[Links to the main sections of this long report on the Centre for Intelligent Design are given at the bottom of this page. If you want to disagree, discuss, add to or comment on the research, feel free to do so on our community forum. That's what it's there for.]
How Many People are Behind the Centre for Intelligent Design?
Effectively nobody.
The Centre for Intelligent Design has claimed that there is a network of some 50-100 people supporting its activities, a statement that BCSE is exceedingly sceptical about. The BCSE and its members have been researching the UK Intelligent Design movement for some five years and seriously doubt that it could muster anywhere near 50 people in the UK of any standing.
Some three years ago BCSE looked at the list produced by the Discovery Institute of those who “supported” Intelligent Design (see Intelligent Design Advocates). In fact, the list is no such thing but, leaving that aside, there were only 34 signatories who were listed as having PhDs from British universities. Eleven of the signatories were the same tired old names from the British young earth creationist movement. One wasn't even a scientist. In fact, at the time, we could only confirm one of the 34 as an intelligent design advocate who accepted the old age of the earth, We did write to all those we were unsure about but only one replied. Overall, we calculated that only 10% of names on the list were actually Intelligent Design advocates – 61 world wide and 3-4 in the UK.
Of course, one can bump up the number of ID supporters by dispensing with the need for appropriate qualifications but GCSE biology candidates with expected grades E and F don't exactly provide much intellectual weight to one's cause.
Our research suggests that there are perhaps eight, maybe ten, people involved in the Centre for Intelligent Design. According to a comment from C4ID reported on the Lifebite web site “The centre is an independent organisation, set up by a network of volunteers across the UK. They have professional interests in education, science, medicine, business, and the law. It is funded by contributions from individuals who support it.” (see http://www.lifebite.co.uk/index.php/home/detail/centre_for_intelligent_design_opens_in_uk/) Well those in law and business appear to be John Langlois and Peter Loose and, possibly, a lawyer we only know as David who acted as minder to Michael Behe in his tour of Britain, the educators appear to be Dr Alastair Noble and Steve Fuller those in medicine Messrs Galloway and Nevin and the scientists Michael Behe and Geoff Barnard. Four of the eight are actually pensioners. There also appears to be someone called "Jonathan M" involved (see our report on Michael Behe in Britain. Two (possibly four) of the eight are not even citizens of the United Kingdom.
There is a Centre for Intelligent Design group on the Facebook social network; some 197 people had claimed, by 1st November 2010, that they “liked it”. That. though, is not the same as “supporters” as it looks as if many of the names are not even in the United Kingdom. Some are clearly little more than children. The discussions part of the site was basically unused.
Nor is the booklet that the Centre for Intelligent Design is promoting as part of its launch exactly impressive. Called The Delusion of Evolution, it is being promoted as an authoritative scientific work, it turns out to be a 36 page booklet, costing 99 pence and has no disclosed author. Astonishingly it's advertised as being “suitable for both Christians and non-Christians” (as if there are science books/booklets that are not) which again, suggests that C4ID is taking the rest of the world to be fools when it claims Intelligent Design nothing to do with religion. Surprise, surprise, the booklet is being sold in the UK by New Life Publishing, the publishing arm of a fundamentalist and creationist church (see http://www.newlifepublishing.co.uk/delusion/index.php).
The FAQs section on C4ID's web site claims to list UK scientists "who are brave enough to make their support for intelligent design public”, adding that there “are many more who are not willing to risk their careers by making their objections to evolution known."
Again, we are highly sceptical of both claims. If, as the Centre for Intelligent Design claims, there are a significant number of creationists in the UK who are unwilling to declare their views, we would reasonable expect them to do so after they leave employment – on retirement. There is no such trend in the UK. Norman Nevin seems to be the only one we are aware of who has waited until retirement to claim that he is a creationist. There is no hidden group of Intelligent Designers in the UK. If there were we would be picking them up on the radar in the form of postings under pseudonyms on various social networks (including that of the BCSE).
The list of actual Intelligent Design supporters is ludicrous given that C4ID claims that Intelligent Design isn't creationism. It lists eight such people in the UK and all of them are well known young earth creationists (Biblical literalists)/lobbyists: The same tired old names we've all seen before: Messrs Norman Nevin, Andy McIntosh, Stuart Burgess, Geoff Barnard, Derek Linkens, Stephen Taylor, Russell Healey and Arthur Jones. Of these over half are not even scientists (they are engineers) and the other three are not practising scientists.
The same section lists Michael Denton as a s supporter of Intelligent Design, referring to his 1985 book Evolution:A theory in Crisis. Fine, except Denton has long admitted that he got it wrong in the book and no longer supports his then position. Saying Denton is on side is an act of severe desperation as he has totally disassociated himself from the Intelligent Design movement.
Even more risible are he Centre for Intelligent Design's claims that there are peer reviewed scientific papers on Intelligent Design – referring to Stephen Meyer’s article The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories which was published in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 117(2) (2004). CID claims it “caused a firestorm” when published. Indeed it did; it appears that the then retiring editor of the publication was a pal of Stephen Meyer and sneaked it in to the journal without any peer review. When the owners of the publication found out, they disowned the article. It had no impact on science whatsoever.
Stephen Meyer's claims about having produced peer reviewed scientific papers are exceedingly colourful to say the least (he's desperate to get scientific recognition).
The Centre for Intelligent Design also claims that there is now a peer-reviewed scientific journal of Intelligent Design – Progress in Complexity, Information and Design. Really? This title is owned by not by a publisher of scientific journal but by a group of ID advocates headed by Bill Dembski. I say “is owned” but the organisation behind it, Dembski's International Society for Complexity, Information and Design, no longer exists (it folded in 2008), the journal hasn't been published for years (since 2005) and the “peer” review process used is unknown in the scientific world.
Yet again, we see that the Centre for Intelligent Design is desperate to give itself a smattering of scientific credibility. Unfortunately it's too late. The emperor has no cloths.
Unscrupulous and unsustainable claims about peer review are rampant amongst Intelligent Design proponents. C4ID is clearly no different.
The Centre for Intelligent Design is so desperate to convince the public of its scientific credibility that it even claims that there are “peer reviewed books” supporting Intelligent Design, given these as example: The Design Inference (Cambridge University Press) by William Dembski; Darwin's Black Box (The Free Press) by Michael Behe; Darwinism, Design and Public Education by Stephen C. Meyer & John Angus Campbell (Michigan State University Press); Debating Design (Cambridge University Press) by William Dembski and Michael Ruse.
Which is all rather odd as science books are not subject to the “peer review” process at all. At best the commissioning editors will check the book for obvious howlers or mistake before publishing but that is not formal peer review at all. What is not apparent from this list is that the Intelligent Design proponents largely gave up writing books after their credibility was destroyed at the Dover trial.
The only Intelligent Design book that has been published since 2007 is Stephen Meyer's 2009 Signature in the Cell (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_in_the_Cell).
The BCSE has seen these over bloated claims from Intelligent Designers before. Some years ago we investigated the Discovery Institute's alleged list of Intelligent Design supporters. Most turned out not to support Intelligent Design at all.
Navigate your way around our Centre for Intelligent Design Report using the following links:
First Page: Centre for Intelligent Design Executive Summary
Previous Page: Introduction to the Centre for Intelligent Design
This Page: How Many People are Behind the Centre for Intelligent Design?
Next Page: Timing of the Centre for Intelligent Design
Who Runs and Organises the Centre for Intelligent Design?
Professor Norman Nevin OBE
Dr Alastair Noble
Dr David Galloway
John Langlois OBE, Centre for ID Guernsey
Peter Loose
Centre for Intelligent Design Strategy
The Channel Islands Connection
Centre for Intelligent Design's Headquarters
Supporting the Show – Messrs Michael Behe, Steve Fuller and Geoff Barnard
