Mission Statement
FAQ
Organization
MISSION STATEMENT:
iDesign Club at UCI seeks to foster scientific discussions regarding the origins of life and the universe. Theories such as Darwinian evolution, intelligent design, and creationism will be critically analyzed.
FAQ:
Q: WHAT IS THIS CLUB ABOUT?
Origins! We are interested in discussing alternative theories to the origins of biological structures. While the current mainstream theory in academia is Darwinian evolution, we would also like to discuss other viable ideas, such as intelligent design.
Q: WHO CAN BE A MEMBER OF THIS CLUB?
Anybody!
Students of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Engineering, Anthropology, and Philosophy may especially find this club intriguing. However, you do not need to have a science background to be an effective member of this club.
Q: WHEN AND WHERE ARE CLUB MEETINGS?
Please check blog entries for time and place.
Q: WHAT IS THE MEMBERSHIP FEE?
Nothing! There are no membership dues.
Q: IS THIS CLUB BIASED TOWARDS ONE SPECIFIC THEORY OF ORIGINS?
Perhaps. Ponder the name of this club. This club is ideologically the mirror of another club at UCI, the Students for Science and Skepticism. However, our main goal is to give a balanced view of the controversy regarding the origins of life so that students can come to an informed conclusion themselves.
Q: WHAT DOES THE LETTER "i" STAND FOR IN iDESIGN?
Good question -- the answer is intelligent. Q: WHERE IS THE CLUB CONSTITUTION?
We adhere to the minimum constitution that was provided by the Dean of Students. In the future, we plan to draft a comprehensive constitution and bylaws.
Q: IS iDESIGN AFFILIATED WITH ANY ORGANIZATION?
No. However, we are friends with the IDEA Center ORGANIZATION:
PRESIDENT: Arthur Information and Computer Science
VICE PRESIDENT: Brian
Biology / English
DIRECTOR: Andrew
English / Economics
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Monday, March 06, 2006
Is the concept of cosmological design independent from biological intelligent design, or does one phenomenon increase the probability of the other? By the law of total probability, we can formulate the probability of biological intelligent design, P (BID), as a sum of conditional probabilities weighted by the probability of cosmological intelligent design, P (CID). Here is the equation: P (BID) = P (BID | CID) * P (CID) + P (BID | not CID) * P (not CID)
From arguments invoking fine-tuning and other orderly aspects of the universe (and even the Privileged Planet Hypothesis), it is reasonable to think that P (CID) is not low. I get the feeling that the notion of cosmological intelligent design is generally more accepted than biological intelligent design. The next probability to consider is P (BID | CID). How likely is biological intelligent design given that cosmological intelligent design is true? If the universe were designed in such a way to make life possible, would not the design extend to the biological realm? After all, it seems like the end goal of the cosmological design is life. In other words, if the universe's constants were designed for life, then it would also make sense for life itself to be designed, rather than letting life arise by abiogenesis through purely natural stochastic processes. Thus, P (BID | CID) is indeed quite high. It is quite probable for design at the cosmological scale to cascade down to design at the biological realm. I will not analze the other term in the summation, for that term can only increase P (BID): P (BID) > P (BID | CID) * P (CID)The two probabilities on the right hand side are quite high, by the reasoning in the previous paragraphs: P (BID) > "sufficiently high probability" * "sufficiently high probability"
The product of two sufficiently high probabilities is still a pretty reasonable probability (e.g. 0.6 * 0.6 = 0.36). Therefore, biological intelligent design has at least a reasonable probability: P (BID) > "reasonable probability"
Posted by Art at 10:12 AM
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iDESIGN BLOGROLL:
The Design Paradigm
Design Watch
Creation-Evolution Headlines
Telic Thoughts
Uncommon Descent
ID the Future
ID Plus
CreationEvolutionDesign
Evolution News
Dualistic Dissension
ID in the UK
ID Update
Intelligently Sequenced
PRO-DESIGN SITES:
Access Research Network
IDEA Center
UCSD IDEA Club
ISCID
PRO-EVOLUTION SITES:
Panda's Thumb
Talk Origins
Students for Science and Skepticism at UCI
NAS: Science and Creationism
PRO-CREATION SITES:
Answers in Genesis
Institute for Creation Research
A.E. Wilder Smith
Reasons to Believe
Baraminology News
CreationWiki
OTHER INTERESTING SITES:
American Scientific Affiliation
Richard Sternberg
ANTEATER LINKS:
University of California, Irvine
New University
Irvine Review
School of Biological Sciences
School of Medicine
School of Physical Sciences
Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
UCI Athletics
UCI Alumni Association
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