical Seminary]] |publisher=Southern Evangelical Seminary |location=Matthews, NC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703104257/http://ses.edu/academics/faculty/william-dembski |archive-date=July 3, 2013 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

Dembski has written books about intelligent design, including ''[[The Design Inference]]'' (1998), ''[[Intelligent Design (book)|Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology]]'' (1999), ''[[The Design Revolution]]'' (2004), ''The End of Christianity'' (2009), and ''Intelligent Design Uncensored'' (2010).

Intelligent design is the argument that an intelligent cause is responsible for the complexity of life and that one can detect that cause [[Empiricism|empirically]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arn.org/docs/dembski/wd_explfilter.htm |title=The Explanatory Filter: A three-part filter for understanding how to separate and identify cause from intelligent design |last=Dembski |first=William A. |year=1996 |type="An excerpt from a paper presented at the [[Faculty Commons#Wedge strategy|1996 Mere Creation conference]], originally titled 'Redesigning Science.'" |access-date=September 27, 2009 }} See Chapter 4 of ''Mere Creation'' (1998), [https://books.google.com/books?id=uD6KDrWLSu0C&pg=PA93 "Redesigning Science"].
*{{cite magazine |last=Wallis |first=Claudia |date=August 7, 2005 |title=The Evolution Wars |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1090909-2,00.html |access-date=January 10, 2014 |archive-date=November 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104061455/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1090909-2,00.html |url-status=dead }}
*{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=A War on Science |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/war.shtml |work=Science & Nature: TV & Radio Follow-up |location=London |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=September 27, 2009 }}
**{{cite episode |title=A War on Science |episode-link=List of Horizon episodes#Series 42: 2005-2006 |series=[[Horizon (BBC TV series)|Horizon]] |network=BBC |date=January 26, 2006 |series-no=42 |number=13}}
*{{cite news |last=Heeren |first=Fred |url=http://www.spectator.org/archives/0011TAS/heeren0011.htm |title=The Lynching of Bill Dembski |date=November 2000 |work=[[The American Spectator]] |location=Arlington, VA |publisher=American Spectator Foundation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001116075653/http://www.spectator.org/archives/0011TAS/heeren0011.htm |archive-date=November 16, 2000 |access-date=September 27, 2009 }}</ref> Dembski postulated that [[probability theory]] can be used to prove [[irreducible complexity]] (IC) and what he called "[[specified complexity]]."<ref name="Dembsky1999">[[#Dembski 1999|Dembski 1999]], pp. 10, 107</ref> The scientific community sees intelligent design—and Dembski's concept of specified complexity—as a form of [[creationism]].<ref>[[#Young & Edis 2004|Young & Edis 2004]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=hYLKdtlVeQgC&pg=PA1 pp. 1–19], [https://books.google.com/books?id=hYLKdtlVeQgC&pg=PA107 107–138], [https://books.google.com/books?id=hYLKdtlVeQgC&pg=PA185 185–196]</ref>

==Biography==
Dembski was born in [[Chicago|Chicago, Illinois]], the only child of Catholic parents. His mother was an [[art dealer]] and his father was a college professor who held a [[Doctor of Science|D.Sc.]] in [[biology]] from the [[University of Erlangen-Nuremberg]] and taught [[evolutionary biology]]. While growing up, Dembski was neither particularly religious nor did he question the [[Evolution|theory of evolution]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arn.org/docs/dembski/wd_idcomingclean.htm |title=Intelligent Design Coming Clean |last=Dembski |first=William A. |date=November 17, 2000 |website=[[Access Research Network]] |location=Colorado Springs, CO |access-date=August 11, 2010}}</ref><ref name="InGod">{{cite news |last=Kern |first=Lauren |date=December 14, 2000 |title=In God's Country |url=http://www.houstonpress.com/2000-12-14/news/in-god-s-country/full/ |newspaper=[[Houston Press]] |location=Houston, TX |publisher=[[Voice Media Group]] |oclc=29800759 |access-date=August 11, 2010}}</ref> 

Dembski attended an all-male Catholic preparatory school in Chicago. He finished high school a year early, excelling in math and finishing a [[calculus]] course in one summer. After high school, Dembski attended the [[University of Chicago]], where he experienced educational and personal difficulties, struggling with the advanced courses and finding the unfamiliar social milieu of college challenging. He dropped out of school and worked at his mother's art business while reading works on creationism and the [[Bible]]. Finding the creationist works interesting in their challenge of evolution but their literal interpretations lacking, Dembski returned to school at the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]], studying [[statistics]].<ref name="InGod" />

It was in 1988 at a [[Academic conference|conference]] on [[randomness]] that Dembski began to believe that there was purpose, order, and design in the universe by the intervention of [[God]].<ref name="InGod" /> Remaining in academia, Dembski ultimately completed an undergraduate degree in [[psychology]] at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1981 and master's degrees in statistics, mathematics, and philosophy (1983, University of Illinois at Chicago; 1985, University of Chicago; 1993, University of Illinois at Chicago, respectively), two [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]]s, one in mathematics and one in philosophy (1988, University of Chicago; 1996, University of Illinois at Chicago, respectively), and a [[Master of Divinity]] in [[theology]] at the [[Princeton Theological Seminary]] (1996).<ref name="CV">{{cite web |url=http://designinference.com/dembski-on-intelligent-design/dembski-curriculum-vitae-resume/ |title=CV/Resumé of William A. Dembski |website=DesignInference.com |publisher=William Dembski |location=Pella, IA |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

At the Princeton Theological Seminary, Dembski met his future wife, Jana.<ref>[[#Dembski 2009|Dembski 2009]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=C7a9fgCKqz8C&pg=PR18 p. xviii]</ref> Dissatisfied with what he called the "free-swinging academic style" of the school, Dembski also was involved in a group known as the Charles Hodge Society. Based on the works of the 19th century thinker [[Charles Hodge]], the group was devoted to strengthening the faith of students faced with what members believed to be the "theological disarray" of the times, and to providing an example of how to oppose "false and destructive ideas." It published a journal (a recreation of the ''[[The Princeton Theological Review|Princeton Theological Review]]'' (1903–1929)) and met with considerable opposition on the campus, facing two [[lawsuit]]s, threats of violence, accusations of racism and sexism; being denied funding; and hearing that membership "jeopardized their academic advancement."<ref name="Dembski_Richards2001">[[#Dembski & Richards 2001|Dembski & Richards 2001]], "Introduction: Reclaiming Theological Education," [http://www.ivpress.com/title/exc/1563-I.pdf pp. 11–27] (PDF)</ref>

Dembski and Jana have one daughter and two sons. One of his sons has [[autism]] and Dembski has attributed some of his son's problems to [[vaccine]]s.<ref>{{cite podcast |url=http://www.premierradio.org.uk/listen/ondemand.aspx?mediaid={B937E7AD-5935-47FE-AF63-E57DF56F5B01} |title=Bill Dembski & Norman Hansen on Natural Evil |website=Unbelievable? |publisher=[[Premier Christian Radio]] |host=Brierley, Justin |date=January 9, 2010 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

===Early opposition to evolution===
Dembski holds that his knowledge of statistics and his skepticism concerning [[evolution|evolutionary theory]] led him to believe that the extraordinary diversity of life was statistically unlikely to have been produced by [[natural selection]].<ref name="InGod" /> His first significant contribution to intelligent design was his 1991 paper, "Randomness by Design," published in the philosophy journal ''[[Noûs]]''.<ref>[[#Dembski 1991|Dembski 1991]]</ref><ref name="Writings">{{cite web |url=http://designinference.com/dembski-on-intelligent-design/dembski-writings/ |title=Writings of William A. Dembski |website=DesignInference.com |publisher=William Dembski |location=Pella, IA |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

Former UC Berkeley law school professor [[Phillip E. Johnson]]'s book ''[[Darwin on Trial]]'' (1991) attracted a group of scholars<ref>[[#Forrest & Gross 2004|Forrest & Gross 2004]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=aP4RxWZceNkC&pg=PA18 p. 18]</ref> who shared his view that the exclusion of [[supernatural]] explanations by the [[scientific method]] was unfair and had led to the ''[[Edwards v. Aguillard]]'' ruling that teaching [[creation science]] in [[State school#United States|public schools]] was unconstitutional. Dembski was part of that group at a symposium at [[Southern Methodist University]] in [[Dallas|Dallas, Texas]], in March 1992, before they came to call themselves "[[wedge strategy|The Wedge]]."<ref name="bfwedge">[[#Forrest 2001|Forrest 2001]]</ref>

Dembski  wrote a contribution to the 1994 book ''The Creation Hypothesis''. Another chapter, contributed by the creationists [[Charles Thaxton]] and [[Walter Bradley (engineer)|Walter L Bradley]], discussed "design detection" and redefined "[[specified complexity]]" as a way of measuring information.<ref name="NCSE Orgel">{{cite web | title=Review: Origins of Life | website=NCSE | url=http://ncse.com/rncse/27/3-4/review-origins-life | access-date=1 June 2016| date=2015-12-15 }}</ref>
These ideas led to Dembski's notion of specified complexity, which he developed in ''The Design Inference'', a 1998 revision of his PhD dissertation in philosophy.<ref>[[#Dembski 1998a|Dembski 1998a]], p. xv</ref>

In 1987, the phrase "intelligent design" replaced "creation science" in drafts of a book, ''[[Of Pandas and People]]'', that was intended for secondary school students. The phrase referred to the idea that life was [[creation myth|created]] through unspecified processes by an intelligent but unidentified designer. The book asserted that there was a logical need for such a designer because of the appearance of design in biological organisms. This replacement was intended to evade the ''Edwards v. Aguillard'' ruling. The book was published in 1989 amidst campaigning by the publisher for the introduction of "intelligent design" into school science classes.

Biochemist [[Michael Behe]], another member of "The Wedge," contributed the argument that he subsequently called "irreducible complexity" to a subsequent edition of ''Pandas'' in 1993. The book contained concepts which Dembski later elaborated in his treatment of "specified complexity."<ref name="Forrest2007">{{cite web |url=http://www.centerforinquiry.net/uploads/attachments/intelligent-design.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.centerforinquiry.net/uploads/attachments/intelligent-design.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Understanding The Intelligent Design Creationist Movement: Its True Nature and Goals |last=Forrest |first=Barbara |date=May 2007 |website=[[Center for Inquiry]] |publisher=Center for Inquiry |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=January 10, 2014}}
*{{cite journal |last=Matzke |first=Nicholas J. |author-link=Nick Matzke |date=September–October 2004 |title=Design on Trial in Dover, Pennsylvania |url=http://ncse.com/rncse/24/5/design-trial-dover-pennsylvania |journal=Reports of the National Center for Science Education |volume=24 |issue=5 |pages=4–9 |issn=2158-818X |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

===Discovery Institute===
{{Main|Discovery Institute}}
After completing graduate school in 1996, Dembski was unable to secure a university position; from then until 1999 he received what he calls "a standard academic salary" of $40,000 a year as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. "I was one of the early beneficiaries of Discovery largess," says Dembski.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wilgoren |first=Jodi |date=August 21, 2005 |title=Politicized Scholars Put Evolution on the Defensive |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/national/21evolve.html?pagewanted=all |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

Until September 2016, Dembski served as a senior fellow at the CSC,<ref name="Dembski_SF" /> where he played a central role in the center's extensive public and political campaigns advancing the concept of intelligent design and its teaching in public schools through its "[[Teach the Controversy]]" campaign as part of the institute's [[wedge strategy]]. He has since resigned his fellowship position with the Discovery Institute.

===Baylor University===

====Michael Polanyi Center controversy====
{{Main|Michael Polanyi Center}}
In 1999, Dembski was invited by [[Robert B. Sloan]], President of [[Baylor University]], to establish the [[Michael Polanyi Center]] at the university. Named after the Hungarian physical chemist and philosopher [[Michael Polanyi]] (1891–1976), Dembski described it as "the first intelligent design think tank at a research university." Dembski had known Sloan for about three years, having taught Sloan's daughter at a Christian study summer camp not far from [[Waco, Texas]]. Sloan was the first [[Baptists|Baptist]] minister to serve as Baylor's president in over 30 years, had read some of Dembski's work and liked it; according to Dembski, Sloan "made it clear that he wanted to get me on the faculty in some way."<ref name="monkey business">{{cite news |last=Kern |first=Lauren |date=January 11, 2001 |orig-year=Originally published 2000 as "In God's Country"; ''Houston Press'' (Houston, TX: Voice Media Group) |title=Monkey Business |url=http://www.arn.org/docs/dembski/wd_dallasobserver0101.htm |newspaper=[[Dallas Observer]] |location=Dallas, TX |publisher=Voice Media Group |issn=0732-0299 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>  The salaries were supported by a grant from the [[John Templeton Foundation]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forrest |first1=Barbara |last2=Gross |first2=Paul R. |title=Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195319736 |page=306 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7mMSDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA306 |language=en}}</ref>

The Polanyi Center was established without much publicity in October 1999, initially consisting of two people – Dembski and a like-minded colleague, [[Bruce L. Gordon]], who were hired directly by Sloan without going through the usual channels of a search committee and departmental consultation. The vast majority of Baylor staff did not know of the center's existence until its website went online, and the center stood outside of the existing religion, science, and philosophy departments.

The center's mission, and the lack of consultation with the Baylor faculty, became the immediate subject of controversy. The faculty feared for the university's reputation – it has historically been well regarded for its contributions to mainstream science – and scientists outside the university questioned whether Baylor had "gone fundamentalist."<ref name="monkey business" /> Faculty members pointed out that the university's existing interdisciplinary [[Baylor University|Institute for Faith and Learning]] was already addressing questions about the relationship between science and religion, making the existence of the Polanyi Center somewhat redundant. In April 2000, Dembski hosted a conference on "naturalism in science" sponsored by the [[John Templeton Foundation]] and the hub of the intelligent design movement, the Discovery Institute, seeking to address the question "Is there anything beyond nature?" Most of the Baylor faculty boycotted the conference.

A few days later, the Baylor faculty senate voted by a margin of 27–2 to ask the administration to dissolve the center and merge it with the Institute for Faith and Learning. President Sloan refused, citing issues of censorship and academic integrity, but agreed to convene an outside committee to review the center. The committee recommended setting up a faculty advisory panel to oversee the science and religion components of the program, dropping the name "Michael Polanyi" and reconstituting the center as part of the Institute for Faith and Learning.<ref name="Polanyireport">{{cite web |url=http://pr.baylor.edu/pdf/001017polanyi.pdf |title=Polanyi Review Committee Report - 001017polanyi.pdf |last=Cooper |first=William F. (External Review Committee Chairman) |date=October 16, 2000 |website=pr.baylor.edu |publisher=[[Baylor University]] |location=Waco, TX |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030310061855/http://pr.baylor.edu/pdf/001017polanyi.pdf |archive-date=March 10, 2003 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> These recommendations were accepted in full by the university administration.

In a subsequent press release, Dembski asserted that the committee had given an "unqualified affirmation of my own work on intelligent design," that its report "marks the triumph of intelligent design as a legitimate form of academic inquiry" and that "dogmatic opponents of design who demanded the Center be shut down have met their Waterloo. Baylor University is to be commended for remaining strong in the face of intolerant assaults on freedom of thought and expression."<ref name="Dembski_PR-2000-10-17">{{cite web |url=http://www.designinference.com/documents/2007.12.MPC_Rise_and_Fall.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080106063508/http://www.designinference.com/documents/2007.12.MPC_Rise_and_Fall.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 6, 2008 |title=Polanyi Center Press Release |last=Dembski |first=William A. |date=October 17, 2000 |access-date=January 10, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Siemon-Netto |first=Uwe |author-link=Uwe Siemon-Netto |date=December 21, 2000 |title=Commentary: It's Perilous to Ponder the Design of the Universe |url=http://www.arn.org/docs/dembski/wd_upicommentary1200.htm |agency=[[United Press International]] |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

Dembski's remarks were criticized by other members of the Baylor faculty, who protested that they were both an unjustified attack on his critics at Baylor and a false assertion that the university endorsed Dembski's controversial views on intelligent design. Charles Weaver, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor and one of the most vocal critics of the Polanyi Center, commented: "In academic arguments, we don't seek utter destruction and defeat of our opponents. We don't talk about Waterloos."<ref name="InGod" />

President Sloan asked Dembski to withdraw his press release, but Dembski refused, accusing the university of "intellectual [[McCarthyism]]" (borrowing a phrase that Sloan himself had used when they first tried to dissolve the center). He declared that the university's action had been taken "in the utmost of bad faith ... thereby providing the fig leaf of justification for my removal."<ref name="Dembski_PR-2000-10-19">{{cite web |url=http://www.antievolution.org/people/dembski_wa/metanews_20001020_wad.txt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020628233524/http://www.antievolution.org/people/dembski_wa/metanews_20001020_wad.txt |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 28, 2002 |title=Statement by William Dembski on His Removal as Director of the Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University |last=Dembski |first=William A. |date=October 19, 2000 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> Professor Michael Beaty, director of the Institute for Faith and Learning, said that Dembski's remarks violated the spirit of cooperation that the committee had advocated and stated that "Dr. Dembski's actions after the release of the report compromised his ability to serve as director."<ref name="Brumley_PR-2000-10-19">{{cite web |url=http://www.antievolution.org/people/dembski_wa/metanews_20001019_brumley.txt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020628233618/http://www.antievolution.org/people/dembski_wa/metanews_20001019_brumley.txt |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 28, 2002 |title=Dembski relieved of duties as Polanyi Center Director |last=Brumley |first=Larry |date=October 19, 2000 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> Dembski was removed as the center's director, although he remained an associate research professor until May 2005. He was not asked to teach any courses in that time and instead worked from home, writing books and speaking around the country. "In a sense, Baylor did me a favor," he said. "I had a five-year sabbatical."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2005/10/the-pseudo-scie.html |title=The Pseudo-Science Amicus Brief in ''Kitzmiller'' |last=Sandefur |first=Timothy |date=October 4, 2005 |website=[[The Panda's Thumb (blog)|The Panda's Thumb]] |publisher=The TalkOrigins Foundation, Inc. |location=Houston, TX |type=Blog |access-date=July 26, 2013}}</ref>

===Seminary teaching===

From 1999 to 2005, he was on the faculty of Baylor University, where he was a focus of attention and controversy. During the academic year 2005–2006, he was briefly the ''[[Carl F. H. Henry]] Professor of Theology and Science'' at the [[Southern Baptist Theological Seminary]] in [[Louisville, Kentucky]], as well as the first director of the school's new Center for Theology and Science (since replaced by prominent creationist [[Kurt Wise]]).<ref>{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Peter |date=April 16, 2006 |title=Creationist to will lead seminary science center |url=http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20060417/NEWS01/604170363/Creationist-will-lead-seminary-science-center |newspaper=[[The Courier-Journal]] |location=Louisville, KY |publisher=[[Gannett Company]] |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> The seminary teaches creationism but its professors vary on the details, with most adhering to the [[Young Earth creationism|young Earth creationist]] viewpoint of a relatively recent creation which occurred literally as described in [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]]; Dembski does not hold to young Earth creationism (YEC). On his position at Southern, Dembski also remarked that "Theology is where my ultimate passion is and I think that is where I can uniquely contribute."<ref name="Robinson">{{cite news |last=Robinson |first=Jeff |date=September 16, 2004 |title=Dembski to head seminary's new science & theology center |url=http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=19115 |work=[[Baptist Press]] |location=Nashville, TN |publisher=[[Southern Baptist Convention]] |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> He left Southern in May 2006.<ref name="SouthwesternBio">{{cite web |url=http://www.swbts.edu/index.cfm?pageid=800&enc=495E4B4A5433392C23442550435120415379 |title=School of Theology - Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary: William Dembski |website=[[Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary]] |publisher=Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary |location=Fort Worth, TX |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120505085004/http://swbts.edu/index.cfm?pageid=800&enc=%20495E4B4A5433392C23442550435120415379 |archive-date=May 5, 2012 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> Starting in June 2006 he became a professor in philosophy at [[Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary]] (SWBTS) in [[Fort Worth, Texas]]. Since taking up a position within Southwestern's School of Theology in June 2006, Dembski has taught a number of courses within its Department of Philosophy of Religion.<ref name="SouthwesternBio" /><ref name="'Teaching' page">{{cite web |url=http://designinference.com/dembski-on-intelligent-design/dembski-teaching/ |title=Teaching: Courses taught by William A. Dembski |website=DesignInference.com |publisher=William Dembski |location=Pella, IA |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> For some of his courses, he requires that his students promote intelligent design on "hostile" websites for course credit.<ref name="'Teaching' page" /> The [[Southern Baptist Convention]] operates both seminaries.

In September 2007, the SWBTS hosted a conference, "Intelligent Design in Business Practice," presented by Dembski, [[Acton Institute]] theologian [[Jay Richards]], and three business academics presently or formerly teaching at universities in the Southern United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.religionlink.com/tip_071008.php |title=Evolution vs. intelligent design: The battle continues |date=October 8, 2007 |website=ReligionLink |publisher=[[Religion Newswriters Association]]; [[Religion News Service|Religion News LLC]] |location=Westerville, OH |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817210402/http://www.religionlink.com/tip_071008.php |archive-date=August 17, 2011 |access-date=January 10, 2014 }} Current version and URL of the article [http://www.religionlink.com/source-guides/evolution-vs-intelligent-design-the-battle-continues/ here] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110094817/http://www.religionlink.com/source-guides/evolution-vs-intelligent-design-the-battle-continues/ |date=January 10, 2014 }}.</ref>

====Mims–Pianka controversy====
{{Main|Eric Pianka}}
On April 2, 2006, Dembski stated on his blog that he reported Eric Pianka to the [[United States Department of Homeland Security|Department of Homeland Security]] because he and fellow Discovery Institute Fellow [[Forrest Mims]] felt that [[Eric Pianka#Texas Academy of Science speech|Pianka's speech]] while accepting the Texas Academy of Science's Distinguished Texas Scientist Award in 2006 fomented [[bioterrorism]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/eric-pianka-time-for-an-interview-with-the-department-of-homeland-security/ |title=Eric Pianka: The Department of Homeland Security needs to interview you |last=Dembski |first=William |date=April 2, 2006 |website=Uncommon Descent |publisher=Uncommon Descent, Inc. |type=Blog |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> This resulted in the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] interviewing Pianka in Austin.<ref>{{cite news |last=Heinauer |first=Laura |date=April 5, 2006 |title=Professor's population speeches unnerve some |url=http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/5PIANKA.html |newspaper=[[Austin American-Statesman]] |location=Austin, TX |publisher=[[Cox Enterprises]] |issn=1553-8451 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060427212600/http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/5PIANKA.html |archive-date=April 27, 2006 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> On April 5, Dembski wagered that Pianka's popularity would drop if the full text of his speech to the Texas Academy of Science were made public.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/1000-reward-and-1000-bet-pianka-again/ |title=[UPDATE:] $1000 reward and $1000 bet — Pianka again |last=Dembski |first=William |date=April 6, 2006 |website=Uncommon Descent |publisher=Uncommon Descent, Inc. |type=Blog |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

====Baylor Evolutionary Informatics Lab controversy====
Subsequently, in July and August 2007, Dembski played a central role in the formation of the [[Evolutionary Informatics Lab]] (EIL), cofounded with Baylor University Engineering Professor [[Robert J. Marks II]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/02/the_evolutionar056061.html |title=The Evolutionary Informatics Lab: Putting Intelligent Design Predictions to the Test |last=Luskin |first=Casey |date=February 7, 2012 |website=Evolution News & Views |publisher=Discovery Institute |location=Seattle, WA |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> According to Baylor administration, the EIL website hosted at Baylor was deleted because it violated university policy forbidding professors from creating the impression that their personal views represent Baylor as an institution. Dembski says the website was removed because it dealt with intelligent design.<ref>{{cite news |last=Dembski |first=William A. |date=May 6, 2010 |title=FIRST-PERSON: Vindication for I.D. at Baylor? |url=http://www.bpnews.net/BPFirstPerson.asp?ID=32885 |work=Baptist Press |location=Nashville, TN |publisher=Southern Baptist Convention |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> Baylor said they would permit Marks to repost his website on their server, provided a 108-word disclaimer<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bergin |first=Mark |date=September 15, 2007 |title=Not so fast |url=http://www.worldmag.com/2007/09/not_so_fast |journal=[[World (magazine)|World]] |volume=22 |issue=33 |issn=0888-157X |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> accompany any intelligent design-advancing research to make clear that the work does not represent the university's position.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.evolutionnews.org/2007/07/william_dembski_addresses_fort003949.html |title=William Dembski Addresses Forthcoming Intelligent Design Research that Advances ID and Answers Critics (updated) |last=Luskin |first=Casey |date=July 22, 2007 |website=Evolution News & Views |publisher=Discovery Institute |location=Seattle, WA |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Bergin |first=Mark |date=August 25, 2007 |title=Crisis averted |url=http://www.worldmag.com/2007/08/crisis_averted |journal=World |volume=22 |issue=31 |issn=0888-157X |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Farrell |first=Elizabeth F. |date=September 4, 2007 |title=Baylor U. Removes a Web Page Associated With Intelligent Design From Its Site |url=http://chronicle.com/article/Baylor-U-Removes-a-Web-Pag/121996/ |newspaper=[[The Chronicle of Higher Education]] |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=The Chronicle of Higher Education Inc. |issn=0009-5982 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> The site now resides on a third-party server and still contains the material advancing intelligent design.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.evoinfo.org/index/ |title=The Evolutionary Informatics Lab - EvoInfo.org |website=[[Evolutionary Informatics Lab]] |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> Dembski's participation was funded by a $30,000 grant from the Lifeworks Foundation, which is controlled by researcher Brendan Dixon of the [[Biologic Institute]] (which has close ties to the Discovery Institute).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org//990pf_pdf_archive/911/911942043/911942043_200612_990PF.pdf |title=031248d0.tif - 911942043_200612_990PF.pdf |type=[[IRS tax forms#990|IRS Form 990-PF]] |access-date=January 10, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207032841/http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org//990pf_pdf_archive/911/911942043/911942043_200612_990PF.pdf |archive-date=February 7, 2012 |df=mdy-all }} Return of Private Foundation (2006): The Lifeworks Foundation.</ref>

====Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary flood controversy====
While serving as a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dembski wrote ''The End of Christianity'', which argued that a Christian can reconcile an [[Old Earth creationism|old Earth creationist]] view with a [[Biblical literalism|literal reading]] of [[Adam and Eve]] in the Bible by accepting the [[age of the Earth|scientific consensus of a 4.5 billion year of Earth]].<ref>[[#Dembski 2009|Dembski 2009]], p. 55: "The young earth-solution to reconciling the order of creation with natural history makes good exegetical and theological sense. Indeed, the overwhelming consensus of theologians up through the Reformation held to this view. I myself would adopt it in a heartbeat except that nature seems to present such strong evidence against it."</ref> He further argued that [[Genesis flood narrative|Noah's flood]] likely was a phenomenon limited to the Middle East.<ref name="HowOld">{{cite news |last=Roach |first=David |date=October 20, 2010 |title=How Old? Age of Earth debated among SBC scholars |url=http://www.gofbw.com/news.asp?ID=12220&fp=Y |newspaper=Florida Baptist Witness |location=Jacksonville, FL |publisher=Florida Baptist State Convention |issn=1092-7409 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> This caused controversy and Dembski's reading of the Bible was criticized by Tom Nettles, a young Earth creationist, in ''[[The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology]]'', Southern Seminary's official theological journal.<ref name="HowOld" /><ref>{{cite journal |last=Nettles |first=Tom J. |year=2009 |title=The End of Christianity: Finding a Good God in an Evil World |url=http://www.sbts.edu/resources/files/2010/02/sbjt_134_book_reviews.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.sbts.edu/resources/files/2010/02/sbjt_134_book_reviews.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |journal=[[The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology]] |type=Book review |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=80–85 |issn=1520-7307 |access-date=December 28, 2012}}</ref> In 2010, the dean of Southwestern's School of Theology, David Allen, "released a White Paper through the seminary's Center for Theological Research defending Dembski as within the bounds of orthodoxy and critiquing Nettles for misunderstanding the book. The paper included Dembski's statement admitting error regarding Noah's flood."<ref name="HowOld" /><ref>[[#Allen 2010|Allen 2010]]</ref> Southwestern Seminary president [[Paige Patterson]], a young Earth creationist, "said that when Dembski's questionable statements came to light, he convened a meeting with Dembski and several high-ranking administrators at the seminary. At that meeting, Dembski was quick to admit that he was wrong about the flood. "'Had I had any inkling that Dr. Dembski was actually denying the absolute trustworthiness of the Bible, then that would have, of course, ended his relationship with the school,' he said."<ref name="HowOld" />

==Public advocacy==
{{Intelligent Design}}

In December 2001, Dembski launched the [[International Society for Complexity, Information and Design]] (ISCID), of which he is Executive Director. Dembski is also the editor-in-chief of ISCID's journal, ''Progress in Complexity, Information, and Design'' (PCID), which appears to have ceased publication with its November 2005 issue.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Branch |first=Glenn |author-link=Glenn Branch |date=November–December 2010 |title=The Latest 'Intelligent Design' Journal |url=http://ncse.com/book/export/html/6703 |journal=Reports of the National Center for Science Education |volume=30 |issue=6 |pages=10–13 |issn=2158-818X |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> He has several more books in preparation as well as producing an [[SWF|Adobe Flash]] animation mocking Judge [[John E. Jones III]], who presided in the landmark 2005 ''[[Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District]]'' case.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.overwhelmingevidence.com/id/JJ_school_of_law/jones.swf |title=Judge Jones and the ACLU |website=Overwhelming Evidence |publisher=William Dembski |location=Pella, IA |format=Small Web Format (SWF) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110091155/http://www.overwhelmingevidence.com/id/JJ_school_of_law/jones.swf |archive-date=January 10, 2014 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> He is also a member of [[American Scientific Affiliation]], the [[Evangelical Philosophical Society]], and the [[American Mathematical Society]], and is a senior fellow of the [[Prison Fellowship|Wilberforce Forum]].

Dembski frequently gives public talks, principally to religious, pro-ID groups, and creationists. [[Barbara Forrest]] and [[Paul R. Gross]] noted that Dembski has not been hesitant in associating with young Earth creationists, such as attending conferences with [[Carl Baugh]].<ref>[[#Forrest & Gross 2004|Forrest & Gross 2004]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=aP4RxWZceNkC&pg=PA293 p. 293]</ref>

Dembski, along with fellow Discovery Institute associates Michael Behe and [[David Berlinski]], tutored [[Ann Coulter]] on science and evolution for her book ''[[Godless: The Church of Liberalism]]'' (2006).<ref>[[#Coulter 2007|Coulter 2007]], p. 319: "I couldn't have written about evolution without the generous tutoring of Michael Behe, David Berlinski, and William Dembski, all of whom are fabulous at translating complex ideas, unlike liberal arts types, who constantly force me to the dictionary to relearn the meaning of ''quotidian''."</ref> Approximately one-third of the book is devoted to [[polemic]]al attacks on evolution, which Coulter, as Dembski often does, terms "[[Darwinism]]."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/ann-coulter-the-wedge-for-the-masses/ |title=Ann Coulter: The Wedge for the Masses |last=Dembski |first=William |date=June 12, 2006 |website=Uncommon Descent |publisher=Uncommon Descent, Inc. |type=Blog |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

Dembski participated in the documentary film ''[[Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed]],'' released in 2008. Dembski told the ''Southern Baptist Texan'' that those who need to see the movie are the "parents of children in high school or college, as well as those children themselves, who may think that the biological sciences are a dispassionate search for truth about life but many of whose practitioners see biology, especially evolutionary biology, as an ideological weapon to destroy faith in God."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pierce |first=Jerry |title=Baptist professors featured in new film |url=http://robertmarks.org/InTheNews/2007_Media/080128_BaptistProfessorsFeatured.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://robertmarks.org/InTheNews/2007_Media/080128_BaptistProfessorsFeatured.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |date=January 28, 2008 |journal=Southern Baptist Texan |oclc=46698671 |access-date=2014-01-10}}</ref> Dembski has appeared on several television shows, including a 2005 interview with [[Jon Stewart]] on ''[[The Daily Show]]'' with [[Edward Larson]] and Ellie Crystal where he said he accepted religion before science.<ref name="DailyShow">{{cite episode |title=Evolution, Schmevolution - Panel: Edward J. Larson, William A. Dembski, Ellie Crystal |url=http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-14-2005/evolution--schmevolution---panel--edward-j--larson--william-a--dembski--ellie-crystal |access-date=2014-01-10 |series=[[The Daily Show]] |first=Jon (host) |last=Stewart |author-link=Jon Stewart |network=[[Comedy Central]] |date=September 14, 2005}}</ref>

===Writing===
{{See also|The Design Inference|Intelligent Design (book)|List of works on intelligent design}}
In 1998, Dembski published his first book, ''The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities'', which became a [[Cambridge University Press]] bestselling philosophical monograph.

In 2002, Dembski published his book ''No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence.'' Dembski's work was strongly criticized within the scientific community, which argued that there were a number of major logical inconsistencies and evidential gaps in Dembski's hypothesis. [[David Wolpert]], co-creator of the [[No free lunch theorem]] on which Dembski based his book, characterized his arguments as "fatally informal and imprecise," "written in jello," reminiscent of philosophical discussion "of art, music, and literature, as well as much of ethics" rather than of scientific debate.<ref name="jello">{{cite web |url=http://www.talkreason.org/articles/jello.cfm |title=William Dembski's Treatment of the No Free Lunch Theorems is Written in Jello |last=Wolpert |first=David H. |website=[[Talk.reason|Talk Reason]] |access-date=January 10, 2014 |archive-date=April 19, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140419145257/http://www.talkreason.org/articles/jello.cfm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Mathematician [[Mark Perakh]] has stated he believes Dembski overemphasizes his own self-importance in his writing.<ref>[[#Forrest & Gross 2004|Forrest & Gross 2004]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=aP4RxWZceNkC&pg=PA118 p. 118]</ref>

====Peer-review controversy====
One of the common objections to intelligent design being accepted as valid science is that ID proponents have published no scientific papers in the [[Peer review|peer-reviewed]] scientific literature in support of their conjectures. The ruling in the 2005 Dover trial, ''Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District'', found that intelligent design had not been tested by the process of being published in a peer-reviewed [[scientific journal]] and was not supported by any peer-reviewed research, data or publications.<ref>''[[Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District]]'', [[s:Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District/4:Whether ID Is Science#Page 87 of 139|p. 87]]</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aaas.org/spp/dser/03_Areas/evolution/issues/peerreview.shtml |title=Intelligent Design and Peer Review |website=[[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] |location=Washington, D.C. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312080527/http://www.aaas.org/spp/dser/03_Areas/evolution/issues/peerreview.shtml |archive-date=March 12, 2007 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> Despite the Dover trial ruling, the Discovery Institute lists Dembski's 1998 book ''The Design Inference'' under the heading "Peer-Reviewed Scientific Books Supportive of Intelligent Design Published by Trade Presses or University Presses."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.discovery.org/a/2640 |title=Peer-Reviewed & Peer-Edited Scientific Publications Supporting the Theory of Intelligent Design (Annotated) |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=February 1, 2012 |website=[[Center for Science and Culture]] |publisher=Discovery Institute |location=Seattle, WA |access-date=December 28, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070804092839/http://www.discovery.org/a/2640 |archive-date=August 4, 2007 |df=mdy-all }} The July 1, 2007, version of page is .</ref> The Discovery Institute describes Dembski as a mathematician and philosopher, who includes in his credentials a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in psychology and postdoctoral work in mathematics, physics and computer science.<ref name="Dembski_SF" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.evolutionnews.org/2005/12/intelligent_design_might_be_me001691.html |title=Intelligent Design Might Be Meeting Its Maker? Ignorance on Display in the New York Times |last=West |first=John G. |author-link=John G. West |date=December 4, 2005 |website=Evolution News & Views |publisher=Discovery Institute |location=Seattle, WA |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref><!--reference doesn't mention peer review: he has no peer-reviewed scientific publications and no recent mathematical publications.<ref>[http://designinference.com/dembski-on-intelligent-design/dembski-curriculum-vitae-resume/ CV/Resumé of William A. Dembski]</ref>-->

In an [[expert report]], [[computer scientist]] and [[Number theory|number theorist]] [[Jeffrey Shallit]] states that despite common claims in the popular and religious press, Dembski is not a scientist by any reasonable standard, has not published any [[Empirical research|experimental or empirical tests]] of his claims, submitted his claims to the scrutiny of his peers or been published in a scientific journal. In a footnote, Shallit states that he does not consider mathematics to be science. Shallit describes Dembski's published mathematical output as "extremely small" for a research mathematician and remarks that "it is very unlikely that his meagre output would merit tenure at any major university."<ref name="shallit_report">{{cite web |url=http://ncse.com/files/pub/legal/kitzmiller/expert_reports/2005-05-16_Shallit_expert_rebuttal_P.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://ncse.com/files/pub/legal/kitzmiller/expert_reports/2005-05-16_Shallit_expert_rebuttal_P.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Expert Report under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 |last=Shallit |first=Jeffrey |author-link=Jeffrey Shallit |date=May 16, 2005 |access-date=January 10, 2014}} Shallit's expert report in ''Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District''.</ref>

Since Shallit's statement, Dembski has (as of May 2010) published four peer-reviewed papers in [[information theory]] venues associated with the [[IEEE]] professional society. The papers deal with ''active information'' in the context of [[Search algorithm|search]]es for solutions to problems. Quantified active information is introduced in "Conservation of Information in Search: Measuring the Cost of Success."<ref>[[#Dembski & Marks 2009a|Dembski & Marks 2009a]]</ref> A second paper, "Evolutionary Synthesis of Nand Logic: Dissecting a Digital Organism,"<ref>[[#Ewert, Dembski & Marks 2009|Ewert, Dembski & Marks 2009]]</ref> claims to deconstruct the evolution simulation [[Avida (software)|Avida]] by uncovering the sources of active information in the program. A third paper<ref>[[#Dembski & Marks 2009b|Dembski & Marks 2009b]]</ref> discusses the role of [[Jacob Bernoulli]]'s ''[[principle of indifference]]'' in the analysis of evolution. The most recent paper, "Efficient Per Query Information Extraction from a Hamming Oracle,"<ref>[[#Ewert, Montañez, Dembski & Marks 2010|Ewert, Montañez, Dembski & Marks 2010]]</ref> calculates the performance of various search algorithms which use the [[Hamming distance]] to search for a single string of a certain length in the set of all strings of this length.

Dembski states that his book ''The Design Inference'' has also been peer-reviewed: "This book was published by Cambridge University Press and peer-reviewed as part of a distinguished monograph series, Cambridge Studies in Probability, Induction, and Decision Theory."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.designinference.com/documents/2003.10.Scott_Response.htm |title=Peer Review – Response to Eugenie Scott and the NCSE |last=Dembski |first=William |date=October 10, 2003 |website=DesignInference.com |publisher=William Dembski |location=Pella, IA |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> In his expert report, Shallit states, "I know that book manuscripts typically do not receive the same sort of scrutiny that research articles do. ...it is not uncommon for a 10-page paper to receive 5 pages or more of comments, whereas a book manuscript of two hundred pages often receives about the same number...."<ref name="shallit_report" /> In addition, Mark Isaak claims that Dembski's book was reviewed by philosophers and not biologists.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CI/CI001_4.html |title=Index to Creationist Claims: Claim CI001.4 |editor-last=Isaak |editor-first=Mark |website=[[TalkOrigins Archive]] |publisher=The TalkOrigins Foundation, Inc. |location=Houston, TX |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

===''The Inner Life of the Cell'' copyright controversy===
In November 2007, a graduate student named S. A. Smith brought an apparent case of wholesale academic misuse of unlicensed content to public attention. She noticed that a video used by Dembski in his lecture was identical to ''[[The Inner Life of the Cell]]'' animation created by [[Harvard University]] and [[XVIVO Scientific Animation]]. The audio track giving a scientific explanation was stripped off and the video was used with an alternative narration. The matter was brought to the attention of Harvard and XVIVO. [[David Bolinsky]], creator of the video, wrote that Dembski was warned about using the video without permission.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.richarddawkins.net/article,2460,Expelled-ripped-off-Harvards-Inner-Life-of-the-Cell-animation,David-Bolinsky |title='Expelled' ripped off Harvard's 'Inner Life of the Cell' animation |last=Bolinsky |first=David |author-link=David Bolinsky |date=April 10, 2008 |website=RichardDawkins.net |publisher=[[Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science]] |location=Arlington, VA |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080413032341/http://www.richarddawkins.net/article,2460,Expelled-ripped-off-Harvards-Inner-Life-of-the-Cell-animation,David-Bolinsky |archive-date=April 13, 2008 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

In response to the allegations, Dembski has claimed that he downloaded the video from the Internet, and added a voiceover narration that he deemed appropriate for his audience. According to Dembski, the downloaded version omitted the opening credits but contained the closing credits, which were shown to the audience.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uncommondescent.com/molecular-animations/news-release-harvards-xvivo-video/ |title=News Release: Harvard's XVIVO Video |last=Dembski |first=William A. |date=November 27, 2007 |website=Uncommon Descent |publisher=Uncommon Descent, Inc. |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> However, Smith later documented several instances where images from the Harvard/XVIVO animation were apparently removed from his book ''[[Of Pandas and People#The Design of Life|The Design of Life]]'' (2008) but the related footnotes and references were not.<ref name="Smith1">{{cite web |url=http://endogenousretrovirus.blogspot.com/2007/12/dembski-copyright-and-design-of-life.html |title=Dembski, Copyright, and 'Design of Life' |last=Smith |first=Abbie |date=December 17, 2007 |website=EVR |type=Blog |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref><ref name="Smith2">{{cite web |url=http://endogenousretrovirus.blogspot.com/2007/12/discovery-institute-dembski-copyright.html |title=Discovery Institute, Dembski, Copyright, and 'Design of Life' |last=Smith |first=Abbie |date=December 24, 2007 |website=EVR |type=Blog |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> indicating that Dembski was already aware that permission had been denied for him to use the animation when he delivered his presentation at the University of Oklahoma.<ref name="Smith2" />

On April 9, 2008, ''Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed'', a movie Dembski appears in, was given a [[cease and desist|cease-and-desist]] by XVIVO accusing Premise Media, the ''Expelled'' producers, of [[plagiarism]] concerning the same video.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ncse.com/files/pub/creationism/EXPELLED-Letter.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://ncse.com/files/pub/creationism/EXPELLED-Letter.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Re: Copyright infringement in 'Expelled: No Intel ligence Allowed' |last=Bolinsky |first=David |date=April 9, 2008 |type=Letter to Logan Craft |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> A June 2008 Premise Media press release announced Premise Media and XVIVO, LLC, "reached an agreement" noting "XVIVO has agreed that the Premise Media documentary does not infringe on any of XVIVO's intellectual property rights."<ref>{{cite press release |last1=Erhardt |first1=Megan |last2=Hutchins |first2=Mary Beth |date=July 24, 2008 |title=EXPELLED/XVIVO Agreement: No Infringement |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20080724005792/en/EXPELLEDXVIVO-Agreement-Infringement |location=Dallas, TX |publisher=Premise Media |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

===Evolution===
{{Main|Evolution}}
Dembski's views on evolution have been a source of considerable controversy within both the mainstream scientific and creationist communities. Dembski does not accept [[common descent|universal common descent]].<ref>{{cite interview |last=Dembski |first=William A |interviewer=Mario Lopez |title=An Interview with Dr. William A. Dembski (Updated) |url=http://www.ideacenter.org/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/1438 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> His mainstream scientific critics have accused him of dishonesty in his representation of scientific facts and writing,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2005/02/bill-dembski-an.html |title=Bill Dembski and the case of the unsupported assertion |last=Inlay |first=Matt |date=February 16, 2005 |website=The Panda's Thumb |publisher=The TalkOrigins Foundation, Inc. |location=Houston, TX |type=Blog |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Rosenhouse |first=Jason |author-link=Jason Rosenhouse |date=November–December 2005 |title=Why Do Scientists Get So Angry When Dealing With ID Proponents? |url=http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/why_do_scientists_get_so_angry/ |journal=[[Skeptical Inquirer]] |volume=29 |issue=6 |issn=0194-6730 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> and he has also been criticised by the traditional creationist community for not supporting the young Earth creationist position,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://creation.com/id-theorist-blunders-on-bible-response-to-dembski |title=ID theorist blunders on Bible (response to Dembski) |last=Sarfati |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Sarfati |date=February 7, 2005 |website=Creation.com |publisher=[[Creation Ministries International]] |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> though this community does defend some of his other arguments.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Truman |first=Royal |date=August 1999 |title=Divining design |url=http://creation.com/divining-design |journal=Journal of Creation |type=Book review |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=34–39 |issn=1036-2916 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Truman |first=Royal |date=April 2000 |title=Designer science |url=http://creation.com/designer-science |journal=Journal of Creation |type=Book review |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=28–34 |issn=1036-2916 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2000/10/28/baptist-school-afraid-of-creation |title=Baptist School Afraid of Creation |date=October 28, 2000 |website=[[Answers in Genesis]] |publisher=Answers in Genesis of Kentucky, Inc |location=Hebron, KY |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

====Science vs. naturalism====
Dembski objects to the presence of the theory of evolution in a variety of disciplines, presenting intelligent design as an alternative to reductionist materialism that gives a sense of purpose that the unguided evolutionary process lacks<ref>{{cite news |last=Pike |first=Deidre |date=February 24, 2005 |title=Evolution Revolution |url=http://archives.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2005/02/24/cover_story/cover.txt |work=Las Vegas City Life |location=Las Vegas, NV |publisher=[[Stephens Media (newspapers)|Stephens Media LLC]] |access-date=August 9, 2010}}</ref> and the ultimate significance of ID is its success in undermining materialism and [[naturalism (philosophy)|naturalism]].<ref name="Robinson" /> Dembski has also stated that ID has little chance as a serious [[scientific theory]] as long as [[methodological naturalism]] is the basis for science.<ref>[[#Dembski 1995|Dembski 1995]]</ref> Although intelligent design proponents (including Dembski) have made little apparent effort to publish peer-reviewed scientific research to support their hypotheses, in recent years they have made vigorous efforts to promote the teaching of intelligent design in schools.<ref name="kitzmillerpg">''Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District'', [[s:Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District/4:Whether ID Is Science|pp. 63–139]]</ref> Dembski is a strong supporter of this drive as a means of making young people more receptive to intelligent design, and said he wants "to see intelligent design flourish as a scientific research program" among a "new generation of scholars" willing to consider the theory and textbooks that include it.<ref>[[#Forrest & Gross 2004|Forrest & Gross 2004]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=aP4RxWZceNkC&pg=PA301 p. 301]</ref>

====Intelligent designer====
{{See also|Intelligent designer}}
Dembski's theories do not attempt to explain the origin of the intelligent designer that created the universe, which he argues is unnecessary, since such an intelligent designer is likely outside the dimensions of space and time which are the subject of empirical science.

He has not had any of his pro-intelligent-design articles published in peer-reviewed mainstream scientific journals. While intelligent design proponents often allege that such failure to be published is due to a pro-evolution bias or conspiracy, Dembski himself has said he prefers to disseminate his ideas in non-peer-reviewed media: "I've just gotten kind of blasé about submitting things to journals where you often wait two years to get things into print. And I find I can actually get the turnaround faster by writing a book and getting the ideas expressed there. My books sell well. I get a royalty. And the material gets read more."<ref>{{cite news |last=McMurtrie |first=Beth |date=December 21, 2001 |title=Darwinism Under Attack |url=http://www.arn.org/docs2/news/darwinismunderattack012502.htm |newspaper=The Chronicle of Higher Education |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=The Chronicle of Higher Education Inc. |issn=0009-5982 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

In December 2007, Dembski told [[Focus on the Family]] that "The Designer of intelligent
design is, ultimately, the Christian God."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000006139.cfm |title=Friday Five: William A. Dembski |last=Williams |first=Devon |date=December 14, 2007 |website=CitizenLink.com |publisher=[[Focus on the Family|Focus on the Family Action, Inc.]] |location=Colorado Springs, CO |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071217212817/http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000006139.cfm |archive-date=December 17, 2007 |access-date=May 17, 2008}}</ref>

==== Specified complexity ====
{{Main|Specified complexity}}
Specified complexity is a concept which Dembski has proposed and used in his works promoting intelligent design, an argument intended to give a formal definition of patterns that are both specified and complex. He claims it is a reliable marker of design by an intelligent agent, a central concept of intelligent design, as opposed to natural selection in modern evolutionary theory. The concept of specified complexity is widely regarded as mathematically unsound and has not been the basis for further independent work in information theory, [[complexity theory and organizations|complexity theory]], or biology.<ref>{{cite web |last=Baldwin |first=Rich |url=http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/information/dembski.html |title=Information Theory and Creationism: William Dembski |date=July 14, 2005 |website=TalkOrigins Archive |publisher=The TalkOrigins Foundation, Inc. |location=Houston, TX |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.talkreason.org/articles/newmath.cfm |title=Dembski 'displaces Darwinism' mathematically – or does he? |last=Perakh |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Perakh |date=March 18, 2005 |website=Talk Reason |access-date=January 10, 2014 |archive-date=March 31, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331125710/http://www.talkreason.org/articles/newmath.cfm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Rosenhouse |first=Jason |date=Fall 2001 |title=How Anti-Evolutionists Abuse Mathematics |url=http://educ.jmu.edu/~rosenhjd/sewell.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://educ.jmu.edu/~rosenhjd/sewell.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |journal=[[The Mathematical Intelligencer]] |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=3–8 |oclc=3526661 |access-date=January 10, 2014|doi=10.1007/bf03024593|s2cid=189888286 }}</ref> Specified complexity is one of the two main arguments used by intelligent design proponents, the other being irreducible complexity.

===Intelligent design and Christianity===
Dembski's position on intelligent design's relationship with Christianity has been inconsistent. He has suggested that the "intelligent designer" is not necessarily synonymous with a god: "It could be space aliens. There are many possibilities,"<ref>{{cite news |last=Hall |first=Carl T. |date=March 17, 2002 |title=Nature's diversity beyond evolution / Debate over 'intelligent design' |url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Nature-s-diversity-beyond-evolution-Debate-over-2862950.php |newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] |publisher=[[Hearst Corporation]] |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> but has on several occasions been explicit in labelling the designer as the Christian god and linking ID with a religious revival through which Christianity can be restored to its formerly pre-eminent place in society, supplanting "materialist" science. In his book ''Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology'' he states "The conceptual soundings of the [intelligent design] theory can in the end only be located in Christ."<ref>[[#Dembski 1999|Dembski 1999]], p. 210</ref> On his website, DesignInference.com, Dembski said that intelligent design provides an intellectual basis to restore [[Christian philosophy]] over [[materialism]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.designinference.com/documents/2005.02.Reply_to_Henry_Morris.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050217085428/http://www.designinference.com/documents/2005.02.Reply_to_Henry_Morris.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 17, 2005 |title=Intelligent Design's Contribution to the Debate Over Evolution: A Reply to Henry Morris |last=Dembski |first=William |date=February 1, 2005 |website=DesignInference.com |publisher=William Dembski |location=Pella, IA |access-date=January 10, 2014 }}</ref>

Dembski has also spoken of his motivation for supporting intelligent design in a series of Sunday lectures in the Fellowship Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, the last of which took place on March 7, 2004. Answering a question, Dembski said it was to enable God to receive credit for creation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.talkreason.org/articles/revolution.cfm |title=The design revolution? |last=Perakh |first=Mark |date=March 21, 2004 |website=Talk Reason |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

===Intelligent design movement===
Dembski sees intelligent design as being a popular movement as well as a scientific hypothesis and claims that it is in the process of dislodging evolution from the public imagination. At the [[Committee for Skeptical Inquiry|CSICOP]]'s 4th World Skeptics Conference, held on June 20–23, 2002, in [[Burbank, California]], he told the audience that "over the next twenty-five years ID will provide the greatest challenge to skepticism." He asserted that "ID is threatening to be mainstream," and that polls show 90 percent support for the hypothesis, indicating that it has "already becom[e] mainstream within the public themselves." "The usual skeptical retorts are not going to work against ID" and ID "turns the tables on skepticism." Evolution, in his view, "is the ultimate status quo" and "squelches dissent." Young people, who "love rebellion" see that and are attracted to ID as a result. "The public supports intelligent design. The public is tired of being bullied by an intellectual elite." He contends that skeptics resort to rhetoric and "artificially define ID out of science," admitting only materialistic explanations as legitimate. ID "paints the more appealing world picture," whereas skepticism works by being negative, which "doesn't set well with the public... To most people evolution doesn't provide a compelling view."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Frazier |first1=Kendrick |author-link1=Kendrick Frazier |last2=Radford |first2=Ben |author-link2=Benjamin Radford |date=September–October 2002 |title=Fourth World Skeptics Conference in Burbank a Lively Foment of Ideas |url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/fourth_world_skeptics_conference_in_burbank_a_lively_foment_of_ideas/ |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |volume=26 |issue=5 |issn=0194-6730 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

===Bible code===
Dembski has also indicated an interest in the [[Bible code]]. In a favorable book review of [[Jeffrey Satinover]]'s ''Cracking the Bible Code'' (1997), Dembski wrote that "The philosopher [[Bertrand Russell]] was once asked why he didn't believe in God. He replied, 'Not enough evidence.' Satinover's fascination with the Bible Code is that it may provide evidence for God's existence that would have convinced even a Bertrand Russell."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dembski |first=William A. |date=August–September 1998 |title=The Bible by Numbers |url=http://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/02/004-the-bible-by-numbers-44 |journal=[[First Things]] |type=Book review |issue=85 |pages=61–64 |issn=1047-5141 |access-date=January 10, 2014 |archive-date=January 10, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110091337/http://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/02/004-the-bible-by-numbers-44 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Faith healing===
Dembski once took his family to a meeting conducted by [[Todd Bentley]], a [[Faith healing|faith healer]], in hopes of receiving a "miraculous healing" for his son, who is autistic.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kofman |first1=Jeffrey |author-link1=Jeffrey Kofman |last2=Yiu |first2=Karson |last3=Brennan |first3=Nicholas |date=July 9, 2008 |title=Thousands Flock to Revival in Search of Miracles |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/FaithMatters/story?id=5338963&page=1 |work=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref><ref name="faithhealing">{{cite news |last=Dembski |first=William A. |date=July 11, 2008 |title=FIRST-PERSON: Faith & healing – Where's the evidence? |url=http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=28460 |work=Baptist Press |location=Nashville, TN |publisher=Southern Baptist Convention |access-date=May 17, 2008}}</ref> In an article for the ''Baptist Press'' he recalled disappointment with the nature of the meeting and with the prevention of his son and other attendees from joining those in wheelchairs who were selected to receive prayer. He then concluded, "Minimal time was given to healing, though plenty was devoted to assaulting our senses with blaring insipid music and even to Bentley promoting and selling his own products (books and CDs)." He wrote that he did not regret the trip and called it an "education," which showed "how easily religion can be abused, in this case to exploit our family."<ref name="faithhealing" />

==Responses to critics==
Dembski previews material on the Internet for [[open peer review]]. This helps identify errors and address objections prior to publication, allowing him to get "the last word in the exchange."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.designinference.com/documents/2004.04.Backlash.htm |title=Dealing with the Backlash |last=Dembski |first=William A. |date=April 14, 2004 |website=DesignInference.com |publisher=William Dembski |location=Pella, IA |access-date=January 10, 2014 |archive-date=February 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110227021047/http://www.designinference.com/documents/2004.04.Backlash.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Dembski's style in response to his critics (particularly of his mathematical papers) is polemical.<ref name="Dembski_Richards2001" /> For instance, in reply to a critique of the "law of conservation of information" posted on talkreason.org,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.talkreason.org/articles/dembski_LCI.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.talkreason.org/articles/dembski_LCI.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=On Dembski's Law of Conservation of Information |last=Tellgren |first=Erik |date=July 6, 2002 |website=Talk Reason |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref> Dembski states: "I'm not and never have been in the business of offering a strict mathematical proof for the inability of material mechanisms to generate specified complexity in the same way that no physicist is in the business of offering a strict mathematical proof for the conservation of energy."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.designinference.com/documents/2002.08.Erik_Response.htm |title=If Only Darwinists Scrutinized Their Own Work as Closely: A Response to 'Erik' |last=Dembski |first=William A. |website=DesignInference.com |publisher=William Dembski |location=Pella, IA |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

== Publications ==

=== Books ===
{{Refbegin|2}}
'''Sole author'''
*{{cite book |last=Dembski |first=William A. |year=1988 |title=Chaos, Uniform Probability, and Weak Convergence |type=Thesis (PhD) |location=Chicago, IL |publisher=[[University of Chicago]], Department of Mathematics |lccn=94629367 |oclc=31515673 |ref=Dembski 1988}}
*{{cite book |last=Dembski |first=William A. |year=1998 |title=The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities |location=Cambridge; New York |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-62387-2 |lccn=98003020 |oclc=38551103 |author-mask=2 |ref=Dembski 1998a|title-link=The Design Inference }}
*{{cite book |last=Dembski |first=William A. |year=1999 |title=Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology |location=Downers Grove, IL |publisher=[[InterVarsity Press]] |isbn=978-0-8308-1581-4 |lccn=99037141 |oclc=41628252 |author-mask=2 |ref=Dembski 1999|title-link=Intelligent Design (book) }}
*{{cite book |last=Dembski |first=William A. |year=2002 |title=No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qCDp8MjkkLQC&q=no+free+lunch |location=Lanham, MD |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=978-0-7425-1297-9 |lccn=2001031791 |oclc=46858256 |author-mask=2 |access-date=January 10, 2014 |ref=Dembski 2002}}
*{{cite book |last=Dembski |first=William A. |year=2004 |title=The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions about Intelligent Design |others=Foreword by [[Charles Colson|Charles W. Colson]] |location=Downers Grove, IL |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-0-8308-3216-3 |lccn=2003020589 |oclc=53058980 |author-mask=2 |ref=Dembski 2004|title-link=The Design Revolution }}
*{{cite book |last=Dembski |first=William A. |year=2009 |title=The End of Christianity: Finding a Good God in an Evil World |location=Nashville, TN |publisher=[[B&H Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0-8054-2743-1 |lccn=2010280674 |oclc=311762223 |author-mask=2 |ref=Dembski 2009}}

'''Co-author'''
*{{cite book |last1=Dembski |first1=William A. |last2=Wells |first2=Jonathan |author-link2=Jonathan Wells (intelligent design advocate) |year=2008 |title=How to be an Intellectually Fulfilled Atheist (or not) |edition=1st |location=Wilmington, DE |publisher=[[Intercollegiate Studies Institute|ISI Books]] |isbn=978-1-933-85984-2 |lccn=2008934995 |oclc=232128215 |ref=Dembski & Wells 2008a}}
*{{cite book |last1=Dembski |first1=William A. |last2=Wells |first2=Jonathan |year=2008 |editor-last=Dembski |editor-first=William A. |title=The Design of Life: Discovering Signs of Intelligence in Biological Systems |location=Dallas |publisher=[[Foundation for Thought and Ethics]] |isbn=978-0-9800213-0-1 |lccn=2009281462 |oclc=183624199 |author1-mask=2 |author2-mask=2 |ref=Dembski & Wells 2008b|title-link=Of Pandas and People#The Design of Life }}
*{{cite book |last1=Dembski |first1=William A. |last2=McDowell |first2=Sean |year=2008 |title=Understanding Intelligent Design: Everything You Need to Know in Plain Language |location=Eugene, OR |publisher=[[Harvest House|Harvest House Publishers]] |isbn=978-0-7369-2442-9 |lccn=2008014216 |oclc=222249640 |author-mask=2 |ref=Dembski & McDowell 2008}}
*{{cite book |last1=Dembski |first1=William A. |last2=Witt |first2=Jonathan |year=2010 |title=Intelligent Design Uncensored: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to the Controversy |location=Downers Grove, IL |publisher=[[InterVarsity Press|IVP Books]] |isbn=978-0-8308-3742-7 |lccn=2010000917 |oclc=460060932 |author-mask=2 |ref=Dembski & Witt 2010}}

'''As editor or contributor'''
*{{cite book |editor-last=Dembski |editor-first=William A. |year=1998 |title=Mere Creation: Science, Faith & Intelligent Design |others=Foreword by [[Henry F. Schaefer, III]] |location=Downers Grove, IL |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-0-8308-1515-9 |lccn=98020999 |oclc=38959771 |ref=Dembski 1998b|title-link=List of works on intelligent design#Supportive non-fiction anthologies }}
*{{cite book |last1=Amos |first1=Gary |last2=Gardiner |first2=Richard |year=1998 |editor-last=Dembski |editor-first=William A. |title=Never Before in History: America's Inspired Birth |series=Pandas Publications |others=Foreword by [[Thomas G. West]] |location=Dallas, TX |publisher=[[Foundation for Thought and Ethics#Publications|Haughton Publishing Company]] |isbn=978-0-914513-51-3 |lccn=98072936 |oclc=41105490 |ref=Amos & Gardiner 1998}}
*{{cite book |last1=Cole |first1=Deborah D. |last2=Duran |first2=Maureen Gallagher |year=1998 |editor-last=Dembski |editor-first=William A. |title=Sex and Character |series=Pandas Publications |others=Foreword by Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., MD |location=Dallas, TX |publisher=Haughton Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-914513-50-6 |lccn=98072932 |oclc=41068752 |ref=Cole & Duran 1998}}
*{{cite book |last1=Behe |first1=Michael J. |author-link1=Michael Behe |last2=Dembski |first2=William A. |last3=Meyer |first3=Stephen C. |author-link3=Stephen C. Meyer |year=2000 |title=Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe: Papers Presented at a Conference Sponsored by the Wethersfield Institute, New York City, September 25, 1999 |series= Proceedings of the Wethersfield Institute |volume=9 |location=San Francisco, CA |publisher=[[Ignatius Press]] |isbn=978-0-89870-809-7 |lccn=00102374 |oclc=45720008 |ref=Behe, Dembski & Meyer 2000|title-link=List of works on intelligent design#Supportive non-fiction books }}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Dembski |editor1-first=William A. |editor2-last=Kushiner |editor2-first=James M. |year=2001 |title=Signs of Intelligence: Understanding Intelligent Design |location=Grand Rapids, MI |publisher=[[Baker Publishing Group#Brazos Press|Brazos Press]] |isbn=978-1-58743-004-6 |lccn=00067612 |oclc=45499842 |ref=Dembski & Kushiner 2001|title-link=List of works on intelligent design#Supportive non-fiction books }}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Dembski |editor1-first=William A. |editor2-last=Richards |editor2-first=Jay Wesley |year=2001 |title=Unapologetic Apologetics: Meeting the Challenges of Theological Studies |others=Foreword by [[Phillip E. Johnson]] |location=Downers Grove, IL |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-0-8308-1563-0 |lccn=00047173 |oclc=45136696 |editor1-mask=2 |ref=Dembski & Richards 2001}}
*{{cite book |editor-last=Richards |editor-first=Jay W. |editor-link=Jay Richards |year=2002 |title=Are We Spiritual Machines?: Ray Kurzweil vs. the Critics of Strong A.I. |others=Contributions by [[George Gilder]], [[Ray Kurzweil]], [[John Searle]], William Dembski, [[Michael Denton]], and [[Thomas S. Ray]] |edition=1st |location=Seattle, WA |publisher=[[Discovery Institute#Discovery Institute Press|Discovery Institute Press]] |isbn=978-0-9638654-3-4 |lccn=2002101330 |oclc=59273082 |ref=Richards 2002}}
*{{cite book |last=Wiker |first=Benjamin |author-link=Benjamin Wiker |year=2002 |title=Moral Darwinism: How We Became Hedonists |others=Foreword by William A. Dembski |location=Downers Grove, IL |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-0-8308-2666-7 |lccn=2002004052 |oclc=49383607 |ref=Wiker 2002}}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Dembski |editor1-first=William A. |editor2-last=Ruse |editor2-first=Michael |editor2-link=Michael Ruse |year=2004 |title=Debating Design: From Darwin to DNA |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-82949-6 |lccn=2004047363 |oclc=54826160 |ref=Dembski & Ruse 2004|title-link=List of works on intelligent design#Neutral non-fiction anthologies }} "Papers from a conference, entitled Design and its Critics, held at Concordia University, Mequon, Wis., June 22–24, 2000."
*{{cite book |editor-last=Dembski |editor-first=William A. |year=2004 |title=Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing |others=Foreword by John Wilson |location=Wilmington, DE |publisher=ISI Books |isbn=978-1-9322-3631-6 |lccn=2004102726 |oclc=55653649 |ref=Demski 2004|title-link=Uncommon Dissent }}
*{{cite book |last=Simmons |first=Geoffrey |author-link=Geoffrey Simmons |year=2004 |title=What Darwin Didn't Know: A Doctor Dissects the Theory of Evolution |others=Foreword by William Dembski |location=Eugene, OR |publisher=Harvest House Publishers |isbn=978-0-7369-1313-3 |lccn=2003015099 |oclc=52621437 |ref=Simmons 2004}}
*{{cite book |year=2006 |editor-last=Dembski |editor-first=William A. |title=Darwin's Nemesis: Phillip Johnson and the Intelligent Design Movement |others=Foreword by [[Rick Santorum]] |location=Downers Grove, IL |publisher=[[InterVarsity Press|IVP Academic]] |isbn=978-0-8308-2836-4 |lccn=2005033144 |oclc=62330745 |ref=Dembski 2006}}
*{{cite book |last=Flannery |first=Michael A. |year=2008 |title=Alfred Russel Wallace's Theory of Intelligent Evolution: How Wallace's World of Life Challenged Darwinism: With an Abridged Version of The World of Life |others=Edited, with an introduction by Michael A. Flannery; foreword by William A. Dembski |location=Riesel, TX |publisher=Erasmus Press |isbn=978-0-9815204-1-4 |lccn=2009921870 |oclc=340792516 |ref=Flannery 2008}}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Dembski |editor1-first=William A. |editor2-last=Downs |editor2-first=Wayne J. |editor3-last=Frederick |editor3-first=Justin B. A. |year=2008 |title=The Patristic Understanding of Creation: An Anthology of Writings from the Church Fathers on Creation and Design |location=Riesel, TX |publisher=Erasmus Press |isbn=978-0-981-52040-7 |lccn=2008930284 |oclc=233055054 |ref=Dembski, Downs & Frederick 2008}}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Dembski |editor1-first=William A. |editor2-last=Schirrmacher |editor2-first=Thomas |editor2-link=Thomas Schirrmacher |year=2008 |title=Tough-minded Christianity: Honoring the Legacy of John Warwick Montgomery |others=Foreword by [[Paige Patterson]] |location=Nashville, TN |publisher=B&H Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8054-4783-5 |lccn=2009282507 |oclc=233935324 |editor1-mask=2 |ref=Dembski & Schirrmacher 2008}}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Dembski |editor1-first=William A. |editor2-last=Licona |editor2-first=Michael R. |editor2-link=Michael R. Licona |year=2010 |title=Evidence for God: 50 Arguments for Faith from the Bible, History, Philosophy, and Science |location=Grand Rapids, MI |publisher=[[Baker Publishing Group|Baker Books]] |isbn=978-0-8010-7260-4 |lccn=2010005990 |editor1-mask=2 |ref=Dembski & Licona 2010}}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Gordon |editor1-first=Bruce L. |editor1-link=Bruce L. Gordon |editor2-last=Dembski |editor2-first=William A. |year=2011 |title=The Nature of Nature: Examining the Role of Naturalism in Science |location=Wilmington, DE |publisher=ISI Books|isbn=978-1-935-19128-5 |lccn=2010031418 |oclc=326569291 |ref=Gordon & Dembski 2011}}
{{Refend}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Allen |first=David L. |date=February 2010 |title=A Reply to Tom Nettles' Review of William A. Dembski's The End of Christianity: Finding a Good God in an Evil World |url=http://www.baptisttheology.org/baptisttheology/assets/File/AReplytoTomNettlesReviewofDembskisTheEndofChristianity.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.baptisttheology.org/baptisttheology/assets/File/AReplytoTomNettlesReviewofDembskisTheEndofChristianity.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |type=White paper |others=Preamble by Paige Patterson |location=Fort Worth, TX |publisher=The Center for Theological Research; Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary |oclc=525171820 |ref=Allen 2010 }}
*{{cite book |last=Coulter |first=Ann H. |author-link=Ann Coulter |year=2007 |orig-year=Originally published 2006; New York: [[Crown Publishing Group|Crown Forum]] |title=Godless: The Church of Liberalism |edition=1st pbk. |location=New York |publisher=[[Three Rivers Press]] |isbn=978-1-4000-5421-3 |lccn=2007280683 |oclc=148652646 |ref=Coulter 2007|title-link=Godless: The Church of Liberalism }}
*{{cite journal |last=Dembski |first=William A. |year=1991 |title=Randomness by Design |url=http://www.designinference.com/documents/2002.09.rndmnsbydes.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.designinference.com/documents/2002.09.rndmnsbydes.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |journal=[[Noûs]] |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=75–106 |issn=0029-4624 |access-date=August 11, 2010 |ref=Dembski 1991 |doi=10.2307/2216094 |jstor=2216094 }}
*{{cite journal |last=Dembski |first=William A. |year=1995 |title=What Every Theologian Should Know about Creation, Evolution and Design |url=http://www.discovery.org/a/122 |journal=[[The Princeton Theological Review]] |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=15–21 |issn=1945-4813 |access-date=January 10, 2014 |ref=Dembski 1995 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Dembski |first1=William A. |last2=Marks II |first2=Robert J. |author-link2=Robert J. Marks II |date=September 2009 |title=Conservation of Information in Search: Measuring the Cost of Success |url=http://evoinfo.org/papers/2009_ConservationOfInformationInSearch.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://evoinfo.org/papers/2009_ConservationOfInformationInSearch.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |journal=IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics - Part A: Systems and Humans |volume=39 |issue=5 |pages=1051–1061 |doi=10.1109/TSMCA.2009.2025027 |bibcode=2009ITSMA..39.1051D |s2cid=14421612 |issn=1083-4427 |access-date=January 10, 2014 |ref=Dembski & Marks 2009a }}
* {{cite book |url=http://evoinfo.org/papers/2009_BernoullisPrinciple.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://evoinfo.org/papers/2009_BernoullisPrinciple.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |last1=Dembski |first1=William A. |last2=Marks II |first2=Robert J. |title=2009 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics |chapter=Bernoulli's principle of insufficient reason and conservation of information in computer search |date=October 11–14, 2009 |publisher=IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society |pages=2647–2652 |isbn=978-1-4244-2794-9 |doi=10.1109/ICSMC.2009.5346119 |access-date=January 10, 2014 |ref=Dembski & Marks 2009b }}
* {{cite journal | last1=Elsberry | first1=Wesley | last2=Shallit | first2=Jeffrey | title=Information theory, evolutionary computation, and Dembski's "complex specified information" | journal=Synthese | volume=178 | issue=2 | date=16 April 2009 | issn=0039-7857 | doi=10.1007/s11229-009-9542-8 | pages=237–270 | citeseerx=10.1.1.318.2863 | s2cid=1846063 }}
* {{cite book |url=http://evoinfo.org/papers/2009_EvolutionarySynthesis.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://evoinfo.org/papers/2009_EvolutionarySynthesis.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |last1=Ewert |first1=Winston |last2=Dembski |first2=William A. |last3=Marks II |first3=Robert J. |title=2009 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics |chapter=Evolutionary synthesis of nand logic: Dissecting a digital organism |date=October 11–14, 2009 |location=San Antonio, TX |pages=3047–3053 |isbn=978-1-4244-2794-9 |issn=1062-922X |doi=10.1109/ICSMC.2009.5345941 |access-date=January 10, 2014 |ref=Ewert, Dembski & Marks 2009 }}
* {{cite book |url=http://marksmannet.com/RobertMarks/REPRINTS/2010-EfficientPerQueryInformationExtraction.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://marksmannet.com/RobertMarks/REPRINTS/2010-EfficientPerQueryInformationExtraction.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |last1=Ewert |first1=Winston |last2=Montañez |first2=George |last3=Dembski |first3=William A. |last4=Marks II |first4=Robert J. |title=2010 42nd Southeastern Symposium on System Theory (SSST 2010) |chapter=Efficient per query information extraction from a Hamming oracle |date=March 7–9, 2010 |publisher=[[Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers]] |location=[[University of Texas at Tyler]] |pages=290–297 |isbn=978-1-4244-5690-1 |issn=0094-2898 |doi=10.1109/SSST.2010.5442816 |access-date=January 10, 2014 |ref=Ewert, Montañez, Dembski & Marks 2010 }}
* {{cite book |last=Forrest |first=Barbara |author-link=Barbara Forrest |year=2001 |chapter=The Wedge at Work: How Intelligent Design Creationism Is Wedging Its Way into the Cultural and Academic Mainstream |chapter-url=http://www.talkreason.org/articles/Wedge.cfm#I |title=Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics: Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives |editor-last=Pennock |editor-first=Robert T |editor-link=Robert T. Pennock |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |isbn=978-0-262-66124-9 |lccn=2001031276 |oclc=46729201 |ref=Forrest 2001 |archive-date=June 5, 2023 |access-date=June 24, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605123032/http://www.talkreason.org/articles/Wedge.cfm#I |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite book |last1=Forrest |first1=Barbara |last2=Gross |first2=Paul R. |author-link2=Paul R. Gross |year=2004 |title=Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design |location=Oxford; New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-515742-0 |oclc=50913078 |lccn=2002192677 |ref=Forrest & Gross 2004|title-link=Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design }}
* {{cite book |year=2004 |editor1-last=Young |editor1-first=Matt |editor2-last=Edis |editor2-first=Taner | editor-link2=Taner Edis | title=Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism |location=New Brunswick, NJ |publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8135-3433-6 |lccn=2003020100 |oclc=59717533 |ref=Young & Edis 2004}}
{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{cite book |editor-last=Stewart |editor-first=Robert B. |year=2007 |title=Intelligent Design: William A. Dembski & Michael Ruse in Dialogue |location=Minneapolis, MN |publisher=[[Augsburg Fortress|Fortress Press]] |isbn=978-0-800-66218-9 |lccn=2007027505 |oclc=148895223 |ref=Stewart 2007}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
'''Official'''
* [http://designinference.com/ DesignInference.com] – Dembski's website (with articles)
* [http://www.discovery.org/p/32 William A. Dembski biography] from the Discovery Institute
* [http://www.uncommondescent.com/ Uncommon Descent] – Dembski cofounded this blog
* [http://www.evoinfo.org/index/ The Evolutionary Informatics Lab] – Dembski cofounded this lab with [[Robert J. Marks II]]

'''Reviews/analysis of Dembski'''
* [http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-design-inference-eliminating-chance-through-small-probabilities "The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities"] – a book review by [[William Lane Craig]]
* [http://philosophy.wisc.edu/sober/dembski.pdf "How Not to Detect Design--- A Review of William Dembski's The Design Inference"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225145109/http://philosophy.wisc.edu/sober/dembski.pdf |date=February 25, 2009 }} (PDF) – a book review by [[Branden Fitelson]], Christopher Stephens, and [[Elliott Sober]] in ''[[Philosophy of Science (journal)|Philosophy of Science]]'' (1999) '''66''': 472–488
* [http://ramanujan.math.trinity.edu/polofsson/research/BioAndPhil.pdf "Intelligent Design and Mathematical Statistics: A Troubled Alliance"] (PDF) by Peter Olofsson in ''[[Biology and Philosophy]]'' (2008) '''23''' (4): 545–553
* [http://ramanujan.math.trinity.edu/polofsson/research/Chance.pdf "Probability, Statistics, Evolution, and Intelligent Design"] (PDF) by Peter Olofsson in ''Chance'' (2008) '''21''' (3): 42–45
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031229033705/http://www.bostonreview.net/BR27.3/orr.html |date=December 29, 2003 |title="William A. Dembski: ''No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence''" }} – a book review by [[H. Allen Orr]] in ''[[Boston Review]]'' (Summer 2002) '''27''' (3–4)
* [http://www.talkreason.org/articles/dem_nfl.cfm "A Free Lunch in a Mousetrap"] by [[Mark Perakh]]
* [http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/2004/05/dembskis_mathem.html "Dembski's mathematical achievements"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924063712/http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/2004/05/dembskis_mathem.html |date=September 24, 2015 }} by Jeffrey Shallit posted at ''The Panda's Thumb'' blog, May 12, 2004
* [http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~shallit/nflr3.pdf "No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot be Purchased Without Intelligence, William Dembski, Rowman and Littlefield, 2002"] (PDF) – a book review by [[Jeffrey Shallit]] in ''[[BioSystems]]'' (June–July 2002) '''66''' (1–2): 93–99
* [http://creation.com/review-dembski-wells-design-of-life "An 'introduction', in-depth"] – a book review by Lael Weinberger in ''[[Journal of Creation]]'' (April 2009) '''23''' (1): 25–29
* [http://www.talkdesign.org/faqs/theftovertoil/theftovertoil.html "The advantages of theft over toil: the design inference and arguing from ignorance"] by John S. Wilkins and [[Wesley R. Elsberry]]. An unedited version of a paper published in ''[[Biology and Philosophy]]'' '''16''' (November 2001):711–724
* [http://epsociety.org/library/articles.asp?pid=54 "The Design Inference from Specified Complexity Defended by Scholars Outside the Intelligent Design Movement"] by Peter S. Williams at the [[Evangelical Philosophical Society]]

'''Biographical information'''
* {{MathGenealogy|id=61371}}: ''Chaos, Uniform Probability, and Weak Convergence'' (1988), PhD dissertation, University of Chicago

'''Other'''
* {{IMDb name|1745037}}

{{Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary}}
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dembski, William A.}}
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