In the News

A forum titled "Uncommon Dissent Forum: Scientists Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing" will take place in Greenville, SC, August 4, 5, and 6. Featured speakers will be Michael Behe, Jonathan Wells, Paul Nelson, David Keller, Ed Peltzer, Ralf Seelke, John Angus Campbell and Jed Macosko.

The order of topics is important, as a typical anti-ID person needs to see the problems with the icons that they have bought into before they can appreciate the irreducible complexity arguments of Michael Behe, which lie at the heart of ID. This conference nicely follows that same approach.

Specifically, the eight topics broken into two sections. First, the "Icons" chunk, in which Jonathan's talk is bookended by Ed and Paul presenting the first two chapters of Icons of Evolution, respectively, (Miller-Urey and Tree of Life), and by Ralph presenting what I see as the eleventh icon (bacteria evolving in test tubes). Second, there is the "Black Box" chunk, in which Behe's talk is bookended by David and Jed presenting an overview of all the machines that a typical cell needs, highlighting the three groups that are studied in the lab, and by John Angus presenting what every anti-ID person should hear right after they finish reading Darwin's Black Box in order to answer the question, "I see the merits of ID, but now what should we teach in the public schools?"

To look at the announcement of the forum, click HERE.

Tom Cruise has been getting much press lately, and now he weighs in on ET.

In an interview with the German tabloid daily Bild and reported on CNN.com, Cruise says, "Are you really so arrogant as to believe we are alone in this universe? Millions of stars, and we're supposed to be the only living creatures? No, there are many things out there, we just don't know."

His comments speak to the common notion that life springing from non-life is easy and inevitable. To date, the scientific evidence shows nothing to support that notion, but rather, a number of speculations that have led to dead ends. Also, from a design perspective, the universe HAS to be as big as it is, with the given physics, to be able to produce the "just right" conditions for life to exist, and for advanced life to thrive. He is claiming the same misguided idea that Dr. Stephen Hawking has voiced. Odd that Hawking, one of the most brilliant men on the planet, would not realize this, though.

But what caught my attention was the comment that people are "arrogant" for believing that we might just be alone in this vast cosmos. This is just the passive aggressive name-calling trick. Call anyone "arrogant" and presto, they are marginalized. The fact is, the idea that we might be alone is in no way arrogant in itself. Now, someone could present this idea in an arrogant manner, but the idea itself is not "arrogant". Tom Cruise should look into a mirror before he is tempted to use this passive aggressive trick on others. Trouble is, people who are consistently and truly arrogant seldom reflect deeply on how to craft a good argument, and on how they present their arguments. Often, the arrogant cannot see that they themselves are arrogant.

Finally, his last quote seems puzzling. He asserts there are many things out there, but has no scientific evidence (because there isn't any). Then he says "we don't know". Let's see, I am arrogant for believing that we may be alone in the cosmos, but he doesn't know either. So he simply asserts there are millions of other life forms out there. Seems like Tom Cruise's worldview is clashing with the known scientific facts.

For the full article, click HERE.

On July 22-23 a conference will take place in the San Francisco Bay Area, condcuted by Dr. Hugh Ross, Ph.D. and other Reasons To Believe team members.

The conference (Cosmic Fingerprints: Evidence of Design) will focus on issues related to fine tuning, irreducible complexity and evidence for design in our universe that can only be due to an intelligent agent.

This conference will be a good forum for folks to ask tough questions and perhaps come to understand that science and the belief in intelligent agency are quite compatible. This would be a great opportunity to invite friends and acquaintances who believe in materialism (atheists) or are agnostic on this important issue.

For more information, click HERE.

A brief interview took place between Dr. Jonathan Wells and IDURC (Intelligent Design Undergraduate Research Center) member Daniel Cervera.

To view, please click HERE.