Robert J. Marks II

...saying the Bible is not a book about science is like saying a cookbook is not a book about chemistry.

Robert J. Marks II (born August 25, 1950) is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University and a proponent of intelligent design. He appeared in the documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

Sourced

• Computers are no more able to create information than iPods are capable of creating music.

• Stephen C. Meyer, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, HarperOne (2009) p. 292

• For the record, I don’t deserve this. But I have lower back pain and don’t deserve that either. (After being listed as one of the twenty most brilliant living Christian Professors. Originally sourced to Jack Benny.)

• Tim Woods (2011-01-15). "Baylor faculty member named one of '20 Most Brilliant Christian Professors,'" Waco Tribune-Herald,(April 15, 2010). Retrieved on 2011-04-28.

• Science packages theory, places it on a throne, and honors and protects it much like a queen. Engineers make the queen come down from the throne and scrub the floor. And if she doesn’t work, we fire her.

• Micro evolution, as I understand it, is adaptation. And characteristic of a good design is the ability to adapt to differing environments.
• Evolutionary algorithms based on Darwinian evolution do not, by themselves, have the ability to create information.
• Christians are being subjected to the same “separate but equal” discrimination used to justify discrimination in the old Jim Crow south.

• Thomas E. Woodward (2011-01-15). ``Darwin or Design with Dr. Tom Woodward`` (audio). Retrieved on 2011-04-28.

• [Computer] programs to demonstrate Darwinian evolution are akin to a pinball machine. The steel ball bounces around differently every time but eventually falls down the little hole behind the flippers.

• It's a lot easier to play pinball than it is to make a pinball machine. (A comment concerning the difficulty of a "search for a good Darwinian search.")
• Computer programs, including all of the models of Darwinian evolution of which I am aware, perform the way their programmers intended. Doing so requires the programmer infuse information about the program's goal. You can't write a good program without [doing so].
• Your chances of winning the lottery are about the same whether or not you buy a ticket. It's better … if you give your money to me and I'll decide whether or not to give it back.
• From the viewpoint of computer simulation, our universe does not contain the probabilistic resources to get a meaningful result for even a moderately sized unassisted [Darwinian] search. In fact, if you take ten to the one thousand of our universes in what is sometimes referred to as the multiverse, the probabilistic resources don't exist there either.
• Let's abandon labels and pursue the truth no matter where it leads. Don't entrench yourself in a paradigm and claim a corner on truth. Many who have done so in history have been shown to be foolish.

• From an interview with Robert Crowther of the pro-intelligent design Discovery Institute (March 03, 2010). "Darwin as the Pinball Wizard: Talking Probability with Robert Marks,". Retrieved on 2010-05-03.

• Is it wrong to pray for God to make me more successful so that I can be more humble?

• If "knowledge puffs up," then we professors are in ever-present danger of having egos resembling threatened blow fish.

• Robert J. Marks II (2006-10-06). "Pascal's Prayer,". Retrieved on 2010-04-22.

• Simulated evolution on a computer works but is no where near the gradual incremental process that is associated with Darwinian evolution. It's closer to dog breeding in terms of its computational complexity.

• In the universe, [besides] space, matter and energy, there is information. [Information hasn't yet] been [well] defined nor studied.
• Many times proponents of evolutionary computing … refuse to recognize the contribution of [the programmer's infusion of information] into the process.
• Association with ID (intelligent design) in any way is detrimental to one's career. Everybody who works in ID should first have tenure before they come out of the closet.
• My comments are as an expert in computational intelligence. I'm not a biologist. For me to talk about the details of biology is as stupid as a British biologist claiming expertise in religion. (A reference to Richard Dawkins.)
• Engineers actually design things. This is why [many] engineers are interested in the area of intelligent design

• From an interview with Casey Luskin of the pro-intelligent design Discovery Institute (July 20, 2007). "Well-Informed: Dr. Robert Marks and the Evolutionary Informatics Lab,". Retrieved on 2010-05-06.

• Pure publication quantity today has become a meaningless metric. One can publish almost anything.

• All engineering fields are either solutions looking for problems or problems looking for solutions.
• The secret of doing many things at the same time is to do them all poorly.
• Forecasting the future of technology is risky. Predictions tend to be linear whereas technical advances come in quantum jumps from paradigm shifts. After the second World War, forecasters in electronics [who did not foresee the transistor] would have linearly [and incorrectly] foretasted breakthroughs in better vacuum tube reliability from, for example, improved filament chemistry.

• From an interview with Professor Bing Sheu, (University of Southern California) (July 20, 2007). "Neural Networks and Beyond-An Interview with Robert J. Marks," IEEE Circuits and Devices Magazine, Volume 12, Issue 5, 1996 [DOI 10.1109/MCD.1996.537355]. Retrieved on 2010-05-06.

• Saying the Bible is not a book about science is like saying a cookbook is not a book about chemistry.

• Pursuance of truth requires consideration of a creator. If you define science to exclude the possibility of a creator, it isn’t a pursuance of truth.
• The universe as accepted by science in terms of size and age is not big enough or old enough to explain evolution.

• From an interview with Jerry Pierce (2008-01-28). Q&A: ‘Expelled’s’ Robert Marks. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.

• There is no foundational mathematical or physical reason the relationship between Pythagorean and tempered western music should exist. It just does. The rich flexibility of the tempered scale and the … bountiful archives of western music are a testimonial to this wonderful coincidence provided by nature.

• Robert J. Marks II (2009). "Handbook of Fourier Analysis and Its Applications" (Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 623. Retrieved on 2011-04-29.

Quotes About Marks

• "Do not be a good prisoner of your Christian campus. Be a Bob Marks. BE a problem!" Concerning Marks' unwillingness to be a "meat puppet" in higher academia's disdain of intelligent design,
  • Denyse O'Leary (2009-09-08). The Great Escape A tribute to Bob Marks. Retrieved on 2010-12-09.

• "I categorically reject Marks’ whole philosophy and I’d probably call him delusional," P.Z. Myers.
  • from "PZ Myers supports academic freedom for Marks," Uncommon Descent Blog , September 9, 2007.

• "Robert Marks... deals in high-level mathematics -the kind of stuff only a handful of people around the planet even understand." "[His math] basically lead[s] you to the conclusion that there is design in the universe." Mark Mathis, Executive Producer of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed."
  • "Coast to Coast AM" hosted by Ian Punnett: "Neo-Darwinism & Academic Suppression" with guest Mark Mathis" (2008-03-01). Retrieved on 2015-05-03.

• "Bob’s research will vindicate itself. He finds himself at the center of a firestorm that is really not of his own making, and one day — yes, this day is coming, eventually — after the controversy wanes, Bob’s work will still be standing, simply because it is powerful and true." Ian A. Gravagne.
  • Tim Woods, "Baylor faculty member named one of '20 Most Brilliant Christian Professors," Waco Tribune, April 15, 2010