The ID Report

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

Apparently, paleontologist Niles Eldredge and his son Greg Eldredge are edting a new antri-creationism journal, sponsored by Springer Science-Business Media.

Niles and Greg Eldredge are in agreement: "Evolution remains the central unifying idea in biology and yet is still a source of contention and confusion in the classroom. In Evolution: Education and Outreach, we’ll cover the gamut, from molecules to ecosystems and from ‘intelligent design’ to natural selection. We aim to make a big difference in evolutionary education."

Make a big difference? How? If Darwinist propaganda was ever going to work, it would have worked already. There's enough of it around. Every newspaper informs us that every aspect of our lives can be understood as the outcome of Joe Caveman spreading his selfish genes. Maybe people don't believe that because it doesn't sound plausible.

Amelia McNamara, Vice President, Publishing, Life Sciences and Biomedicine at Springer, said, "Springer stands behind evolutionary theory as a fundamental component of modern science education, especially now since the 'intelligent design' advocates have made worrying attempts to promote their views in public schools. We are committed to helping educators teach Darwin's theory to students at all levels. Evolution: Education and Outreach will provide them with the tools they need.

Tools they need to do what? Make Joe Caveman sound plausible? Well, we have just learned that the celebrated "Lucy", the ancestress in whom we non-fundy rubes were all supposed to believe, is just another ape after all. Look, it was fine with me if Lucy was a gorilla, a chimp, or a cave gal, but many people understandably resent the demand that we believe in and subsidize these constantly changing doctrines as if they were some kind of religion, and not even ours necessarily. In the end, the main thing we are supposed to believe is not that Lucy was a cave gal (we can change our mind on that, it turns out) but that human life came about by entirely material means. And why exactly are we supposed to believe that? Not because Lucy or any other fossil shows that it is true but because materialists need it to be true.

Evolution: Education and Outreach, a traditional peer-reviewed journal with non-traditional features, will address these concerns. Each quarterly issue will feature peer-reviewed articles on evolution, “letters from the trenches,” interviews with prominent scientists and educators, lesson plans, critical essays, cartoons, puzzles, reviews on evolution in the media (books, movies, museum openings and exhibitions) and more. The full-color online edition will offer added value, for example chat rooms, teaching resources and blogging opportunities. In addition, Springer has committed up to $10,000 annually in grants and prizes for the best paper, the best lesson plan, etc. The journal, aimed at members of the educational, museum, and scientific community involved in the teaching of evolutionary theory, will be available at a very affordable price.

I bet it's affordable. What with all the museusm, science institutes, and schools it is aimed at, Everyone's tax money will be subsidizing it.

Toronto-based Canadian journalist Denyse O'Leary (www.designorchance.com) is the author of the multiple award-winning By Design or by Chance? (Augsburg Fortress 2004), an overview of the intelligent design controversy. She was named CBA Canada's Recommended Author of the Year in 2005 and is co-author, with Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, of the forthcoming The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist's case for the existence of the soul (Harper 2007).