If you search for the phrase “evolution simulation” in Google, you’ll get many hits. Come to think of it, computer evolution simulations are an evolutionary icon. What of them? Do they falsify the claims of intelligent design theory?

On a new episode of ID the Future, Ray Bohlin takes up the issue with Dr. Winston Ewert, co-author with William Dembski and Robert Marks II of a new book, An Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics.

Ewert argues that Richard Dawkins’s “Methinks It Is Like a Weasel” simulation doesn’t prove biological evolution and isn’t even very interesting. Ewert says there are some interesting computer evolution simulations, but he explains that they fail to model anything biologically realistic.

Instead they set up a straw man version of intelligent design, and simultaneously sneak teleology in, which kind of defeats the purpose. Download the podcast here, or listen to it here.

Dr. Ewert’s book is getting raves from some impressive scientists, including star mathematician Gregory Chaitin, author of Proving Darwin: Making Biology Mathematical. He calls the book, “An honest attempt to discuss what few people seem to realize is an important problem.”

Speaking of Chaitin, says Dr. Bijan Nemati of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech:

With penetrating brilliance, and with a masterful exercise of pedagogy and wit, the authors take on Chaitin’s challenge, that Darwin’s theory should be subjectable to a mathematical assessment and either pass or fail. Surveying over seven decades of development in algorithmics and information theory, they make a compelling case that it fails.

Congratulations, Dr. Ewert, Dr. Marks, and Dr. Dembski! Get your copy now.

Photo: Methinks it is a short-tailed weasel, aka stoat, by Keven Law [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.