The ID Report

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

Expelling astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez called one of Iowa State University's missteps

No one makes a big-budget movie about faith-and-science bores

Fun with David Berlinski: The Devil sketches what we do not know

Darwin strikes back: Making intellectual freedom sound scary

Darwin and the Nazis (yes, again, but this is interesting): Nazism as a "biological" political program

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).

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

The math prof makes a design inference

British physicist asks, is there no freedom to criticize evolutionary theory? (Well, no, not if you know a good reason why materialist views are wrong.)

Expelled, its critics, and the theatre managers - knock me over with a feather, the legacy media critics didn't like the film but audiences apparently did

What percentage of scientists support current evolution theory? A better question: In the age of zealous Darwin lobbies, what percentage can afford reasonable dissent?

Who was Ernst Haeckel? Phenomenon? Flawed? Faker? All three, maybe.

Just what IS a design inference? 9-11 provides a clue.

Higher Ed is higher on WHAT, exactly?: Prof sues disbelieving students. Apparently, they disputed her theories about science ...

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).

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

Placebo effect: Your mind's role in your health. (No, don't throw away that prescription. But read this before you conclude that only that pill makes you well.)

Philosophy of mind: In case you wondered whether you are conscious and reading this. (Actually, there is hardly a materialist explanation of consciousness that is worth considering.)

Animal minds: Learning may not pay, but some animals do it anyway. "If your science prof told you long ago that learning evolves because animals that learn faster are more likely to survive, forget it. Learning imposes costs of its own, as one experiment showed."

Heard way, way too often: The soul boils down to a few genes?

Materialist Mythbusting: Genes 'R' Not Us

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).

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

Goodbye GATTACA: Environment and lifestyle affect which genes are actually expressed

The genes that matter are the ones that are expressed. A recent North Caroline State University study of North African Berbers showed that which breathing-related genes were expressed depended in large part on whether the individual is living an urban, rural, or nomadic lifestyle. Vince Freeman, the genetically troubled hero of GATTACA (1997), need not rely only on determination. He has other heavy hitters on his team too, as it turns out. Genes "R" Not Us.

Go here for more.

Junk DNA - oops, non-coding DNA - less junky than ever but still expected to fit the "frame"

Junk DNA has sure come up in the world: From Dawkins's "sea of nonsense" to increasingly biologically important - but somehow it is still supposed to support the conventional explanations.

One consequence of growing efforts to "frame" science is that readers of reports on new research must be skilled at seeing past elaborate frames, in order to discern findings. For more, go here.

Cutting edge science: Cambrian explosion ecosystems organized themselves pretty much the way ecosystems do today, and not everyone is pleased to hear that ... (because it implies that there may be underlying patterns and laws within nature that are not merely incidental and mechanistic).

Natural selection: Mutation protects against malaria - at a steep cost. (A recent study supports Mike Behe's observation in Edge of Evolution that the protections against malaria that evolve through natural selection acting on random mutations (Darwin's mechanism) - apart from being few and far between - tend to come with serious problems. DON'T trust evolution to solve your problems!

Human evolution: Shape of early human teeth fails to predict actual diet, study finds.

"A recent study by anthropologist Peter Ungar of the University of Arkansas and colleagues has challenged the conventional way that anthropologists determine what early humans and human ancestors ate. Apparently, they didn't necessarily eat what they 'should have.'" So there is a lot we cannot predict about early human diets. For more, go here.

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).

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

Reasons not to be a materialist if you have a mind

The ... Spiritual ... Brain ... Is ... NOT ... a ... brainiac ...menace ... !

Human brains are unique, neuroscientist observes - but still wants to leave pile of stuff on cutting room floor

Chimpanzees more "rational" than humans? It depends on what you mean by rational.

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).

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

While Imagining no heaven, no hell, no Yoko Ono, and no delay till the Expelled DVD comes out, I note where John Lilley, Baylor’s president, has seen fit to defend his institution in the light of the unflattering portrait provided in Expelled.

Read more here.

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).

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

So far it is imaginary.

Ono is seeking at least $75,000 in damages and injunctive relief.

Her case turns on the use of some lines from Ono’s late husband John Lennon’s ”Imagine”*.

Read more about the current injunction and the upcoming court case here.

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).

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

Disorder: Increasingly, anything you do that annoys me

Google: When “secular” means “materialist”

Politics, religion, and civil rights - a teetering balance worldwide

Fred on Everything, including evolution: Hot air about big brains

Atheism: Its attractions for science bigwigs

More on animal minds: But does the animal think it is art?

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).