The ID Report

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

In August we noted that National Center for Science Education was running a bumper sticker contest

They may have declared their winner. Folk have been seeing this bumper sticker around town:

We have the fossils. We win.

That would be good news for Darwin, who didn't think the fossil record supported him, but hoped it would, one day.

The trouble is, that has been the trade secret of paleontology (Stephen Jay Gould) that it doesn’t support him. It supports sudden, rapid emergence, which almost certainly means a non-Darwinian origin for change in life forms.

However, the lobby's choice seems intuitively right. The slogan appeals to people who don't know much about the issues except where they stand. Who they support. And what their views are.

These days, those people make the best, most reliable Darwinists.

Here's the promo for the sticker, for example:

A reminder that in the argument over evolution there is really only one type of evidence, and it's overwhelmingly on the side of those who believe in evolution.

Oh? Only fossils matter? So all that supposed genetic evidence is bunk?

In many cases - if the history we are piecing together is correct - the fossils only tell us something in the light of other types of evidence. When two lines of evidence must be taken together, we cannot say there is really only one type of evidence."

So, on the whole, Darwin’s pressure group has done right to connect with its base. The people who do not wonder about things like that.

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Denyse O'Leary is co-author of The Spiritual Brain. Follow UD News at Twitter!

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

The real battle in cosmology today is the war on rationality and orderliness. Let the balloons of naturalism drift unaccompanied into their endless night.

From physicist Bruce Gordon, "Balloons on a string," The Nature of Nature (ISI Books, 2011) p. 585:

The mindless multiverse "solution" to the problem of fine-tuning is, quite literally, a metaphysical non-starter. What the absence of efficient material causality in fundamental physics and cosmology reveals instead is the limit of scientific explanations and the need for a deeper metaphysical understanding of the world's rationality and orderliness. That explanation has always been, and will forever be, Mind over matter.

When the logical and metaphysical necessity of an efficient cause, the demonstrable absence of a material one, and the realized implication of a universe both contingent and finite in temporal duration, are all conjoined with the fact that we exist in an ordered cosmos the conditions of which are fine-tuned beyond the capacity of any credible mindless process, the scientific evidence points inexorably toward transcendent intelligent agency as the only sufficient cause, and thus the only reasonable explanation.

In short, a clarion call to intellectual honesty and metaphysical accountability reverberates throughout the cosmos: release the strings of nihilism and let the balloons of naturalism drift unaccompanied into their endless night. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.

Denyse O'Leary is co-author of The Spiritual Brain. Follow UD News at Twitter!

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

In "Brainy molluscs evolved nervous systems four times" (New Scientist, September 16, 2011), Ferris Jabr tells us,

The mollusc family includes the most intelligent invertebrates on the planet: octopuses, squid and cuttlefish. Now, the latest and most sophisticated genetic analysis of their evolutionary history overturns our previous understanding of how they got so brainy.

The new findings expand a growing body of evidence that in very different groups of animals – molluscs and mammals, for instance – central nervous systems evolved not once, but several times, in parallel.

Which is more consistent with design - or law - than Darwinian selection without plan or purpose.

Now, all this is based on certain methods of configuring how evolution happened. The methods could be right or wrong. But if they hold up,

The four groups that independently evolved centralised nervous systems include the octopus, a freshwater snail genus called Helisoma, Tritonia – a genus of strikingly coloured sea slugs – and Dolabrifera, another genus of sea slugs, albeit less aesthetically interesting.

Which all just happened, right?

See also: Here’s the best online port of call for convergent evolution

Denyse O'Leary is co-author of The Spiritual Brain. Follow UD News at Twitter!

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

Caroline Crocker, director of AITSE and author of Free to Think, recounts the cost of curiosity, for a student who chose to present both sides in a project about Darwinism:

Evelyn frowned, "The teacher didn’t seem to mind. She just wants me to be sure to give evidence for both sides of the debate."

I did not want to be paranoid, but I also wanted to protect this brilliant young lady from those who might not hesitate to ruin her future. "Okay, just be sure that you're careful about what you say."

Crocker herself is one of the Expelled. She should know.

"Would it also be okay for us to meet, to talk about any questions I have about the project?"

I smiled, witing my phone number on a scrap of paper. "Sure, why don't we get together at Starbucks. We can talk then."

As it turned out, Evelyn did stay in contact with me by e-mail up until the time she gave her presentation although we didn't have a chance to go for coffee. She shared her own journey towards doubting neo-Darwinian evolution, However, after her presentation, I did not hear from her again. Cheryl, a friend of hers, told me that this was because a group of faculty members had confronted Evelyn about her views on evolution, leaving her shaking and in tears.

Barry, where are you?

It was so painful and frightening that Evelyn had decided that in order to secure her future she should never again mention her doubts about neo-Darwinian evolution. In addition, she resolved that she should also never again speak to me. Unfortunately, her decision came to late; I later learned that she was denied entrance into medical school. (p. 132)

Barry?

Denyse O'Leary is co-author of The Spiritual Brain. Follow UD News at Twitter!