The ID Report

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

In "What neo-creationists get right" in The Scientist (June 20., 2008), Gordy Slack, an Oakland-based science writer who is not sympathetic to intelligent design theory attempts to explain why it can't be stamped out, and makes a few reasonably good guesses, for example,

When they say that some proponents of evolution are blind followers, they're right. A few years ago I covered a conference of the American Atheists in Las Vegas. I met dozens of people there who were dead sure that evolutionary theory was correct though they didn't know a thing about adaptive radiation, genetic drift, or even plain old natural selection. They came to their Darwinism via a commitment to naturalism and atheism not through the study of science. They're still correct when they say evolution happens. But I'm afraid they're wrong to call themselves skeptics unencumbered by ideology. Many of them are best described as zealots. Ideological zeal isn't incompatible with good science; its coincidence with a theory proves nothing about that theory's explanatory power.

Actually, I hope someday to prove that the most raucous Darwinists have had their bar bills paid by the evil Discovery Institute (intelligent design central) for many years. They have done more to promote intelligent design than many of its strongest proponents.

Unfortunately, Slack confuses science with materialism, which means that most of his other observations are forgettable - but it may be worth the trouble of free registration to view the article.

Also, just up at Colliding Universes:

Science teaching: The peril in the big questions

You heard it here first, or last, or anyway here: The universe is a donut

Could God live in an infinite sea of universes? Depends ...

Colliding Universes is my blog on theories about our universe. (Hey, if a physicist who gets published in a journal somewhere thunk it up, it isn't wonky by definition, m'kay?)

Just up at the Post-Darwinist

Jailed Canuck media mogul Conrad (Tubby) Black endorses ID-friendly Jindal for McCain's veep

From my mailbox ...

Expelled movie's screenwriter - recently demoted from "evil" to "stupid" - regains "evil" status

Brain evolution gene?: Move over already yet, gay gene, fat gene, and God gene!

Just up at The Mindful Hack

The Mindful Hack is my other blog, on neuroscience and spirituality issues. It supports The Spiritual Brain (Harper One, Beauregard & O'Leary, 2007)
Evolutionary psychology: The "meme" generates a fruitful hoax, if nothing else

Sci Phi Show podcast features scholar on near death experiences

Psychology: Jokes help us survive even when we daren't laugh aloud

Psychology: If people were robots, safety devices would abolish most accidents, but ...

Spirituality: Today's students spiritually repressed?

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 Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist's case for the existence of the soul (Harper 2007).