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1. Which topic are you referring to in particular? Intelligent Design or the Omega Point theory? Neither are really topics for peer review.
Peer Review for ID or OP is kind of like Peer Review for porn. I know what I like, but I don't expect my tastes to be evaluated by an academic committee consisting of Ron Jeremy, Jenna Jamison, and Clarence "Long Dong Silver" Thomas. But you really should check out "Liberty College Girls Gone Wild", each volume, but especially the one with Snoop Dog.
2. Not passing peer review isn't exactly the Mark of Cain. There is a major debate going on about the problems involved with peer review. I know that peer review is held in high esteem by the skeptic community, but the process is vulnerable to subversion, especially when money and/or prestige is involved. When that happens, its subversion has an enormously destructive effect on scientific work. (I believe that Mike Shermer has addressed this once or twice in Skeptic mag, and hope CSICOP also takes up the effort.)
3. Neither ID nor OP are scientific disciplines; they are not direct products of scientific work, either. They are philosophical ideas that speculate about the underpinning of "reality", and cite scientific work to support them. They may be useful ideas, though ID is currently being used as a political battering ram.
(Intelligent Design actually has a venerable philosophical history, and its earlier authors never promoted it as science. Galileo and Newton each philosophized on the nature of the First Cause, and in our own time, the late Sir Fred Hoyle wrote about what we would call Intelligent Design. Naturally, Sir Fred didn't say it was science, and didn't try to force Parliament to legislate it under pain of eternal damnation.)
I don't find ID to be offensive on its own philosophical basis, but that's NOT what's happening in this inane "debate" on it. It's a candy-coating for Scientific (sic) Creationism, and it's also been used for its "Vedic" variant, being promoted in the English-speaking world by Michael Cremo (whom I even hold in higher respect than the Jesus-simple crowd).
It's kind of like with the Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet and Stalin. There was a major orthographic reform, at the start of Stalin's reign, that made Russian a lot easier to spell and read.
On the other hand, Stalin came along with it.
As to the Omega Point theory, I enjoyed Tipler's essays and his book (The Physics of Immortality), but never took them to be anything other than speculation. I thought a lot of his critics went far further than Tipler did in assuming he was either claiming scientific or theological territory.
Plus, I like Frank Tipler (physics) and Wolfhart Pannenberg (philosophy) a whole lot more than the pack of howling assclowns promoting a cheap knock-off of ID these days.
And, no, this isn't really about Britney Spears at all, unless you consider her existence a refutation of both Intelligent Design AND the Omega Point theory. Which might actually be a scientifically tenable argument.
--p! Next on the Intelligent Design Channel: The Christian Cable Coalition Strip Poker Championship Live at the Sands in Las Vegas With your hosts Amy Grant and Kirk Cameron (Parental Guidence is strongly advised.)
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