In the News

Just a reminder...Discovery Institute has put together a Web site

judgingPBS.com

which is a response to PBS-NOVA's online materials for their "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" documentary.

Don Jordan, of the Palm Beach Post, reports that the state Board of Education will decide in February whether to approve an overhaul of state science standards that would make it a major topic in classrooms for the first time.

The proposed changes, which would require that students recognize that fossil evidence is consistent with the idea that human beings evolved from earlier species, have ignited a fierce debate among education officials and advocacy groups.

Opponents argue that evolution is merely a theory and that other explanations for the origins of life, such as intelligent design, also should be taught out of fairness.

Board member Kathryn Hensley supported the teaching of evolution, adding that "anything that is faith-based or religious-based just doesn't belong in the classroom."

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Any gaps in knowledge must be bridged by faith (belief), including gaps in knowledge regarding the theory of evolution. Since evolutionary biologists admit they don't yet understand the mechanisms that generate and change information (the HOW) of evolution, they too have to exercise faith. Therefore, their theory should not be included in the classroom.

The Bay of Fundie blog, no friend of ARN, opined on our recent "Top 10 Darwin and Design News Stories of 2007".

It is not surprising that when someone has little to say concerning the substance of the debate, he resorts to ad hominem attacks and vitriolic speech.

For instance, ARN and IDers are crackpots, morons, "smart guys", retards, incapable of understanding biology, Clowndi_ks, fundies, disinformationists, etc.

He asserts there is no debate, which is often the first line of "defense" of proponents of the "Modern Synthesis", a.k.a. Neo-Darwinism (and Global Warming).

IDers are liars, like Joseph Goebbels (a Nazi), who once may have said, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." As was said in the blog, sounds like the pot calling the kettle black.

As is typical of Neo-Darwinists, they separate the origin of species from the origin of life. Neo-Darwinism does not deal with the origin of life, and we are well aware of that fact. But, in the materialist's worldview, the origin of life is actually more problematic than the origin of species. That's why Francis Crick pushed back OOL by proposing directed panspermia. He rightly concluded that a chemical origin of life on Earth was impossible. He posited that OOL must have happened somewhere else in the universe, and was brought here. Neo-Darwinists choose to say, "In the beginning was a great mystery, then evolution."

One of the citations in the blog to indicate how out-of-touch IDers are with Neo-Darwinism is from 1993. In that post, Moran states, "Biologists no longer question whether evolution has occurred or is occurring. That part of Darwin's book is now considered to be so overwhelmingly demonstrated that is is often referred to as the FACT of evolution. However, the MECHANISM of evolution is still debated." So, my question is, "If we don't know HOW materialistic evolution happened, how do we know THAT it happened?" The debate (which he says doesn't even exist among REAL scientists) is about the HOW (mechanisms). What they accuse us of (God of the Gaps), is exactly what they are doing (Science of the Gaps), when saying they don't know HOW it happened. But, according to them, it had to have happened, because it fits their worldview.

Believers in the extranatural either believe that the universe was front-loaded with information, or a designer injected information into systems at various times. If REAL scientists can infer design in SETI, criminology, etc., why not in biological science? Well, that would upset the apple cart, because they cannot allow a "divine foot in the door". So they attempt to nail the door shut by saying there is no legitimate debate.

I prefer clarity of thinking over agreement. This is what we should all strive for this coming year, including Neo-Darwinists.

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For sound, thoughtful commentary on creation-evolution hot topics go to Creation-Evolution Headlines. The particular link below looks at how Bambi became Moby Dick, really! The purpose-driven language used by Darwinists goes against everything that Evolution is about: a purposeless, mindless, undirected process. They cannot help but use design-language to describe the materialistic process.

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Top 10 Darwin and Design News Stories of 2007

Colorado Springs, CO - December 27, 2007

Access Research Network has just released its second annual Top 10 Darwin and Design News Stories and its Top 10 Darwin and Design Resources list for the year ending in 2007.

The origins debate continued to capture the attention of a world-wide audience in 2007, as evidenced by some of the key news stories designated as among the more important according to Access Research Network (ARN), a leading science and technology watch-dog group based in Colorado Springs, CO.

"Part of our mission at ARN is to help educate the public about issues relating to Darwin and Design. Not only are there a lot of moving parts to this issue, but it also suffers heavily from significant mis-information. One of the things we do is monitor science news and other reports related to this topic, and provide access to resources designed to help others better understand the full scope of this issue. Overall in 2007 I'd say we've observed a growing consternation running through many scientific disciplines over issues that were once thought to be resolved long ago" says Kevin Wirth, ARN Director of Media Relations. "For example, the so-called 'simple cell' continues to demonstrate far more complexity and information content than anyone ever imagined. This continues to sustain the argument for Design theorists, but places a growing burden on Darwinists who maintain that this is merely evidence of 'apparent design.' But we're seeing a growing number of scientists who simply aren't buying the 'apparent design' explanation."

"The news reports we've cited in our Top 10 News Stories this year reflect many of those concerns" added Wirth. "One of the things we've noticed is that the probability surrounding the notion that life arose spontaneously and evolved over eons is straining the limits of credulity among observers who are not heavily invested in Darwinian speculations. I think it's important that we listen carefully to the voices of those who are truly independent and critical observers of this issue."

In addition to the increasing level of complexity being discovered in small biological systems, the level of biological complexity being discovered in early life history provided another challenge for Darwin's molecule-to-man theory in 2007. Well-preserved jellyfish fossil finds in Utah confirm that the modern form of the jellyfish existed nearly 200 million years earlier than previously thought. This leaves an insufficient amount of time for complex life to have developed only via the Darwinian principles of random mutations and natural selection. Evidence like this caused some scientist this past year to suggest that Darwin's "Tree-of-Life" model should be discarded and replaced with a "Biological Big Bang" model.

Dennis Wagner, ARN Executive Director, noted that "We have a whole generation of people who have been raised according to Darwinian fairytales, like 'human and chimpanzee genetics only differ by 1%' and 'the human body is full of leftover evolutionary vestiges like the appendix and junk DNA.' However, scientists demonstrated that these Darwinian stories do not belong in our science textbooks with some of the new discoveries made in 2007. These are Darwinian 'arguments from ignorance' that continue to be discarded as scientists uncover the incredible design and purpose of biological systems"

Wagner also noted that several new books in the ARN 2007 Top 10 Darwin and Design Resource list such as Michael Behe's The Edge of Evolution and Mike Gene's The Design Matrix are causing a healthy shift in the debate from 'Darwin versus Design' to 'Darwin and Design.': "The debate has been highly polarized for generations because you have one group claiming everything can be explained by Darwin and another group claiming everything can be explained by design. These new books are revealing that scientific evidence is now indicating life bears the hallmarks of both. The information content present in living systems can only be explained by design, while biological systems also appear to have been designed to adapt to their environment through variation and natural selection. Trying to decipher from the evidence exactly what evolution can and cannot do, rather than resorting to imaginative Darwinian stories to explain all of life by naturalistic processes is a great step forward in the debate."

While scientific evidence continued to mount in favor of intelligent design in 2007, so did the political and academic persecution against those who challenge Darwinism. Wagner observed that "our modern western culture is so ingrained in the naturalistic Darwinian creation story that those who challenge the story, even with scientific evidence in hand, are treated as outsiders and outcasts. Even though scientists should be free to follow the evidence wherever it leads, the 2007 stories about Guillermo Gonzales being denied tenure at Iowa State and Robert Marks having his lab and website shutdown at Baylor University prove that we are not as free as we would like to think. Ben Stein's documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, scheduled for release in early 2008, will document these stories and many others, and serve as a real eye-opener to the average citizen."

Wirth concluded, "As we monitor scientific discoveries and reports in the news, I think we're beginning to see a growing trend overall that the sufficiency of Darwinian explanations to describe how life evolved is turning out to be substantially inadequate in a growing number of fields, particularly in the areas of genetics and molecular biology. I think it's becoming clear that Darwinism is on the verge of one of the greatest challenges it has faced in many decades. And, based on what we're seeing, I suspect the debate about origins will heat up again significantly in 2008."

In a CrossWalk.com blog, Regis Nicoll opines on Antony Flew's conversion to an Aristotelian God - a Being who is "self-existent, immutable, immaterial, omnipotent, and omniscient." At the same time, Flew remains adamant about his rejection of an interventionist Deity, the afterlife and revealed religion, although he is open to the latter. While Flew rejects the interventionist God of the Judeo-Christian worldview, he has also rejected Darwinism. And his rejection of Darwinism is not a result of seniality.

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Discovery Institute has launched a new Web site, JudgingPBS.com, responding to the online materials for PBS/NOVA's Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial.

JudgingPBS.com features 14 slides of "Darwin's Failed Predictions," recounting the failures of Darwinism left unmentioned by PBS/NOVA. The first slide is in the article, but stay tuned for all 14 slides to be posted on Evolution News & Views.

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Denyse O'Leary announces the blog HERE.

In the Dallas Morning News...the resignation of the state's science curriculum director last month has signaled the beginning of what is shaping up to be a contentious and politically charged revision of the science curriculum, set to begin in earnest in January.

At stake is the way teachers present evolution, the biological theory that humans and other species evolved from lower forms of life.

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ScienceDaily reports that surrounding the small islands of genes within the human genome is a vast sea of mysterious DNA. While most of this non-coding DNA is junk, some of it is used to help genes turn on and off. As reported online this week in Genome Research, Hopkins researchers have now found that this latter portion, which is known as regulatory DNA and contributes to inherited diseases like Parkinson's or mental disorders, may be more abundant than we realize.

Imagine that...

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A letter to the editor in the Indianapolis Star shows that the self-deluding mantra of the Darwinists is alive and well from academia through the general public.

The assertion that 19th century ideas are closer to reality than 15th century ideas is not necessarily so. Besides, most of the great advances in science occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries. With the great advance in biological nano-science in the past half-century, ID theory is becoming more obvious every year. The opposition to ID seems to be more emotional (visceral) than rational, as seen by the tone and language of this letter. The upcoming documentary "Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed" will show this emotional persecution of IDers to the general public in a very clear way. Contrary to the comment that ID is dead because of the Dover decision, it is alive and well and growing.

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Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed

Simon Caldwell, in the Daily Mail, reports that Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.

The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.

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Many of the same dynanmics in the ID debate are at play in the climate change debate. Pope Benedict XVI seems to be quite rational concerning both matters.

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Laura Heinauer, in the Waco Tribune, reports that more than 100 biology faculty members from universities across Texas signed a letter sent Monday to state Education Commissioner Robert Scott saying Texas Education Agency employees should not have to remain neutral on evolution.

The letter, which included eight signatures from Baylor University professors, is in response to the departure of science curriculum director Chris Comer. Comer says she was forced to resign days after forwarding an e-mail her superiors said made the agency appear biased against the idea that life is a result of intelligent design.

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AP Texas News reports that biology professors from across Texas stressed the importance of educating students about evolution in a letter to the state education commissioner and said Texas Education Agency employees shouldn't be required to stay neutral on the subject.

More than 100 faculty members from the universities of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Texas State, North Texas, Houston, Rice and Baylor signed the letter. It was sent Monday to Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott.

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Beth Daily, of the Boston Globe, reports that a former researcher claimed he was fired from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution because he didn't believe in evolution.

Nathaniel Abraham filed a lawsuit earlier this week in US District Court in Boston saying that the Cape Cod research center dismissed him in 2004 because of his Christian belief that the Bible presents a true account of human creation.

Abraham, who is seeking $500,000 in compensation for a violation of his civil rights, says in the suit that he lost his job as a postdoctoral researcher in a biology lab shortly after he told his superior that he did not accept evolution as scientific fact.

From what I have heard, there is some bad information in the Globe piece. It seems Abraham was willing to work on the evolution projects. He had no problem stating that "evolution was a theory" or "according to evolution..." he objected only to using evolution (in the common ancestry sense) as an established fact. This was not acceptable to his supervisor who required that he believe in evolution.

This may be a very important case, because his firing may have been religious discrimination.

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I attended a private screening of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed with Ben Stein. The documentary film will be released during the first part of 2008.

This is definitely a film that Darwinists will not want you to see.

The film's Web site, which includes a Super Trailer (seven minutes long on the PLAYGROUND page) can be seen by clicking HERE.

When you do not have a good argument against your opponent's view, just throw in a few ad hominem attacks. Name-calling usually does the trick for most. That's what Adam Rutherford, reviewer for Science Magazine does.

Evolution News & Views picks up on Rutherford's remarks.

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A school district has done an about face on teaching alternative theories on origins.

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ENV does a summary on the Guillermo Gonzalez. Public document requests under Iowa's Open Records Act obtained correspondence of key faculty members within ISU's Department of Physics and Astronomy. Various e-mails reveal that Dr. Gonzalez's department was far more concerned about the "embarrassment" that intelligent design (ID) caused the department's reputation rather than protecting his academic freedom - despite the fact that ISU's faculty handbook claims that "[a]cademic freedom is the foundation of the university."

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Case Western Reserve University Professor Patricia Princehouse and Michael Behe recently taped an episode of the program "Close Up at the Newseum", where we discussed intelligent design, Darwinism, The Edge of Evolution, and other topics with an audience of about 40 high school students. The purpose of Close Up is to get students interested in issues of the day, and to become active participants in our democracy. The show will air this Friday, November 30th, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time, on C-SPAN 2.

Laura Heinauer, of the American-Statesman, reports that the state's director of science curriculum has resigned after being accused of creating the appearance of bias against teaching intelligent design.

Chris Comer, who has been the Texas Education Agency's director of science curriculum for more than nine years, offered her resignation this month.

Chris Comer is accused of misconduct, insubordination.

In documents obtained Wednesday through the Texas Public Information Act, agency officials said they recommended firing Comer for repeated acts of misconduct and insubordination. But Comer said she thinks political concerns about the teaching of creationism in schools were behind what she describes as a forced resignation.

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Lisa Rossi of the Des Moines Register reports that the fight will rage on over Iowa State University astronomy professor Guillermo Gonzalez, who advocated for intelligent design, and lost a bid for tenure.

Advocates for Gonzalez said in a release distributed Tuesday that they will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. Monday in Des Moines. There, they said, they will discuss documents they contend will prove that Gonzalez "lost his job" because he supports intelligent design, not because he was deficient as a scholar. Gonzalez's backers say an appeal to the Iowa Board of Regents and possibly a lawsuit would be the next steps.

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Nemo says, "Paul Davies is an important bulwark against the abuses of design thinking current: take the question slowly but surely without theological obsessions."

"...the reductionist regime can, so far, go no further than the threshold of life. That is by no means a rejection of science. Merely that something really revolutionary would be required, as with the transition from Newtonian to Quantum methodologies."

Seems nemo has FAITH that science is going to find something really revolutionary...perhaps a blind faith.

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We thought you would like to know...

New journal Evolution: Education and Outreach debuts Nov. 28

The world-renowned evolutionary scientist Niles Eldredge and his son Greg Eldredge, a high school science teacher, believe it's time to help science educators fight back against the strong pressure creationists exert on public education. So they joined forces with the scientific publisher Springer and, on Darwin's birthday in February this year, announced plans to publish a new journal, Evolution: Education and Outreach.

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As part of Discovery Institute's response to the PBS-NOVA documentary "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design," it recently released "The Theory of Intelligent Design: A Briefing Packet for Educators" (available free for download). The packet contains numerous resources for educators trying to effectively teach about biological origins in public schools.

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Paul Davies, director of Beyond, a research center at Arizona State University, states his opinion in the New York Times.

Davies is a pantheist who sees God as the intrinsic guiding rules that are essential and wholly within the multiverse. This is clearly a faith position that he holds by personal preference.

In his opinion he says, "Clearly, then, both religion and science are founded on faith - namely, on belief in the existence of something outside the universe, like an unexplained God or an unexplained set of physical laws, maybe even a huge ensemble of unseen universes, too. For that reason, both monotheistic religion and orthodox science fail to provide a complete account of physical existence."

This is a statement which is obvious to anyone who knows logic, and thinks about the issue for five minutes. However, the debate is always cast as one between science and faith. Go figure...

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Robin Finn, of the New York Times, writes on an adult evening class in a public school on Long Island. Seems he is teaching a course which says negative things about Darwinism. For that the NYCLU is up in arms.

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The Rio Rancho School Board, in New Mexico, is expected to take up the issue of evolution and intelligent design at a Monday evening meeting.

The board is expected to vote on whether to eliminate a policy that allows alternatives to evolution to be taught in science class. Currently, the district does allow the teaching of intelligent design.

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John Chambliss, of the Lakeland (FL) Ledger, reports that a majority of Polk County School Board members say they support teaching intelligent design in addition to evolution in public schools.

Board members Tim Harris, Margaret Lofton and Hazel Sellers said they oppose proposed science standards for Florida schools that lists evolution and biological diversity as one of the "big ideas" that students need to know for a well-grounded science education.

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An article in Publisher's Weekly is on a Nov. 4 article in the New York Times Magazine, "The Turning of an Atheist" by Mark Oppenheimer. That article has generated lots of chatter in the blogosphere and a passionate response from the publisher. In the piece, Oppenheimer characterizes Flew as a senile old man being manipulated and exploited by evangelical Christians for their own ends.

HarperOne released a statement from Flew: "My name is on the book and it represents exactly my opinions. I would not have a book issued in my name that I do not 100 percent agree with. I needed someone to do the actual writing because I'm 84 and that was Roy Varghese's role. The idea that someone manipulated me because I'm old is exactly wrong. I may be old but it is hard to manipulate me. This is my book and it represents my thinking."

A bit more...

Here is the biased packet issued in conjunction with the PBS Dover Trial "documentary" for public school use...

Click here.

Here is the Discovery Institute's briefing packet for educators in response...

Click here.

While this book has been out for awhile, ENV rightly praises Dr. Frank Beckwith's work.

Legal scholar Francis J. Beckwith recounts the legal history of court battles over the teaching of biological origins. Though many thought that the landmark Supreme Court case Edwards v. Aguillard would permanently settle these questions by ruling creationism unconstitutional, Beckwith observes that intelligent design poses a new challenge to legal scholars. Beckwith provides a thorough treatment of the subject.

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The Design of Life, written by leading ID theorists William Dembski and Jonathan Wells, brings readers up to speed on the numerous advancements of ID over the past 20 years. Design of Life recounts many of the peer-reviewed scientific papers, scientific books, and laboratory studies completed by ID theorists. It offers an excellent up-to-date account of ID for any reader.

For the newcomer to ID, Design of Life offers clearly written and well-illustrated chapters explicating ID's basic scientific concepts, such as irreducible complexity and specified complexity.

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ENV's Casey Luskin shows some of the misinformation in its "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design" documentary, which promotes propaganda about the 2005 Kitzmiller trial and intelligent design (ID). Most of the misinformation in the program was corrected by ID proponents long ago. To help readers sift the fact from the fiction, this article provides links to articles rebutting some of PBS's most blatant misrepresentations.

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ENV reports that tonight PBS will air NOVA's piece reenacting some parts of the Dover trial, "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial." PBS claims the program will tell the true story behind the Dover trial. But will it?

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From the York Daily Record...

A documentary about Dover Area School District's intelligent design trial will air on public television Tuesday. The two-hour special, titled "Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial," will run on NOVA, a science program on PBS.

The program will include a reenactment of the trial and interviews with experts who tackle questions about evolution. U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones III will read excerpts from his 2005 federal court ruling against the school district.

ENV reports that Paula Apsell, senior producer for NOVA's propaganda piece on intelligent design, Judgment Day, felt "compelled" to make the docudrama. Journalists are usually only "compelled" to report on events by their editors, or by the newsiness (timeliness, proximity, impact, conflict, etc) of a specific issue/event.

So, why were Apsell and NOVA compelled to make this program?

Apsell...If the decision had gone the other way, it could have had dire consequences for science education in this country. Clearly, Apsell has an agenda.

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Dennis talks to Mario D. Beauregard, Associate Professor in the Departments of Radiology and Psychology, University of Montreal(Canada) and Denyse O'Leary award-winning Canadian science writer/journalist.

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In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Behe discusses his prominent role in the ID movement, and how he first got involved. He explores the differences between creationism and Intelligent Design theory, and details some of his experiences as a key witness for the defense in the Dover, Pennsylvania Intelligent Design trial. He also explains the thesis of his new book, and talks about what he considers the biases of mainstream science.

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In the Republican Valley, a report that a "Briefing Packet for Educators" just issued by PBS in conjunction with the NOVA program Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial inserts religion into the classroom and encourages teaching practices that are likely unconstitutional, says Discovery Institute.

"The NOVA/PBS teaching guide encourages the injection of religion into classroom teaching about evolution in a way that likely would violate current Supreme Court precedents about the First Amendment's Establishment Clause," says Dr. John West, vice president for public policy and legal affairs with Discovery Institute.

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In the Republican Valley, a report that a "Briefing Packet for Educators" just issued by PBS in conjunction with the NOVA program Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial inserts religion into the classroom and encourages teaching practices that are likely unconstitutional, says Discovery Institute.

"The NOVA/PBS teaching guide encourages the injection of religion into classroom teaching about evolution in a way that likely would violate current Supreme Court precedents about the First Amendment's Establishment Clause," says Dr. John West, vice president for public policy and legal affairs with Discovery Institute.

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Nigel Williams, the UK's most plangent critic of religion, has set up a new campaign to support atheists. In Current Biology, the call is not to think more clearly, but to seize the moment as the George Bush Presidency nears a end.

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Mark Oppenheimer, in the New York Times Magazine, writes about Antony Flew in the article entitled "The Turning of an Atheist".

From the tone of the article, Oppenheimer is doing much to discredit Flew and the book. He describes Flew as a pleasant old man with aphasia. In the Ben Wiker interview, Flew was with it...fresh and witty.

In this day...it is said that intelligent people do not believe in God. Flew's defection is proof that he must no longer be intelligent.

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Ben Wiker interviewed one of the most famous atheists of the last half century. Antony Flew now claims to be a deist, and recently published a book entitled "There is a God". The interview is on the Web site
tothesource.

Some atheists and agnostics attribute his change of mind to madness.

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As reported by ENV, Michael Behe claims, in his amazon blog, that Ken Miller is an ID proponent.

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Another good blog by Anika Smith in ENV.

Click HERE.

Marvin Olasky, in townhall.com, interviews Michael Behe and opines on the old-fashionedness of Darwinism.

New York Times columnist John Tierney recently offered a materialist version of "intelligent design": All of us are actually characters in a computer simulation devised by some technologically advanced future civilization.

Fanciful to the extreme, sure, but the growing number of such theories - life comes from the past (Mars, when it was theoretically livable) or future (Tierney) - is one more indication that Darwinism no longer satisfies. Reporters pretending to referee the origin debate used to have it easy: slick evolutionists vs. hick creationists, progress vs. regress. Now, Darwinism is looking fuddy-duddy, and sophisticated critiques of it are becoming more diverse.

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Tom Woodward, at Trinity College, is a champion of the ID movement, an idea that says life is so complex that it must be the work of an intelligent agent.

The author of three books on the topic, he has been called "the historian of the intelligent design movement." His work prompted Trinity officials to name him the school's first research professor.

"I'm very passionate about this," he said, handing a visitor of copy of Unlocking the Mystery of Life, a DVD put out by a company with ties to a Seattle think tank that promotes intelligent design.

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A guest columnist in The Christian Post, Chuck Colson, makes some points about ID and it's detractors, and describes what Dr. Michael Behe's book, The Edge of Evolution is really about.

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The Association for Science Education in the UK has developed a formal statement on ID's place in education. The last sentence wraps it up...

"As such, Intelligent Design has no place in the science education of young people in school."

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This letter, In the Daily-Herald, like many others penned across the U.S. by informed people, describes quite well what ID is, and is not about.

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Discovery Institute's ENV reports that "the Council of Europe (CoE) adopted a resolution regarding 'The dangers of creationism in education,' which calls intelligent design (ID) 'a threat to human rights.' The CoE is a non-governmental body in Europe that aims to protect human rights, but its resolutions carry no force of law. Even if the CoE's edicts did carry the force of law, it's difficult to take this resolution seriously due to its assertion that questioning Darwin somehow threatens human rights. David Berlinski, a mathematician and Discovery Institute senior fellow who lives in Paris and has made many scientific critiques of Darwinian evolution, has given us an insightful analysis of the resolution."

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Discovery Institute's ENV comments on the "Intelligent Design" entry in Geekipedia.

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Dr. Roger Olson, professor of theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, opines in the Baylor University Lariat on the most recent controversy at Baylor University.

Dr Olson states, "Christians should be the last people to persecute anyone - including atheists. But that doesn't mean Christians have to accommodate atheism as they tolerate and love atheists."

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Six evening sessions at Carr Hall, 100 St Joseph's Street, at the University of Toronto, over six Tuesdays, Oct. 23 - Nov. 27 2007, 7 - 9 p.m.

More info: 416) 926-7254 or continuinged.stmikes@utoronto.ca) Register by phone here: Phone: (416) 926-7254. Payment by VISA or MasterCard only.

Session 1. The Big Bang: Blowing up a safe, tidy cosmology Tuesday
October 23, 2007

Guest: Robb Mann, chair of physics, University of Waterloo. He asks - could there be other universes? Can we know? What difference would it make?

Session 2. From molecules to man: How did it happen? Tuesday
October 30, 2007

Guest: Don Wallar, director of the Biosimilars Program with a large Canadian-based pharmaceutical company, explains why life's origin is such a difficult problem.

Session 3. Creationists: Are they crazy or what? Tuesday November
6, 2007

Guest tba Creationism (young earth or six-day) originated in the
United States post-World War II. It has now spread to the European Union, which regards it as a serious threat. Why? How?

Session 4. Intelligent design: What the ID proponents actually say
(and don't say) Tuesday November 13, 2007

Guest: Kirk Durston, biophysics PhD candidate at the University of Guelph.

Michael Behe, author of Edge of Evolution (2007), sees actual design where, for example, Richard Dawkins, author of The Blind Watchmaker, sees the illusion of design. Who's right? Are they both wrong?

Session 5. The universe: Bottom up or top down? Tuesday November
20, 2007

Either mind comes from matter or matter from mind. What difference does either view make to our understanding of consciousness and free will.

Guest: Kirk Durston, biophysics PhD candidate at the University of Guelph.

Session 6. Why media routinely flub key events in the controversy
Tuesday November 27, 2007

James D. Watson, 79, co-discoverer of the DNA helix and winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in medicine, told the Sunday Times of London that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really."

Watson states, "There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically"

This is a case of the logic behind a wrong or unpopular idea being the result of a materialist philosophy, Darwinism. They usually censor these conclusions out, and make "the survival of the fittest" sound like kindergarten.

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The Linguistics Department at the University of Maryland presents the 2007 Blackwell Lectures

Jerry Fodor, speaking "Against Darwinsim"

November 7 at 3 p.m.;
November 8 10a.m.;
November 9 at 10 a.m.
Maryland Room, MMH

This video is available from ARN.

See a clip from the video...

Michael Behe's book, The Edge of Evolution, has hit a nerve with Darwinists by using mainstream scientific research to highlight the distinct limits of Darwinian evolution. Behe has responded to critics attempting to refute the book's conclusions.

Read his Amazon Blog.

As reported by the Los Alamos Monitor, efforts exist to make the scientific method evolve into something different, specifically in regards to the theory of evolution. During a presentation at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Fuller Lodge, Francis Slakey of Georgetown University will work to spread awareness about these efforts.

The presentation is free to the public and the New Mexico Academy of Science and the Coalition for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education are sponsoring the lecture.

Alan Hurd, director of the Lujan Neutron Scattering Center at Los Alamos National Laboratory, explained the scientific method involves creating a hypothesis and testing it. If something cannot be verified, then it is not covered by the scientific method, he said.

...Then, Darwinism cannot be proved, because it was a series of trillions of mutations and selections which occurred in the past, and change today, are just excellent examples of microevolution.

Cookies will be served at the meeting.

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PhysOrg reports that MIT researchers have discovered a hearing mechanism that fundamentally changes the current understanding of inner ear function. This new mechanism could help explain the ear's remarkable ability to sense and discriminate sounds. Its discovery could eventually lead to improved systems for restoring hearing.

And this happened via random mutation and natural selection???

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NewScientisSpace reports that the first radio telescope dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has formally started operations.

The first phase of the Allen Telescope Array, which is being built near Hat Creek, California, US, has begun functioning with 42 radio antennas. When complete, the ATA will have 350 dishes, each about 6 metres wide.

Interesting that scientists can detect signals from space which can be determined to be caused by intelligent agency, but the same cannot be done in the biological sciences.

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Katherine T. Phan, of the Christian Post, reports that producers of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, the film on Intelligent Design and Darwinism, have rejected claims made by some Darwinist scientists alleging they were tricked into being interviewed for the film.

The charges made by scientists who appeared in the film as proponents of Darwinian evolution entered the public spotlight when the New York Times published an article last month entitled "Scientists Feel Miscast in Film on Life's Origin."

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In Seth Borenstein's article in MyWay, "some scientists think they have figured out the real job of the troublesome and seemingly useless appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut. That's the theory from surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical School, published online in a scientific journal this week."

This story went around the country in the media.

However, this has been known for over 30 years. In addition to the important repopulation of the gut with healthful flora, the appendix, like the tonsils and adenoids contain lymph nodes which we know aids in our immune response. The many "useless" or "vestigial" organs has dwindled to near zero, with continued scientific research.

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Guest columnist in the Waco Tribune-Herald, John Hugh Gilmore, the attorney for Professor Robert J. Marks II, gives his thoughts on recent events at Baylor.

"To its proponents, intelligent design is nothing more than a sophisticated, comprehensive critique of the theoretical and scientific foundations of Darwinism and its progeny. In other words, the theory of evolution should be put to the test. Like Marx. Like Freud.

To the opponents, intelligent design (ID) is an intellectual crime. Or so we must assume by the actions of Baylor University.

As counsel for Baylor Distinguished Professor Robert J. Marks II, I was amazed and discouraged by the controversy surrounding his rather routine yet scientifically exacting Web site that was shut down by the dean of his Engineering Department. This action came after anonymous complaints, but without an opportunity for him to respond beforehand.

The crime? His research might implicate intelligent design.

This is how a serious university should behave?"

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ID seems to be too dangerous an idea for any class in school, according to NCSE and others.

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The article by David Barash, in the Scientist, is troubling and thought-provoking for evolutionists.

Barash states that "hardly anyone has looked at consciousness as the evolutionary conundrum that it is. Thus, aside from the 'how' of neurobiology, what about the 'why'? What's the adaptive significance of consciousness? Think of the metabolic costs of a conscious brain, as well as its vulnerability, and even the behavioral downsides of excessive 'self-consciousness.'"

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European lawmakers approved a report condemning efforts to teach creationism in schools, underscoring concern about an emerging socially conservative agenda.

Meeting in Strasbourg, France, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe members approved, in a non-binding 48-25 vote, a report that criticizes creationism advocate for potentially sacrificing children's education "to impose religious dogma" and to promote "a radical return to the past," The International Herald Tribune reported Friday.

Interesting...but in this brief article in ScienceDaily, there is no mention of ID. As so, the secularist European community marches into the future with blinders on.

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Worth a look in the south Chicago Daily Herald...

Nature includes a new study on flagellar systems, which approaches from a protein network perspective. The first thing that the paper does is demonstrate (once again) that there are core proteins that are absolutely necessary for flagellar motility. But it also says something quite amazing: "In fact, it remains unclear whether all the protein components of the flagellar apparatus have been identified." The paper also says that predicted motility genes using genome sequences need to be checked against a functional background (aka 'biological relevance'). These scientists went to the trouble of finding out which genes are necessary for flagellar motility (via swarming assays). They found several novel motility proteins that appear to be species-specific.

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Fixed Point Foundation announced that atheist and best-selling author Richard Dawkins will debate his Oxford University colleague, Dr. John Lennox, on October 3rd at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Alys Stephens Center.

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Bill Dembski reviews Francisco J. Ayala's book, Darwin's Gift to Science and Religion.

See the review...

The European Council adoption of the "The dangers of creationism in education", was signed by only 15 of the 80 signing members.

Here is part of the summary statement...

Summary

Creationism in any of its forms, such as “intelligent design”, is not based on facts, does not use any scientific reasoning and its contents are definitely inappropriate for science classes.

However, some people call for creationist theories to be taught in European schools alongside or even in place of the theory of evolution. From a scientific view point, there is absolutely no doubt that evolution is a central theory for our understanding of life on Earth.

The Assembly calls on education authorities in member states to promote scientific knowledge and the teaching of evolution and to oppose firmly any attempts at teaching creationism as a scientific discipline.

The self-delusion and subterfuge is obvious. ID is not based on facts, and uses NO scientific reasoning? The document reads like a statement of faith and beliefs of a church denomination.

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Here's the latest interchange between Dr. Jeffrey Shallit and Michael Egnor on ENV.

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After a number of requests from teaching unions and civic bodies, including the Christian think-tank Ekklesia and the British Humanist Association, the UK Department of Children, Schools, and Families has issued guidance for teachers uncertain whether and how to discuss creationism - which is rejected by both scientists and theologians as lacking factual and theoretical value.

A statement on Teachernet, a government website, states that "Creationism and intelligent design are not part of the National Curriculum for science" and describes "intelligent design" as "a creationist belief" that "is sometimes erroneously advanced as scientific theory but has no underpinning scientific principles or explanations supporting it and it is not accepted by the international scientific community."

Apparently, forensics would not be a science in the UK either. Police would not be able to determine whether an event was the result of natural causations or agent causations. There would be no more who-dun-its, only what-dun-its.

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Global warming is heating up as an election issue. In the National Review article "What Would Jesus Drive?", Jay Richards takes a look at the varied positions of Evangelical Christians on global warming and explains that there are four distinct questions to be asked (and answered). He concludes by predicting that global warming will be a focus of Democratic candidates to woo the Evangelical vote in the upcoming elections.

Tom Heneghan, religion editor for Scientific American, reports on Europe's main human rights body, which will vote next week on a resolution opposing the teaching of creationist and intelligent design views in school science classes.

The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly will debate a resolution saying attacks on the theory of evolution were rooted "in forms of religious extremism" and amounted to a dangerous assault on science and human rights.

My head is spinning from the subterfuge...

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Merrill Balassone, of the Modesto Bee, wrote a piece on school board candidates and their take on ID in the classroom.

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Many folks talk about Darwin, but how many of us have actually read him? Now you are without excuse as his complete works can be downloaded to your iPod to listen to while you commute to work:

The Complete Works of Charles Darwin are now available online as downloadable .mp3 files. The audio is computer generated from the text and a little choppy, but the British accent helps create the proper mood for listening.

The project to put the complete works of Charles Darwin online was begun in 2002 by The University of Cambridge and was funded with a $500,000 grant. In addition to the audio files, complete text files and scanned page images can also be found on the site. Biographical information, an advanced search engine, and all six editions of "On the Origin of Species" make this website a researcher's dream.

A link to this site will soon appear on the ARN Featured Author page for Darwin so you can quickly locate it in the future.

In a major motion picture release scheduled for February 2008, Ben Stein exposes the frightening agenda of the "Darwinian Machine" in Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Here is the official press release:

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- It's a movie that Ferris Bueller would take the day off to go see. What freedom-loving student wouldn't be outraged to discover that his high school science teacher is teaching a theory as indisputable fact, and that university professors unmercifully crush any fellow scientists who dare question the prevailing system of belief? This isn't the latest Hollywood comedy; it's a disturbing new documentary that will shock anyone who thinks all scientists are free to follow the evidence wherever it may lead.

Produced by Premise Media, Expelled, in theaters February 2008, is being marketed by Motive Entertainment, the company that has spearheaded significant Hollywood blockbusters, including The Passion of the Christ, Polar Express and The Chronicles of Narnia. Rocky Mountain Pictures, an established distribution company, which has enjoyed numerous box-office successes, will distribute the film.

Ben Stein, the lovable, monotone teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Wonder Years is on a journey to answer one of the biggest questions ever asked: Were we designed or are we simply the end result of an ancient mud puddle struck by lightning? Stein, who is also a lawyer, an economist, a former presidential speechwriter, author and social commentator, is stunned by what he finds on his journey. He discovers an elitist scientific establishment that has traded in its skepticism for dogma. But even worse, along the way, Stein uncovers a long line of biologists, astronomers, chemists and philosophers who have had their reputations destroyed and their careers ruined by a scientific establishment that allows absolutely no dissent from Charles Darwin's theory of random mutation and natural selection.

"Big Science in this area of biology has lost its way," says Stein. "Scientists are supposed to be allowed to follow the evidence wherever it may lead, no matter what the implications are. Freedom of inquiry has been greatly compromised, and this is not only anti-American, it's anti-science. It's anti-the whole concept of learning."

Expelled uncovers that educators and scientists are being ridiculed,denied tenure and even fired in some cases for the fact that they believe there is evidence of "design" in nature, challenging the idea that life is a result of random chance. For example, Stein meets Richard Sternberg, a double PhD biologist who allowed a peer-reviewed research paper describing the evidence for intelligence in the universe to be published in the scientific journal Proceedings. Not long after publication, officials from the National Center for Science Education and the Smithsonian Institution where Sternberg was a research fellow began a coordinated smear and intimidation campaign to get the promising young scientist expelled from his position. This attack on scientific freedom was so egregious that it prompted a congressional investigation.

On his journey, Stein meets other scientists such as astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez, who was denied tenure at Iowa State University in spite of his extraordinary record of achievement. Gonzalez made the mistake of documenting the design he has observed in the universe. There are others, such as Caroline Crocker, a brilliant biology teacher at George Mason
University who was forced out of the university for briefly discussing problems with Darwinian theory and for telling the students that some scientists believe there is evidence of design in the universe. The list goes on and on.

Unlike some other documentary films, Expelled doesn't just talk to people representing one side of the story. The film confronts scientists such as Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, influential biologist and atheist blogger PZ Myers and Eugenie Scott, head of the National Center for Science Education. The creators of Expelled crossed the globe over a two-year period, interviewing scores of scientists, doctors, philosophers and public leaders. The result is a startling revelation that freedom of thought and freedom of inquiry have been expelled from publicly-funded high schools, universities and research institutions.

"The incredible thing about Expelled is that we don't resort to manipulating our interviews for the purpose of achieving the 'shock effect,' something that has become common in documentary film these days," said Walt Ruloff, co-founder of Premise Media and co-Executive Producer. "People will be stunned to actually find out what elitist scientists proclaim, which is that a large majority of Americans are simpletons who believe in a fairy tale. Premise Media took on this difficult mission because we believe the greatest asset of humanity is our freedom to explore and discover truth."

The extensive grass roots campaign for Expelled, spearheaded by Motive Entertainment president, Paul Lauer, will include nationwide screenings and endorsements with key leaders, promotional materials, a promotional resource DVD, publicity, radio promotions and Internet. In addition, a pre-launch campaign will include unprecedented partnerships and a widespread campaign together with educators, youth, scientists, families and the media nationwide.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is scheduled for release in February 2008. For more information on Ben Stein's journey visit http://www.expelledthemovie.com.

Walt Ruloff, the executive producer of the Ben Stein movie EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED, has an amazing op-ed in the Baylor Lariat, the school newspaper.

"It may sound like a crazy question, but it needs to be asked: Does the administration at Baylor believe in God?"

"This is a legitimate question in light of the university's heavy-handed actions in shutting down the research Web site of Dr. Robert Marks."

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Regis Nicoll for Crosswalk.com, asks the question, "What do William Dembski, Frank Beckwith, and Dr. Robert J. Marks have in common? All three have been victims of academic suppression at not at Cornell, Stanford or MIT, but at Baylor University - the world's largest institute of higher learning in the Baptist tradition."

"In 2001, Baylor shut down the Michael Polanyi Center and removed Dr. William Dembski as its director because of the center's focus on ID. Last year, Baylor tried to deny tenure to Frank Beckwith - a scholar who is recognized as a world class philosopher with a prodigious publication record and high teaching marks - for his views on ID. And now the campus thought police has Robert Marks in its crosshairs."

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ScienceDaily reports that a team led by biophysicist Jeremy Smith of the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has taken a significant step toward unraveling the mystery of how proteins fold into unique, three-dimensional shapes.

To me, this protein folding seems to be remarkably designed...see for yourself.

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Matt Hibbard, reporting for Maneater, tells of a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who will confront the debate between intelligent design and evolution in a lecture on September 20th. The lecture, open to students and staff, will address key points on both sides of the topic.

Philosophy professor Elliot Sober said he hopes this lecture clarifies the main differences between the two ideas.

"The main ideas in evolutionary idea are supported by lots of evidence," Sober said. "Intelligent design is not a genuine scientific theory; it doesn't make any novel predictions."

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May, 2005: The Kansas state school board again captures the world's attention with its evolution controversy - this time by holding scientific hearings that put Darwin's long-held theory on trial. Get face-to-face with the people behind this historic event, and see for yourself what really happened - and why.

For more information...go to the Web site.

Another great post on ENV...which is the question we always ask of Darwinists: If the scientific discovery of a 'blueprint' (in a signal from space) would justify the design inference, then why is it unreasonable to infer that the genetic code was designed?

The answer to the question is easy, "it isn't." Aren't they looking for the Truth, instead of trying to argue for a teetering worldview?

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ENV has a link to the raw footage of Richard Dawkins trying to answer the question of where genetic information came from. To say he was flummoxed would be an understatement.

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Anna Grasza, of the Yale Daily News, reported on a talk given by Yale Professor Fred Sigworth, who has taught and done reasearch in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology since 1991.

Grasza reported that "Sigworth launched into a lecture that stressed the compatibility of science and faith by focusing on the idea of the 'unexpected vista,' the discovery or witnessing of a unique occurrence, a phenomenon which he said was common to science and religion."

"Sigworth's talk spanned the foundations of modern science and the debate over evolution and intelligent design, with ample reference to philosophy and the Bible."

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As blogged by Casey Luskin at ENV, this past spring, anti-ID faculty at Southern Methodist University (SMU) refused to engage in a debate over intelligent design. Now that Discovery Institute's activities on the SMU campus are over, some of these faculty are sponsoring a course entitled "The Scientific Method - Critical and Creative Thinking (Debunking Pseudoscience)." The course has a clear bias against ID, as the course website has a page devoted to ID titled "(Un)Intelligent Design."

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ScienceDaily reports that scientists have shed light on how our bodies convert vibrations entering the ear into electrical signals that can be interpreted by the brain. Exactly how the electrical signal is generated has been the subject of ongoing research interest.

After reading the brief article, it seems impossible that this could have evolved by random mutation and natural selection. Yet, the Darwinists always seem to fall back on the "creative power" of millions of years.

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Erin Roach, of the Baptist Press, reports that Baylor University officials ordered the shutdown of a personal website of one of a handful of the school's distinguished professors because of anonymous concerns that the site, hosted on the university's server, supported Intelligent Design.

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John Humphrys wrote In God We Doubt - Confessions of a Failed Atheist.

Immanuel Kant, perhaps the greatest philosopher of the modern era, did not believe any of the proofs of the existence of God. But he was a believer and his evidence was the "moral sense within", conscience. That is exactly what Humphrys concludes.

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This...from the Lebanon (PA) Daily News...

The Spiritual Brain is a new Harper Collins book that addresses the timely question "Did God create the brain, or does the brain create God?". Drawing on cutting-edge research in brain imaging done on Carmelite nuns, neuroscientist Mario Beauregard and award-winning writer Denyse O'Leary examine the latest scientific evidence that flies in the face of current materialistic explanations of our existence.

Here's a few endorsements:

"If you have a mind, you will find The Spiritual Brain a refreshing antidote to the strange arguments offered by some scientists ... that their minds, and yours, are meaningless illusions." - Dean Radin, PhD, Senior Scientist, Institute of Noetic Sciences and author of The Conscious Universe

The Spiritual Brain offers a unique perspective to the ongoing dialogue between science and religion. This book is a necessary read for both the scientist and the religious person.
-Andrew Newberg, M.D. , co-author of Why We Believe What We Believe

"The Spiritual Brain is a very important book. It clearly explains non-materialist neuroscience in simple terms appropriate for the lay reader, while building on ... academic publications."
- Jeffrey Schwartz, neuropsychiatrist, author of The Mind and the Brain

"I truly was bowled over by the book, ... In The Spiritual Brain neuroscientist Mario Beauregard and science writer Denyse O’Leary push back hard."
- Michael Behe, author of Edge of Evolution

I've just finished reading The Spiritual Brain. It's superb, and is a milestone in what I think is going to be a 'long twilight struggle' against materialist neuroscience.
- neurosurgeon Mike Egnor

Regular visitors to Evolution News & Views know well the recent trials and tribulations of astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, who was denied tenure in spite of his stellar credentials. Now it seems the rest of the world will learn about Gonzalez' persecution for being a proponent of intelligent design.

Expelled, the forthcoming film that explores the academic persecution of pro-ID scientists, apparently will be featuring some of Gonzalez's story. After his tenure was denied earlier this year, a faculty member at ISU on the tenure committee admitted he voted against Gonzalez because of his support for, and research into, intelligent design theory.

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In The Guardian Unlimited, John Cornwell struggled with his faith for two decades before finally returning to Christianity. Here he explains why Richard Dawkins, and all those who believe religion is the root of all evil, completely fail to understand what it means to believe.

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Alex Williams writes on the incredible problem of meta-information in living things.

Evolutionists have never been able to give a satisfactory answer to the problem of where the new information comes from that evolution requires for turning a microbe into a myxomycete or a maze-mastering mammal. Their best guess is gene duplication (which gives them an extra length of DNA, but it contains no new information) followed by random mutations that are supposed to turn the duplicated information into something new and useful.

But the problem of information origin in biology is far bigger than most people realize. Information by itself is useless unless the cell knows how to use it. Evolution not only requires new information, it also requires extra new information about how to use that new information.

Information about information is called meta-information. We can see how it works in making a cake. If you want to make a cake, you need a recipe that contains: (a) a list of ingredients, and (b) instructions on how to mix and cook the ingredients to produce the desired outcome. The list of ingredients is the primary information, and the instructions on what to do with the ingredients is the meta-information.

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From AIG...this scientific article has Christian worldview mixed in...and details the inner workings of the ear.

And to think that random mutations, natural selection, and the passage of billions of years did this. Isn't Mother Nature amazing.

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Nina Shapiro, for the Seattle Weekly, reports that a candidate for a school board seat in the semirural locale of North Mason County along the Hood Canal, John Campbell, is pledging to "turn heat into light."

One thing he has failed to disclose, however, is his link to the "intelligent design" movement and the Discovery Institute, the Seattle-based think tank that is a leading proponent of the neo-creationist theory that life and other aspects of the universe came into being not by evolution but by the work of an intelligent "cause."

Neo-creationists...More...

Steve Connor, Science Editor for The Independent Sunday, announces that the "poster child" for Darwinian Evolution is back.

Michael Majerus, a professor of genetics at Cambridge University, has spent the past seven years collecting data from a series of experiments he has carried out in his own garden. In a seminal description of his results to a scientific conference this week in Sweden, Professor Majerus gave a resounding vote of confidence in the peppered month story. He found unequivocal evidence that birds were indeed responsible for the lower numbers of the black carbonaria forms of the moth. It was a complete vindication of the peppered month story, he told the meeting.

IMHO...a couple of issues with the most recent peppered moth study. It's still a moth, and the evolution is an oscillation of populations, just like the finches of Galapagos. Of course, the Darwinists will appeal to the "great creators", random chance, natural selection, and the jackpot, hundreds of millions of years. Given enough time, anything can happen, right?

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A good letter to the editor in the Montgomery Advertiser from a clear thinker from Auburn, AL, pointing out some of the sloppy thinking on the other side. Sad thing is, the other guy likely doesn't realize how careless he really is, and he's a professional journalist.

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It's interesting to see how the other side continually harps, trying to make IDers a group with an agenda of tired, shopworn ideas, repackaged into the new creationism: IDT. Little thought needed, just macros in the PC or Mac containing the proper catch phrases.

Of course, they have NO agenda. They're just right.

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As reported by several papers in Texas, the board will rewrite the science curriculum next year and some observers expect backers of intelligent design to push for the theory's inclusion.

In interviews with The Dallas Morning News, 10 of the board's 15 members said they wouldn't support requiring the teaching of intelligent design. One board member said she was open to the idea. Four board members didn't respond to the newspaper's phone calls.

Notice the word requiring...

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Recently UK columnist Melanie Phillips (Daily Mail), realized Richard Dawkins leaps of faith in his worldview of atheism.

Dawkins now claims that Darwinism can also explain the origin of life.

"Phillips sees that science is not threatened but strengthened by entertaining the possibility of design - and that restricting the freedom of scientists to pursue this possibility is the real throwback to the Dark Ages."

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The Discovery Institute reports that for two years they have known that the Hollywood actor/critic/comedian/writer Ben Stein was making a film with a company called Premise Media that would inspect the controversy over Darwinian theory and intelligent design.

Premise Media put out a press release announcing the new film, which, it happens, will premier on Darwin's birthday, next February 12.

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An international science-and-education foundation is offering a $1,000,000 prize to anyone who can 'explain how genetic code arose spontaneously'.

The Origin-of-Life Foundation (OLF) is offering the prize through the Gene Emergence Project (MD, USA). This group is dedicated to finding the answer to what biology professor Jack Trevors (a member) calls the most pressing question in science, 'The origin of the genetic instructions in the DNA …', pointing out that 'Genetic instructions don't write themselves any more than a software program writes itself'.

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ScienceDaily reports that "a major surprise emerging from genome sequencing projects is that humans have a comparable number of protein-coding genes as significantly less complex organisms such as the minute nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. Clearly something other than gene count is behind the genetic differences between simpler and more complex life forms."

"Increased functional and cellular complexity can be explained, in large part, by how genes and the products of genes are regulated. A University of Toronto-led study published in the latest issue of Genome Biology reveals that a step in gene expression (referred to as alternative splicing) is more highly regulated in a cell and tissue-specific manner than previously appreciated and much of this additional regulation occurs in the nervous system. The alternative splicing step allows a single gene to specify multiple protein products by processing the RNA transcripts made from genes (which are translated to make protein)."

This may be the most powerful evidence to date that evolution cannot be involved in the origin of biology. Lacking an explanation for the development of even a single protein-coding gene, how are evolutionists to explain the development of patterns of exons and introns and the regulatory machinery to permit their appropriate expression? Some of these alternative splicings, especially in the nervous system, permit the production of more than 10,000 alternative splicings from a single gene! And all of these are functional and are expressed and used ...and regulated! The regulation itself is another layer of information that was not accounted by those who think this all happened without a Mind.

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The trap-jaw ant moves its jaws at an amazing 145 mph, the fastest physical movement of any living creature.

Ain't natural selection wonderful?

See a movie on the ant, by clicking HERE.

Jeff Jacoby, on Aish.com, writes:

"Have you heard about the religious fundamentalist who wanted to teach physics at Cambridge? This would-be instructor wasn't simply a Christian; he was so preoccupied with biblical prophecy that he wrote a book titled Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John. Based on his reading of Daniel, in fact, he forecast the date of the Apocalypse: no earlier than 2060. He also calculated the year the world was created. When Genesis 1:1 says "In the beginning," he determined, it means 3988 BC."

"Not many modern universities are prepared to employ a science professor who espouses not merely "intelligent design" but out-and-out divine creation."

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Sally Lehrman, in the Boston Globe, mentions that "intelligent design proponents claim that schools should do a better job of explaining evolution. They may very well be right. While people who believe in the scientific method do not accept the antievolution lobby's claim of 'irreducible complexity,' are they prepared with a coherent response?"

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ProgettoCosmo, An ID Web site from Italy, has published a list of the major problems of Darwin’s theory, in their view.

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Dr V.J.M. Silva writes an excellent pro-ID article in The Sri Lanka Daily News on the "Origin of Life in the Universe".

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This is not exactly NEWS...but the story comes from ground zero...Dover.

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From Evolution News & Views, their recent podcast interview with Robert Marks, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University, discusses his new Evolutionary Informatics lab at Baylor University.

Additionally, Mario Lopez recently has posted an interview with William Dembski at the IDEA Center's website discussing Dembski's research with Baylor's Evolutionary Informatics lab. Dembski thinks the lab's research puts ID "in a position to challenge certain fundamental assumptions in the natural sciences about the nature and origin of information."

Dembski's work has long-been a lightning rod for ID-critics who take a science-stopping approach to ID by alleging that areas of Dembski's continued ID-research actually represent unsolvable problems for the science of ID. In essence, some of Dembski's critics have taken an approach that goes like this: "If Dembski hasn't yet finished the research to provide what I consider would be a full answer to my objections, then I'm going to engage in character assassination against Dembski."

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On Galatctic Interactions, Rob Knop discusses the idea of "compartmentalizing". He comments that ID proponents have biases that inform their scientific conclusions. He states that "Scientists who conclude that there is "evidence for design" in the Universe are not scientists who are really making good scientific conclusions from the data; they are torturing the scientific process in order to allow for it to produce the result that their philosophical preconceptions led them to".

Of course, the other side have no such materialistic biases.

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In Evolution News & Views, it is pointed out that Darwinists seem to be trying to erase the historical fact that Darwinism led to the long-standing presumption that non-coding DNA was largely genetic junk. In the latest issue of The Scientist, editor Richard Gallagher does no less, citing sources that wrongly imply that Neo-Darwinism did not hinder research into function for junk-DNA, and even stating that "[t]he latest iniquity to befall junk DNA is the attempted hijack by proponents of Intelligent Design."

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In the Mail & Guardian online, Paul Davies has figured it all out...how nature rigged itself to be incredibly fine-tuned. Seems a little fishy.

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The European Centre for Law and Justice went to bat to keep intelligent design as a viable teaching in European schools.

The ECLJ put together a 14-page document in response to proposed legislation that would - in essence - outlaw the discussion of Creationism in the classroom.

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In Evolution News & Views, a review of Science's Blind Spot: The Unseen Religion of Scientific Naturalism
By: Cornelius G. Hunter (Brazos Press, 2007)

In law, one who sells a product in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user is held strictly liable for the physical harm to the injured party. One way for the injured party to win a case is to successfully argue that there is a design defect in the product. Put another way, the plaintiff is entitled to damages because there is something wrong with the blueprints for the product. At this point, expert witnesses are found to testify to the design's integrity or its defectiveness.

Perhaps the most common blind spot that inhibits the proper functioning of a product is the quite literal blind spot we experience when driving our cars. If modern science and the pre-suppositions that support it were an automobile, then Dr. Hunter's new book would be the testimony of an expert witness who has found a significant design defect. The defect has created a blind spot that is not necessary for the proper functioning of science.

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Mark Bergin, for World Magazine, writes that two years after Intelligent Design advocates lost a key court battle, some biology classrooms and ID supporters are finding a balanced approach to evolution that, so far, is lawsuit-proof.

For 15 years Doug Cowan has taught the scientific evidence for and against Darwinism to biology students at Curtis High, a large public school several miles southwest of Tacoma, Wash. Over that time, the popular teacher and athletic coach has drawn periodic criticisms from community activists and local media. But he has faced no lawsuits and never worried over losing his job.

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Marvin Olasky, for World Magazine, interviewed Michael Behe. Scientific discoveries on the foundations of life, argues Behe in his new book, fatally strike the theory of random mutations.

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Christianity Today reviews Michael Behe's book, The Edge of Evolution.

Richard Dawkins famously asserted that "Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist." Prior to Darwin, all an atheist could do was to repeat with Hume that in an infinite amount of time anything is possible, including the complex design we see in nature. The Edge of Evolution makes it much more difficult for an atheist to find fulfillment in Darwin.

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On Stabroek News, a letter to the editor denies that the tools of science can detect intelligent agency.

There are so many problems with this letter it is difficult to know where to begin.

Given the materialists definition of science, that only naturalistic causes can be entertained, then ID is not science. But, given that restrictive definition, science can never determine whether someone died of natural causes or at the hands of intelligent agent causation (a murderer). Science cannot determine whether an object found in the desert in Utah was sculpted by natural forces, or was crafted by a member of the Fremont people. Science cannot determine whether signals from outer space were generated by a pulsar, or by an extraterrestrial intelligent civilization. According to the materialists, material intelligent agency can be detected by science. But, when extra-material intelligent agents are suggested...well...that's going too far...and that's not science. You can't have it both ways.

Once again, the important question is, "Are we attempting to find the Truth about Reality, or are we trying to find the best naturalistic explanation for a phenomenon, even if that naturalistic explanation is counterintuitive, or just plain silly?"

Richard Lewontin, a brilliant Harvard professor and materialist, is surprisingly honesty when he says:

"Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises...because we have a prior commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that Materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door."

We know, by their own admission, in times when their thoughts are unguarded, what the materialists are all about...they are close-minded and dogmatic.

Two other comments on the letter. To provide ad homenim attacks is not an argument against ID. Also, to attack an idea such as ID by questioning the MOTIVES of its adherents or proponents is disingenuous. It can just as easily be said that Darwinists believe in evolution because they are motivated by there desire to not accept the supernatural. The arguments for and against a worldview should rest on the soundness of the arguments and evidence, not on the motivation of the investigators.

To put it bluntly, M. Xiu Quan-Balgobind-Hackett is intelligent, but a sloppy thinker. And there are millions more.

The letter to the editor...

In Evolution News & Views, and look at the book responding to Richard Dawkins book...and more.

More...

If you are looking for a great Web site for teens and college students to get them interested in worldview, do yourself a favor and check out the completely new SalvoMag Web site

From Evolution News & Views...Richard Dawkins reviewed Mike Behe's new book The Edge of Evolution in the June 30 New York Times Book Review. Dawkins offered no surprises. Much of the review was simply a sneer:

I had expected to be as irritated by Michael Behe's second book as by the first. I had not expected to feel sorry for him…[this] is the book of a man who has given up. Trapped along a false path of his own rather unintelligent design, Behe has left himself no escape. Poster boy of creationists everywhere, he has cut himself off from the world of real science.

Nothing new here. Dawkins uses the standard Darwinist ad-hominem attacks.

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From Evolution News & Views...one of the key expert witnesses for the ACLU in the Dover trial was Barbara Forrest, a Professor of Philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University. She recently authored a paper entitled "Understanding the Intelligent Design Creationist Movement: Its True Nature and Goals," (May 2007) in which a major theme is that, since nearly all of the leading intelligent design proponents are Christians who have expressed a preference for a Christian influenced culture, their scientific efforts cannot be trusted as bona fide science.

More...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Monday, July 2, 2007

The Intelligent Design Undergraduate Research Center (IDURC) is proud to present the 2007 Casey Luskin Graduate Award, presented annually to a deserving college graduate for excellence in student advocacy of intelligent design.

The recipient of the 2007 Casey Luskin Graduate Award will remain anonymous for the protection of the recipient. The many students, professors, and scientists who have been denied degrees or tenure, and removed from positions and jobs for no other reason than acceptance of - or even sympathy to—intelligent design theory is very telling of the importance of keeping these bright young minds out of the crosshairs of those opposed to open-minded investigation and critical thought.

The recipient of this year's award is a graduate earning degrees in chemistry and chemical biology and mathematics. This student has demonstrated excellence and courage in research and promotion of intelligent design. The recipient will receive a certificate of achievement, a $100 award, and an autographed copy of Dr. Michael J. Behe's newest book, The Edge of Evolution: the Search for the Limits of Darwinism.

In addition, the IDURC is proud to name Mr. Casey Luskin, a graduate of the University of California at San Diego, an honorary recipient of the Casey Luskin Graduate Award. Luskin, for whom the award is named, was the first student truly to step out of his comfort zone as an undergrad and take a stand for intelligent design - a stand that would be seen across the nation. His founding of the Intelligent Design Evolution Awareness (IDEA) Center has been a great step forward for the intelligent design movement and, more importantly, for academic freedom everywhere. Today, Luskin continues his work with the ID movement as a lawyer and legal analyst for the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture in Seattle, Washington. Students everywhere today are indebted to the work that Luskin has done.

We are proud to name the IDURC's graduate award after Mr. Casey Luskin and delighted to name him an honorary recipient. Casey will receive a certificate of achievement and be listed as a recipient of the award which now bears his name.

Each July, the IDURC will present the Casey Luskin Graduate Award to an outstanding student who has just completed his or her undergraduate degree and has demonstrated exemplary dedication to both the rigorous investigation and the widespread promotion of intelligent design. This year's recipient joins the recipients from past years, since the award was initiated in 2005, in demonstrating such excellence.

Much thanks needs to be given to the board of directors at the IDURC for their work in preparing this year's award and for their efforts year round. A very heartfelt thank you also goes to Dr. Michael J. Behe of Lehigh University for his support of the work we do at the IDURC and for his autographing and inscribing The Edge of Evolution for this award.

As always, I must thank Mr. Dennis Wagner and Access Research Network for the donation of the $100 prize money and for their continuous and generous financial support of the IDURC.

Samuel S. Chen
Director, Intelligent Design Undergraduate Research Center

In Evolution News & Views, Logan Gage, says that perhaps the most striking feature of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion is its lack of science. He had thought that this was an anomaly, but Dawkins' New York Times review (out Sunday) of Michael Behe's The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism is the same patchwork of fallacies devoid of science as The God Delusion.

More...

The first major reviews of Michael Behe's The Edge of Evolution are appearing in places like Science, The New Republic, and The Globe and Mail. Dr. Behe has now responded to their criticisms over at his Amazon blog, a dynamic new forum where authors are able to reach their readers in a powerful new way.

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Lucy Sherriff, of The Register, reports that the UK government has announced that it will publish guidance for schools on how creationism and intelligent design relate to science teaching, and has reiterated that it sees no place for either on the science curriculum.

It has also defined "Intelligent Design", the idea that life is too complex to have arisen without the guiding hand of a greater intelligence, as a religion, along with "creationism".

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While in Utah recently, I came upon a curiously named ale, being advertised as intelligently designed.

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The Brussels Journal reports that a German court sentenced a 55-year old Lutheran pastor to one year in jail for "Volksverhetzung" (incitement of the people) because he compared the killing of the unborn in contemporary Germany to the holocaust. Next week, the Council of Europe is going to vote on a resolution imposing Darwinism as Europe's official ideology. The European governments are asked to fight the expression of creationist opinions, such as young earth and intelligent design theories. According to the Council of Europe these theories are "undemocratic" and "a threat to human rights."

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Evolution News & Views, points to a recent article by J. Scott Turner, a pro-Darwin biology professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York, modern Neo-Darwinists are failing to heed Darwin's advice. Turner is up front with his skepticism of intelligent design (ID), which will hopefully allow his criticisms to strike a chord with other Darwinists.

Turner starts by observing that the real threat to education today is not ID itself, but the attitude of scientists towards ID: "Unlike most of my colleagues, however, I don't see ID as a threat to biology, public education or the ideals of the republic. To the contrary, what worries me more is the way that many of my colleagues have responded to the challenge." He describes the "modern academy" as "a tedious intellectual monoculture where conformity and not contention is the norm."

More...

Kevin Myers produces his second installment of a review of Christopher Hitchens book in the Independent Ireland.

Myers is an agnostic, taking swipes at both atheism and intelligent design. It is entertaining reading.

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In FirstThings, Dr. Francis Beckwith explores the muddled thinking of Richard Dawkins.

Richard Dawkins laments the career path of Kurt Wise, who has, since 2006, held the positions of professor of science and theology and director of the Center for Theology and Science at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Dawkins believes that Wise is "wasting his talents". But Dawkins, in fact, does not actually believe that living beings, including human beings, have intrinsic purposes or are designed so that one may conclude that violating one's proper function amounts to a violation of one's moral duty to oneself.

More...

James Hoskins, a Philosophy student, often enjoys imagining dogmatists locked in a room with Socrates; the master of interrogation and debate. His latest fantasy, found on the IDArts website, involves Socrates questioning the archetype of the philosophical materialist, whom he calls Hector Dawkins, on the definition of science and the justification of Guillermo Gonzalez' tenure denial from Iowa State University.

Two recent news articles are discussing the death of the junk-DNA icon of Neo-Darwinism.

From Evolution News & Views, more...

On this Italian ID Web site, there is a mathematical explanation of why more information cannot come from less. It includes lengthy discussion (sans equations) of Goedel's work as well as that of Turing and Dembski.

More...

ScienceDaily reports that an international research consortium just published a set of papers that promise to reshape our understanding of how the human genome functions. The findings challenge the traditional view of our genetic blueprint as a tidy collection of independent genes, pointing instead to a complex network in which genes, along with regulatory elements and other types of DNA sequences that do not code for proteins, interact in overlapping ways not yet fully understood.

Ken Miller, 13 years ago, said, "the designer made serious errors, wasting millions of bases of DNA on a blueprint full of junk and scribbles. Evolution, in contrast, can easily explain them as nothing more than failed experiments in a random process..."

How wrong he was.

For more on the complexity of DNA, CLICK HERE.

For the entire paper, CLICK HERE.

The latest issue of the C.S. Lewis Society has the following...

- The Atheist Delusion:

Within the past year, numerous best-selling books by atheists Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens have ruthlessly attacked theism and Christianity. The timing of many of these books in part has resulted from a deep frustration by many disillusioned supporters of the U.S. war in Iraq who are seeking religious scapegoats, but the books also vividly illustrate the reality and profound weaknesses of the widespread materialist world view in much of academia and mainstream culture. Meanwhile, other key books by Francis Collins, Owen Gingerich, Rodney Stark, N.T. Wright, and Douglas Wilson champion Christianity.

As a result, here are recent debates with some of these authors:

"God vs. Science: Francis Collins vs. Richard Dawkins" (Time):
HERE.

"The God Debate: Rick Warren vs. Sam Harris" (Newsweek):
HERE.

"Is Christianity Good for the World? Christopher Hitchens vs. Douglas Wilson" (Christianity Today):
HERE.

Here also are key critical reviews of some of these books:

"Darwin, Mind and Meaning: Review of Daniel Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea," by Alvin Plantinga
HERE.

"The Dawkins Confusion: Naturalism ad absurdum:
Review of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion," by Alvin Plantinga (Books and Culture)
HERE.

Lonely Atheists of the Global Village," by Michael Novak
HERE.

And, here is a recent study that uses the work of C.S. Lewis:

"Mere Economic Science: C. S. Lewis and the Poverty of Naturalism," by David Theroux
HERE.

Finally, here is a parody of an audio interview which uses many of Dawkins's actual arguments:

"The Dawkins Delusion"
HERE.

A thoughtful op-ed piece by Dr. David K. DeWolf on the "right question" to ask the Presidential candidates was published in the Boston Globe.

More...

Here...is a comprehensive review of the flaws of the Kitzmiller decision by Discovery Institute scholars.

Explore Evolution: The Arguments For and Against Neo-Darwinism (Hill House Publishers Ltd., Melbourne and London, 2007) is the first biology textbook to present the scientific evidence both for and against key aspects of Darwinian evolution.

"Sadly, the majority of biology textbooks in use today are 'dumbed-down' and do a poor job explaining evolution," said Dr. John West of Discovery Institute, the book's United States distributor. "Explore Evolution will improve the teaching of evolution by providing teachers and students with more information about evolution than they are likely to find in any other textbook written at the same level." West is Associate Director of the Institute's Center for Science and Culture.

Explore Evolution promotes inquiry-based learning, encouraging students to participate in the process of discovery, deliberation, and argument that scientists use to form their theories.

"Explore Evolution brings to the classroom data and debates that already are raised regularly by scientists in their science journals," emphasized science education policy analyst Casey Luskin, M.S., J.D. "Exposure to these real-world scientific debates will make the study of evolution more interesting to students, and it will train them to be better scientists by encouraging them to actually practice the kind of critical thinking and analysis that forms the heart of science."

Co-authored by two state university biology professors, two philosophers of science, and a science curriculum writer, Explore Evolution was peer-reviewed by biology faculty at both state and private universities, teachers with experience in both AP and pre-AP life science courses, and doctoral scientists working for industry and government. The textbook has been pilot-tested in classes at both the secondary school and college levels.

The textbook looks at five areas of biology that are typically viewed as confirming the modern theory of evolution: fossil succession, anatomical homology, embryology, natural selection, and natural selection and mutation. For each area of study, Explore Evolution explains the evidence and arguments used to support Darwin's theory and then examines the evidence and arguments that lead some scientists to question the adequacy of Darwinian explanations. Each chapter concludes with a section called Further Debate that explores the current state of the discussion.

Explore Evolution is ideally suited for:

AP Biology teachers who need a stimulating capstone unit for the last 5-6 weeks of their AP course after their students have taken the AP biology test.

High School General Biology teachers who wish to deepen their own understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of modern evolutionary theory and want to incorporate inquiry-based learning into their teaching of evolution.

College-level biology instructors who teach freshman or honors General Biology courses or stand-alone courses on evolution.

Home school teachers who want to provide their students with a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum in the life sciences that stresses critical thinking skills.

Parents who desire to supplement and enrich their children's school instruction in biological evolution in preparation for college.

Interested adults who wish to inform themselves about the scientific debates over key aspects of modern evolutionary theory.

For more information, visit the textbook website at www.exploreevolution.com, where you will find the introduction to the textbook, table of contents, author and publisher information, as well as sample pages from the book. Review copies and materials can be requested from Anika Smith, (206) 292-0401 ext. 155, or asmith@discovery.org.

About the Publisher
Established in 1982, Hill House Publishers Pty. Ltd. (Melbourne and London) specializes in publishing science and nature books of exceptional quality. In addition to Explore Evolution, its books include The Concise Atlas of Butterflies of the World (2001), The Birds of Asia, vol. 7 (1992), The Mammals of Australia, vol 2 (2002), and World Butterflies (2006). A publishing partner of the Natural History Museum in London, Hill House has been awarded an exclusive license by the museum to produce authentic facsimiles of priceless and rare antiquarian books, prints and maps from the world-famous libraries of that institution. For more information about Hill House Publishers, visit www.worldbutterflies.co.uk/.

Book Review: The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism

By Fritz R. Ward

What in essence is Darwinian Evolution? Many philosophers would find that a fairly difficult question. For Daniel Dennett, it is a universal solvent that dissolves all non-materialist ideas. For some creationists, it is the root of much evil in the modern world, including racism, war, and a lack of compassion for the poor. For Kenneth Miller, a biologist at Brown University, it is an extraordinarily successful set of explanations for the diversity of life. But for Michael Behe, and one suspects many biologists, Darwinism is simply a series of propositions. These are 1) common descent of life, 2) natural selection (sometimes termed "survival of the fittest") and 3) random mutation at the cellular level driving the changes. The difference between Behe, an advocate of intelligent design, and Miller is simply one of the degree to which each thinks these propositions are applicable in describing life as we observe it. (Readers should note that Behe fully accepts common descent and natural selection. It is the random mutation mechanism that he has difficulty with.)

In this book Behe strikes off in a new direction from his previous work, Darwin's Black Box. Rather than simply explore cellular mechanisms that seem unlikely to arise from chance, Behe instead considers all the areas where evolution seems to function very well. For example, the rise of resistance among certain diseases, notably malaria, to synthetic drugs. Remarkable evolutionary pressures are at work in the struggle between humans and deadly pathogens. Humans who develop an immunity to malaria have a strong evolutionary advantage over those who don't. Similarly, protozoan parasites which can avoid the drugs we use to combat them also have an evolutionary advantage. Indeed, this is common knowledge among all biologists and most of the literate public. Germ resistance of all kinds to drug treatments is the star example of evolution at work.

But what is not so commonly known is that random mutation has severe limits in how effectively it can cope with evolutionary pressure. Indeed, what Behe demonstrates in precise detail is that evolutionary mechanisms are for the most part destructive: a part of the DNA stand is destroyed or replaced with a less efficient coding and the result is a weaker organism, though one which can survive the "trench warfare" of survival with hostile organisms. Thus, for example, humans have developed sickle cell anemia to cope with malaria. This is hardly beneficial, in and of itself, but compared to malarial death, it is a very helpful mutation. Similarly, malaria can rapidly evolve resistance to some drugs, slowly to others (more changes are required, and hence far fewer resistant copies of the cell are likely) but the mutated genes that come from this battle for survival are not optimal. Indeed, like sickle cell anemia, they rapidly die out of the malarial population if not subjected to the pressure of deadly (for the parasite) toxins in the form of antimalarial drugs.

So, while malaria (and several other cases Behe examines) suggests the efficacy of random mutation, it also suggests limits to just how much it can accomplish. Indeed, Behe finds that even two or three simultaneous random changes in DNA sequencing is exceedingly unlikely, and more just about impossible. This is very important because it suggests real limits to the amount of random mutation that could happen among higher mammals. People mistakenly believe that time is the most important factor in allowing for evolutionary change but as Behe demonstrates, population, not time, is what determines successful mutations. Malaria, and even more so HIV are extraordinarily effective at utilizing evolution. There are a lot of such organisms and they reproduce quickly. Humans, and indeed, all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals, do not. Even given the entire history of life on the planet, it is extremely unlikely that the random mutation proposition of evolution could account for a significant amount of the diversity we witness in the world around us.

Indeed, the situation is even worse than that according to Behe, because the mutations we actually observe in nature are almost always destructive or at a very minimum, sub optimal. They do not build up new structures. Despite strong evolutionary pressure, neither malarial protozoa nor HIV and similar retroviruses have ever developed a single new cellular structure. Indeed, as Behe tellingly notes, "Until an organism is found that is demonstrated to be much more adept than the malarial parasite at building coherent molecular machinery by random mutation and natural selection, there is no positive reason to believe it can be done. And the best evidence we have from malaria and HIV argues it is biologically unreasonable to think so."(p.155)

So if random mutation does not facilitate change in species, what does? For Behe the answer is clear: non-random mutation. But what causes that? One possibility, of course, is chance. A variant of this possibility is favored by physicists who believe in a multiverse. We are just extraordinarily lucky to have life here, but it looks designed to us. Aside from the fact that there is no evidence for a multiverse, there are logical problems with this solution to the problem of life and the forms it takes on earth. Behe discusses these and then moves on to more serious territory. Should we examine the possibility of a natural law that guides the evolutionary processes of natural selection leading to common descent? In and of itself, Behe finds this approach unappealing. Instead he advocates intelligent design, but in my opinion, especially as described by Behe, this is pretty much indistinguishable from such a natural law. Indeed, many of the natural laws in our universe are at present only explained by the anthropic principle and it is hard to imagine that this one would be any different.

Ultimately, of course, Behe moves from science proper (what we can infer from actual observations of evolution--namely random mutation is insufficient to explain common descent) to more philosophical speculations. What would the designer(s) be like? Can we infer anything about motive? What about the problem of evil? After all, any designer who might have "pre-programed" the possibility of intelligent life into the universe, say us, must also be responsible for malaria as well. These are serious issues and Behe is right to raise them. His critics will no doubt hammer him for it. These speculation are not "scientific" but that doesn't mean they are inappropriate. I think Behe is right when he notes that knowledge need not respect the boundaries we set for it in modern universities. Just because a topic does not yield to scientific inquiry hardly makes it unfit for all inquiry. Moreover, considering other questions will hardly invalidate the scientific portion of Behe's book or the considerable math behind it.

In my opinion this final chapter, where Behe takes on these philosophical questions, is the most important part of the book. It is also the most controversial. Readers will probably come to different conclusions, but Behe's ideas deserve serious consideration. As for the rest of the book, it lives up to its title. There is a clear edge or limit beyond which evolution is a poor mechanism for understanding life on the planet. That line may not be precisely where Behe claims it is, and future research will undoubtedly refine this edge further. But to persist in maintaining no such line exists requires at this point faith. Indeed, the next time a critic of ID suggests that scholars like Behe should be ignored because "they" are religiously motivated, readers would do well to remember that Freud, like Darwin, is largely discredited. But his theory of projection is still valid, much as Darwin's observations still apply to bacteria and antibiotics. Indeed, I predict such projections will figure very prominently in some reviews of this book. Those with an ideological axe to grind will not appreciate it. Thoughtful readers, on the other hand, will be fascinated with this excellent book.

(This review is reprinted with permission of the author)

This conference will provide an opportunity to think afresh about the legacy of Darwinism and the efforts of historians to understand that legacy.

The aim is to encourage new historical and historiographic perspectives on the ideas, research practices, and wider sociopolitics related to evolutionary theory from the late-nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries.

*PROGRAMME*
Monday 3rd September

1.00 Welcome

1.10 Histories

Science and the life story: the historical development of biographies of Darwin Suzanne Gapps, University of Western Sydney

A lesson from the past: how biologists use history Graeme Beale, Edinburgh University

Historiographical constraints: the divergence of conceptualisations of 'inheritance of acquired characteristics' Fern Elsdon-Baker, University of Leeds

"Sure, we know all that...": dealing with popular Darwin myths Peter C. Kjaergaard, University of Aarhus

3.40 Religion

Paley evolving: natural theologies in the post-Darwinian nineteenth century Richard England, Salisbury University, USA

The un-heretical Christian: Lynn Harold Hough, Darwinism and Christianity in 1920s America Dawn Mooney Digrius, Drew University, New Jersey

Arguing from the evidence: the correct approach to Intelligent Design and the U.S. courts Brian Thomasson, University of California

6.00 PUBLIC EVENT From Darwin to Hitler: author meets critics

Richard Weikart responds to critics of his work. Participants include Staffan Mueller-Wille (University Of Exeter), Steve Fuller (University of Warwick), and John Harwood (University of Manchester)

And so much more...

Michael Penfold has developed a Web site to act as a window to multiple web resources (articles, books, DVDs etc.) that people will find helpful in rebutting the claims of Richard Dawkins in his book "The God Delusion."

Check it out...

ScienceDaily reported on scientists who have captured on video the intracellular version of a postal delivery service. Reporting in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (BBRC), bioengineering researchers at UC San Diego published videos of a key message-carrying protein called paxillin moving abruptly from hubs of communication and transportation activity on the cell surface toward the nucleus. Paxillin was labeled with a red fluorescence marker to make it stand out in live cells.

"It's amazing to us. We thought the cell was so simple," said Shu Chien, the senior author of the BBRC paper and a professor of bioengineering at UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering. "But it's really very complex and I'm not sure we're covering much as yet. We certainly don't know all the interactions among these molecules that bring the cell into action."

Most do not take the time to look at the stunning design of living systems.

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More from Evolution News & Views on the ISU's Dr. Gonzalez denial of tenure.

Read...

The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism
by Michael J. Behe

When Michael J. Behe's first book, Darwin's Black Box, was published in 1996, it was instrumental in launching the intelligent design movement. Critics howled, yet hundreds of thousands of readers -- and a growing number of scientists -- were intrigued by Behe's claim that Darwinism could not explain the complex machinery of the cell.

Now, in his long-awaited follow-up, Behe presents far more than a challenge to Darwinism: He presents the evidence of the genetics revolution -- the first direct evidence of nature's mutational pathways -- to radically redefine the debate about Darwinism. How much of life does Darwin's theory explain? Most scientists believe it accounts for everything from the machinery of the cell to the history of life on earth. Behe points out that Darwin?s theory is a mixture of several unrelated, entirely separate ideas including: random mutation, natural selection, and common descent. The evidence for each must be carefully examined.

Darwin's proposed mechanism -- random mutation and natural selection -- has been accepted largely as a matter of faith and deduction or, at best, circumstantial evidence. Only now, thanks to genetics, does science allow us to seek direct evidence. The genomes of many organisms have been sequenced, and the machinery of the cell has been analyzed in great detail. The evolutionary responses of microorganisms to antibiotics and humans to parasitic infections have been traced over tens of thousands of generations.

As a result, for the first time in history Darwin's theory can be rigorously evaluated. The results are shocking. Although it can explain marginal changes in evolutionary history, random mutation and natural selection explain very little of the basic machinery of life. The "edge" of evolution, a line that defines the border between random and non-random mutation, lies very far from where Darwin pointed. Behe argues convincingly that most of the mutations that have defined the history of life on earth have been non-random.

Although it will be controversial and stunning, this finding actually fits a general pattern discovered by other branches of science in recent decades: The universe as a whole was fine-tuned for life. From physics to cosmology to chemistry to biology, life on earth stands revealed as depending upon an endless series of unlikely events. The clear conclusion: The universe was designed for life.

View the table of contents or order your copy today from ARN.

Reviews
"In The Edge of Evolution Michael Behe carefully assesses the evidence of what Darwin's mechanism of random mutation and selection can achieve in well documented cases, and shows that even in those cases that maximize its power as a creative force it has only been able to generate very trivial examples of evolutionary change. Could such an apparently impotent and mindless force really have built the sophisticated molecular devices found throughout nature? The answer, he insists, is no. The only common-sense explanation is intelligent design."

-- Michael Denton, M.D., Ph.D., author of Nature's Destiny

David Evans is a mathematician and engineer who spent six years doing global warming-related research for the Australian government. He jumped on the funding gravy train as a true believer, convinced by the early data that a strong link existed between carbon emissions and climate change, but in time became more skeptical, as new scientific evidence made the causal connection seem more tenuous. His "confession" reveals that the debate is no longer just about the evidence.

Evolution News & Views expands on the recent Gonzalez tenure appeal denial.

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In Evolution News & Views, a statement by Dr. Gonzalez on his ongoing ordeal.

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The Guardian Unlimited reports that State schools could teach the theory of intelligent design in science lessons, the Church of England's new head of education has suggested.

The Rev Jan Ainsworth, who is responsible for more than 4,600 schools, said intelligent design could be included in a study of the history of science.

The church stressed that she was not backing intelligent design as a valid theory.

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Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas recently had an op-ed piece in the New York Times. Reaction has obviously been widespread and mixed. Below are some weigh-ins from Christianity Today's blog.

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Presented by the M.A. Program in Science and Religion, Biola University

(We warmly welcome participants representing diverse viewpoints regarding evolutionary biology)

Featuring Discussion of Discovery Institute's New Supplemental Biology Curriculum

(Free copies for professors considering it for course adoption)

Friday, August 3, 2007, 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. (early bird session 10:00 - 11:15 a.m.)

- Register: Contact Mike Keas, (562) 777-4049, mike.keas@biola.edu.
- Meet in room 112 of Biola's Bardwell Science Building for this free event.
- Guest parking passes are available in Bardwell room 112 where we will meet.

An exciting new supplementary textbook delivers critical thinking at its best: Explore Evolution: The Arguments for and Against Neo-Darwinism (Hill House Publishers, 2007). It is well suited for college
courses in general biology or evolutionary biology designed for either science or non-science majors.

Modules from this curriculum are also appropriate for various advanced biology courses.

Consultation Highlights
- John Bloom, director of Biola's M.A. Program in Science and Religion, will frame the consultation.
- Jonathan Wells, author of Icons of Evolution, will survey recent trends in evolutionary biology.
- Mike Keas, primary author of Explore Evolution's auxiliary materials, will introduce the curriculum.
- You, and other participants from various universities, can offer comments and constructive criticism.
- A panel of college students who have completed the Explore Evolution unit will share their opinions.
- Discuss and dine at local restaurants after 4 p.m. until Jonathan Wells gives an optional talk at 7 p.m.

Examine the auxiliary materials (PowerPoint shows, teaching tips, etc.) that accompany the new Explore Evolution curriculum and consider how they might improve your classroom performance. The supplementary textbook Explore Evolution: The Arguments for and Against Neo-Darwinism does not
teach about the theory of intelligent design. You may wish to introduce ID theory through other resources (both pro and con) that we will discuss in the optional early-bird session from 10:00 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.
before our main consultation on teaching evolutionary biology begins at 1:00 p.m. Even if you think that the arguments against neo-Darwinism are inconsequential compared to the case for this majority viewpoint, you will find the supplementary textbook Explore Evolution a useful tool to spark discussion in the classroom. Regardless of your professional opinion on these matters, you will find it difficult to ignore the case both for and against neo-Darwinism that is so winsomely and accurately conveyed in Explore Evolution. If you include this new supplement alongside a standard textbook, your students will have exposure to all sides of the debate as expressed in the words of their most qualified proponents.

Jonathan Wells will also lecture on August 3, 7:00-10:00 p.m., at a related event. You may purchase tickets for this through the Science Teacher Symposium link at www.biola.edu/scienceandreligion. Some
college biology professors may also be interested in the Saturday August 4th Symposium events designed for high school biology teachers, especially if you teach non-science majors at the college level.

More about Explore Evolution

- Authors: Stephen C. Meyer, Scott Minnich, Jonathan Moneymaker, Paul A. Nelson, Ralph Seelke.
- Publisher: Based in Melbourne and London, Hill House is known for its beautifully illustrated lepidoptory volumes. Explore Evolution reflects the high publishing standards of Hill House.

Cells have the remarkable ability to keep track of their genetic contents and - when things go wrong - to step in and repair the damage before cancer or another life-threatening condition develops.

But precisely how cells monitor the integrity of their genomes, identify problems, and intervene to repair broken or miscoded DNA has been one of nature's closely held secrets. Now, however, a report in the journal Science describes a new database developed by a team of researchers from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard Medical School that is providing the first detailed portrait of the army of more than 700 proteins that helps maintain DNA's integrity.

How this complex system could have appeared by random mutation and natural selection is mind-numbing.

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Sarah Kessinger, of the Hutchinson (KS) News, reports that science advocates are urging write-in candidates to contest Kansas state school board member Ken Willard in this summer's election for president of the National Association of State Boards of Education.

Opponents express concern for Willard's push for the teaching of intelligent design...

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In Evolution News & Views, we again simply see what IDT claims. We can make an inference to design, which is scientifically sound, but we may not know who the designer is.

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Evolution News & Views reports on an article in Nature.

"He's a young astronomer with dozens of articles in top journals; he has made an important discovery in the field of extrasolar planets; and he is a proponent of intelligent design, the idea that an intelligent force has shaped the Universe. It's that last fact that Guillermo Gonzalez thinks has cost him his tenure at Iowa State University."

So begins Nature magazine's story. Reporter Geoff Brumfiel goes on to lay out Gonzalez's stellar professional credentials.

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U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, Republican candidate for President, commented on the denial of tenure to Iowa State University Professor Guillermo Gonzales.

"When I was informed that Professor Guillermo Gonzalez was denied tenure, I was puzzled given his excellent academic record of achievement and faithful service..."

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As pointed out in the Creation-Evolution Web site, imagine a book written in a language where there were no spaces, and every word was three letters long. Now imagine that you could get one story by starting at the first letter, and a different story by starting at the second letter, and another by starting at the third letter. That's the situation with some genes in the genetic code. DNA can code for one protein in the first reading frame, but a different protein in an alternate reading frame. Since the DNA language has three nucleotide "letters" per codon "word," and since the opposite strand has three more reading frames, there are potentially six reading frames per gene. How commonly are alternate reading frames used by an organism?
A paper in PLoS Computational Biology hints that there may be widespread examples of alternate reading frames (ARFs) in mammalian genomes.

More... on the design staring us in the face.

Can watch parts be placed in a box, shaken vigorously, and result in a fully assembled watch? The Paley Watch Company in Eugene, Oregon says yes! They are applying natural selection in a controlled environment to assemble their watches thereby reducing required personnel. The savings are passed to the customer.

In what is now universally recognized by true scientists as a stupid comment, William Paley (1743-1805) wrote that watches could not be assembled using Darwinian mechanisms.

Today, we know that Paley's conjecture was stupid, and stochastic procedures such as box shaking are accepted as viable approaches to engineering design. Sir Oliver Witherspoon chronicles Darwin's initial questioning of Paley's claim, and Darwin's attempt to assemble a watch by box shaking.

Indeed, The Paley Watch Company in Eugene, Oregon, assembles watches using this method.

"The principle is a straightforward application of natural selection," claims Tristran Korpulous, chief engineer for the Paley Watch Company. "Watch parts are placed in the controlled environment of a shaker. Although the probability the parts will assemble is small, the chance is there. Given enough time, the Law of Large Numbers dictates the watch will, indeed, be ultimately assembled. This is a process familiar to all true evolutionary scientists."

Korpulous' watch making business is financed unconventionally. After repeated rejection by venture capitalists as infeasible, he circulated his natural selection based business plan among today's most prominent evolutionary scientists and quickly raised the needed funds. The scientists shared Korpulous' enthusiasm for the first business application of applied natural selection.

It's hard to tell if this new book means ID has finally made it out of the ivory towers to the man on the street, or if the book was written for the guys in the ivory towers. Either way most people will find something of value in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Intelligent Design. A brief review of this book and other recent ID news of interest can be found in the May edition of the ARN Announce email newsletter.

Professor Steven Kawaler, the Program Coordinator for astronomy in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at ISU, actually signed the statement, and he provides a link to both the statement and an article about it on his website.

University Professor Lee Anne Willson, meanwhile, is married to ISU mathematics professor Stephen J. Willson, who also signed the anti-ID statement.

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In Evolution News & Views the surprising story from Iowa.

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On Sunday 13 May 2007, at 7:00 p.m., Earl Staelin and David Eller, and Doug Groothuis will discuss Intelligent Design and Darwinism at the First Universalist Church of Denver: 4101 E. Hampden Ave., Denver CO 80222-7262.

Does a proper understanding of some aspects of biology require a designing intelligence?

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Biola University's M. A. Program in Science and Religion and the Department of Education will present a Science Teacher Symposium on August 3rd and 4th, 2007.

The symposium is specifically designed for high school biology teachers, but anyone may attend.

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Anna Scott of the Lakeland Ledger, reports that school districts that do everything right will have unprecedented freedom starting next school year to choose textbooks, ignore the state-mandated 90-minute reading block - even avoid some of the state's spending requirements.

Allowing school districts to choose textbooks that are not on a state-approved list prompted fears. One lawmaker said the proposal would allow schools to buy science books espousing the theory of intelligent design, a teaching that credits the creation of the world to an intelligent being rather than evolution, while remaining silent on subjects such as the Holocaust or black history.

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The answer to this question asked in Evolution News & Views is likely, "Yes."

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Lucy Sheriff, in The Register, brings up the old question: how does light make its way through all the retinal layers to finally strike the light sensitive cells at the back of the eye?

A group of researchers at the Paul-Flechsig-Institute of Brain Research, Universitat Leipzig in Germany, thinks it has the answer. They have demonstrated that light is collected and funnelled through long cells called Muller cells. These work almost exactly like a fibre optic plate: a "zero-length window" that optical engineers can use to transmit an image without using a lens.

My...how well designed is the eye!

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The American Enterprise Institute will hold a conference on Thursday, May 3 (9:00 - 11:30 a.m.) entitled "Darwinism and Conservatism: Friends or Foes?"

Speakers include Discovery Institute Senior Fellows Dr. John West and George Gilder. Opposing them with the thesis that Darwinism and Conservatism are compatible will be National Review's John Derbyshire and Larry Arnhart, political theorist of Northern Illinois University.

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Jacob Luecke, of the Columbia (MO) Tribune, reports that a Columbia medical professor made his case for scientific acceptance of "intelligent design" last night and found himself taking fire from his peers for his view.

John Marshall, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Missouri-Columbia, argued in front of about 100 people in a University Hospital auditorium that mainstream scientists were trying to kick intelligent design "off the playing field of science."

"It's as much science as Darwinian evolution is science," Marshall said. "And as a theory, I believe that intelligent design fits the evidence of biology better than Darwinian evolution."

"There's some three billion characters of information in each of our cells," he said. "If one were to put this code, write it out like you would onto a newspaper, you would fill some 75,000 pages of the New York Times."

Some scientists in the audience, however, accused Marshall of masking religion as science.

"I think 'intelligent design' is a code word for God," said John O'Connor, a water consultant and retired chairman of the MU Department of Civil Engineering. "I think that there's no reason for us to mince around and pretend that that's not really what" intelligent design "is trying to propagate."

Where have we heard this talking point before...everywhere!

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Science Daily reports that 'Junk' DNA Now Looks Like Powerful Regulator. Large swaths of garbled human DNA once dismissed as junk appear to contain some valuable sections, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of California-Santa Cruz. The scientists propose that this redeemed DNA plays a role in controlling when genes turn on and off.

No surprise to us...

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This press release from Chapman University.

Orange, Calif. -- Professor Francisco J. Ayala, the Donald Bren Professor of Biological Science at the University of California, Irvine, will be the plenary speaker at the spring 2007 W.M. Keck Student Research Day program Thursday, April 26, 2007 on the Chapman University campus in Orange. His topic is "Darwin and Intellligent Design." The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 4 p.m. in Beckman Hall 404. Call (714) 744-7862 for more information.

In Evolution News & Views, Michael Behe makes a claim of Intelligent Design.

One day a guy walks up to you and says irreducible complexity is no problem for a random, Darwinian-like evolutionary process. In fact, he can explain how a mousetrap could be made step by step.

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It is interesting that the vast majority of those who criticized the recent Darwin vs. Design conferences in Knoxville and Dallas as unscientific did not bother to attend.

The Discovery Institute gives a summary of the SMU conference in Evolution News & Views.

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An opinion in the SMU Daily Campus thinks Professor John Wise is a hypocrite. Does Professor Wise think the First Amendment rights of scientists extend beyond his own cadre of Darwinists to scientists who are proponents of Intelligent Design? If so, he should be concerned when calls for censorship like his own lead to the persecution of professors like Nancy Bryson, who lost her position after teaching criticisms of Darwin's theory that life developed through an undirected process of natural selection and random variations. There are many other documented cases of scientists who lost their jobs because of their views on Darwinism. If First Amendment rights for scientists apply anywhere, they certainly apply here.

Instead of attempting to understand the arguments of his opponents, Wise introduces a red herring, suggesting that we don't have to choose between religion and science. No one was suggesting any such thing. ID starts with the science, not with any religious basis.

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The Missouri House of Representatives passed a bill last week that would require public colleges to report regularly on how they promote and protect "intellectual diversity." While the bill still must be approved by the Senate and the governor to become law, House passage was a major victory for groups seeking legislative help to change campus climates they view as hostile to conservative ideas.

The bill outlines a series of topics on which colleges could report, and one of them has academics afraid that "intellectual diversity" means that biology professors who teach evolution as more than just a theory competing with creationism may find themselves having to defend themselves against charges brought against them by complaining students. The legislation passed by the House says that among the things colleges could include in their reports are "intellectual diversity concerns in the institution’s guidelines on teaching and program development and such concerns shall include but not be limited to the protection of religious freedom including the viewpoint that the Bible is inerrant."

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Evolution News & Views comments on the self-imposed ignorance of ID opponents.

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Tom Heneghan, of the Scotsman reports on Pope Benedict, who elaborated his views on evolution for the first time as Pontiff. The Pope says science has narrowed the way life's origins are understood and Christians should take a broader approach to the question.

The Pope also says the Darwinist theory of evolution is not completely provable because mutations over hundreds of thousands of years cannot be reproduced in a laboratory.

But Benedict, whose remarks were published on Wednesday in Germany in the book "Schoepfung und Evolution" (Creation and Evolution), praised scientific progress and did not endorse creationist or "intelligent design" views about life's origins.

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The Dallas Morning News features a bold op-ed by Bruce Chapman and John West calling for critics at SMU to employ the method of Charles Darwin himself: engage in the discussion.

The article, "Are the Darwinists afraid to debate us," is a response to the SMU science professors who called on their university to ban the conference from campus.

Rather than "ludicrously comparing ID proponents to faith healers or even Holocaust-deniers," as one columnist did last week, Chapman and West suggest that critics of intelligent design "engage ID scholars in a serious discussion." They pointedly ask, "what is so frightening about allowing it [the evidence for design] to be heard at SMU?"

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ARN now has the "Teaching Origins Objectively" (Kansas Science Hearings) DVD in stock. There is a 2 hour version and a 5 hour version (which includes transcripts of the entire 20 hour hearing). It contains testimony from some familiar names as well as some you may not have heard before:

William S. Harris, Ph.D.: Biochemist and developer of Omega-3 Index for which he has gained international standing
Charles Thaxton, Ph.D.: Chemist, co-author of "The Mystery of Life’s Origins"
Jonathan Wells, Ph.D.: Molecular biologist, author of "Icons of Evolution"
Bruce Simat, Ph.D.: Professor at Northwestern College, Biochemistry and Human Physiology
Ralph Seelke, Ph.D.: Professor of Biology, University of Wisconsin
Edward Peltzer, Ph.D.: Research specialist in oceanography and chemical evolution
Russell Carlson, Ph.D.: Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and University of Georgia
John Sanford, Ph.D.: Geneticist and Associate Professor, Cornell University
Robert DiSilvestro, Ph.D.: Biochemist, Professor of Nutrition, Ohio State University
Bryan Leonard, High school biology teacher, Ph.D. candidate in Science Education
Daniel Ely, Ph.D.: Professor of Biology, University of Akron in Ohio
Roger DeHart, B.S.: High school biology teacher, Westlake Village, CA
Jill Gonzalez-Bravo, M.A.: Middle school teacher, Rose Hill, KS
John Milliam, Ph.D.: Theoretical chemist, developer of computational chemistry software
Nancy Bryson, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Kennesaw State University
James Barham, M.A.: Scholar and author specializing in evolutionary epistemology
Stephen Meyer, Ph.D.: Director and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, Seattle, WA.
Angus Menuge, Ph.D.: Professor of Philosophy with expertise in the philosophy of science
Warren Nord, Ph.D.: Professor of Philosophy and Religion, University of North Carolina
Mustafa Akyol, Freelance writer for Turkish and U.S. media
Michael Behe, Ph.D.: Professor of Biochemistry at Lehigh University and author of "Darwin’s Black Box"
John H. Calvert, J.D.: Lawyer specializing in constitutionally appropriate ways to teach origins science in public schools

This documentary reveals the problems with how origins is taught in our public school and shows that the other side refused to take the witness stand. Thanks to John Calvert for staging the event and documenting it for the world to see.

Evolution News & Views questions the dogmatic statement put out by the Darwinists that there are no peer reviewed refereed articles.

There is also academic punishment for those who fail to publically toe the philosophical naturalist's line.

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From Evolution News & Views: the Anthropology department at SMU is not willing to have a public dialogue about intelligent design and Darwinian evolution.

Robert Kemper, chair of the Anthropology department writes:

Thank you for your invitation to participate in the Friday night session of your conference. We appreciate your recognition of the value of dialogue on issues that have such opposing viewpoints. Unfortunately, previously scheduled events and prior commitments prevent our department from taking advantage of this opportunity. We nevertheless remain committed to public understanding of these issues, and to providing the public with information to make intelligent choices.

We've yet to hear from the other science departments at SMU that we invited.

It's interesting that these professors are willing to air their complaints and objections in public forums where there is no way for them to be "heatedly debated and discussed."

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Global warming is back in the news this week with the Supreme Court consensus (5-4) opinion that the word "pollution" in the EPA Clean Air Act should be redefined to include C02, and the release of the IPCC Working Group II 2007 Summary for Policy Makers. Since the media seems fixated on keeping the global warming issues in the news every week, sooner or latter you are going to be required to offer up your opinion on the topic in the school classroom, around the workplace water cooler, or at the family dinner table. With that in mind, we've put together a global warming resource list to help you sort out the science from the politics.

Global warming is an indisputable fact. No one seems to disagree that global measurements of the temperature at the Earth's surface have indicated a warming trend of between 0.3 and 0.8 degrees C over the past century. What is disputed, however, is the primary cause of global warming and what we can reliably predict about future climate patterns based on past climate data. The debate has separated in to two opposing camps: 1) the global warming alarmists who claim global warming is primarily caused by human activity and unless we make immediate drastic changes in our behavior, natural disasters such as increased storms and global flooding will result in irreversible global catastrophe over the next 100 years; and 2) the global warming skeptics, who are generally not skeptical of global warming itself, but of the gloom and doom predictions of the alarmists, as well as the role that human activities actually play in the warming trend, pointing instead to historical climate cycles driven by natural causes.

Like the Darwin vs. Design debate, we think the public is best served by a fair and open debate of the evidence. In that spirit, here are some resources for you to consider from both camps. Since the media tends to report primarily on the more sensational alarmist camp, we will try to balance that out by offering more resources from the skeptics camp that are not usually mentioned in the media reports.

The Alarmists:

1. An Inconvenient Truth with Al Gore (2006, Davis Guggenheim, Director). Academy Award winning documentary. Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Mr. Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change. An Inconvenient Truth is not a story of despair but rather a rallying cry to protect the one earth we all share. "It is now clear that we face a deepening global climate crisis that requires us to act boldly, quickly, and wisely," said Gore. Also available in book format by the same title with very similar content.

2. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Recognizing the problem of potential global climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. It is open to all members of the UN and WMO. The IPCC Third Assessment Report (TAR) was released in 2001. The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) was released in 2007 (these are the policymaker summaries, the full reports can also be found at the IPCC website). The IPCC reports have been the source of many media alarmist stories.

3. US Global Change Research Program. Produced the US National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. A detailed overview of the consequences of climate change and mechanisms for adaptation.

4. RealClimate. A commentary website on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. They aim to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary. Their goal is to restrict discussion to scientific topics and not get involved in any political or economic implications of the science-but as you will find out that is very difficult to do in this debate.

5. Friends of the Earth International. The world's largest grassroots environmental network, uniting 71 diverse national member groups and some 5,000 local activist groups on every continent. With approximately 1.5 million members and supporters around the world, they actively campaign on the most urgent environmental and social issues. They challenge the current model of economic and corporate globalization and organize campaigns against any organization or project they perceive as contributing to climate change.

6. Greenpeace International. A global campaigning organization that acts to change attitudes and behavior, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace by stopping climate change among other things.

7. The Kyoto Protocol. An agreement made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases, or engage in emissions trading if they maintain or increase emissions of these gases. The Kyoto Protocol covers more than 160 countries globally and over 55% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The United States has declined to ratify this protocol.

8. United States Supreme Court. (Jolly Green Justices, Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2007). The U.S. Supreme Court trumped the Executive Branch and the EPA when it ruled in April 2007 on the Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency case and redefined the word "pollutant" in the Clean Air Act to include CO2. To justify its global warming wisdom, the Justices simply asserted that the Massachusetts coastline faces imminent threat from rising seas. The WSJ editorial claimed this was a blatant case of judicial overreach, and places the Court squarely in the center of the alarmist camp.

The alarmists can sound pretty convincing on their own. But before you pull out your checkbook to pay your CO2 tax for exceeding your personal quota, we recommend you browse the following resources to get "the rest of the story" from the skeptics:

The Skeptics:

1. Gorey Truths: 25 Inconvenient Truths for Al Gore by Iain Murray (National Review, June 22, 2006). If you are looking for a quick summary of the top 25 objections to Al Gore's documentary, this is the best place to start.

2. A Skeptic's Guide to An Inconvenient Truth by Mario Lewis (Competitive Enterprise Institute, November 21, 2006). If you are looking for the meat behind the top 25 objections to Al Gore's movie, this is the place to dive in. 154 pages of "Gorey" detail with 324 references and now available in pdf format as a CEI Congressional Briefing Paper.

3. The Great Global Warming Swindle. If you are going to watch Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth", then you owe it to yourself to watch this 75-minute rebuttal by UK's Channel 4 which premiered on UK public television in March 2007. Through interviews with prize-winning climate experts and others, this documentary explains the origins of global warming alarmism; debunks claims of man-made global climate change; exposes the motivations of organizations, scientists and activists sounding the alarm; and explains why it's been extremely difficult, if not downright dangerous, for climate scientists to question global warming orthodoxy publicly. Proponents on both sides of the debate complain that both documentaries play loose and fast with the data and the viewer's emotions-but by watching both, you will have a more balance perspective on the issues. Unofficial copies of this program keep appearing and disappearing on the internet. Hopefully Channel 4 will release an official DVD edition in the near feature.

4. The Climate of Opinion, Editorial (Wall Street Journal, February 5, 2007). The WSJ chimes in on the IPCC WG1 AR4 summary: "While everyone concedes that the Earth is about a degree Celsius warmer than it was a century ago, the debate continues over the cause and consequences. We don't deny that carbon emissions may play a role, but we don't believe that the case is sufficiently proven to justify a revolution in global energy use. The economic dislocations of such an abrupt policy change could be far more severe than warming itself, especially if it reduces the growth and innovation that would help the world cope with, say, rising sea levels. There are also other problems--AIDS, malaria and clean drinking water, for example--whose claims on scarce resources are at least as urgent as climate change."

5. State of Fear by Michael Crichton (HarperCollins, 2004). If you are easily bored with charts and graphs we recommend this unique novel by Crichton that tells a fictional story using factual foot notes. You will learn a lot about the global warming issues while reading an engaging, suspenseful thriller typical of Crichton's style.

6. Global Warming is not a Crisis Debate Transcripts Public debate held on March 14, 2007 in New York City. If you thought Crichton could only deal with this topic in the fictional world, think again. Here is Iain Murray's comment about the debate the next day "Last night, NPR and Intelligence Squared hosted a debate in New York City on the motion 'Global Warming is not a Crisis.' The proposition, Michael Crichton, Richard Lindzen and Philip Stott, won by 46% to 42%. What makes the performance all the more impressive is that before the event the organizers found the motion would have been disapproved of 57% to 30%, so there was quite a swing as a result of the arguments deployed. A cynic (who, me?) might suggest that this sort of result illustrates just why 'alarmists' are trying to close down the debate on the issue."

7. States of Fear: Science or Politics? DVD with Michael Crichton and a panel of distinguished scientists, including Bruce Ames (University of California, Berkeley), Sallie Baliunas (Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), William Gray (Colorado State University), and George Taylor (Oregon State Climatologist)

8. Al Gore's Remission of Sin by Tony Blankley (Washington Times, March 7, 2007). While many global-warming alarmists would be offended if they were called pagan neo-animists, in fact, some leading religious scholars have written cogently on the point as summarized by Tony Blankley in this article.

9. Dissenting Scientists. Although global warming alarmist continue to claim a consensus of scientists, a growing number of scientists are going on recorded as disagreeing with alarmist conclusions: The UPDATED Leipzig Declaration; The Heidelberg Appeal; Statement by Atmospheric Scientists on Greenhouse Warming; Sixty Canadian Scientists; Global Warming Petition Project.

10. Natural Resources Stewardship Project, Junk Science, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Biology Cabinet, The Independent Institute, Global Warming Hyperbole. Several websites committed to offering counter opinions and data to global warming alarmism. This is a good page to start with if you want to understand the science behind global warming and the greenhouse effect.

11. Global Warming Lecture by Dr. Art Robinson (52 minute free online video). A review of the research literature concerning the environmental consequences of increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide leads to the conclusion that increases during the 20th Century have produced no deleterious effects upon global weather, climate, or temperature.

12. Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years by S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery (Roman & Littlefield, 2007). If you only have time to read one book on global warming, this should be the one. Singer and Avery make a compelling scientific case for a 1500 year sun-driven climate cycle that has very little to do with human activity. It is both readable for the educated layman and well referenced to the scientific literature for the professional scientist.

13. The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World by Bjorn Lomborg (Cambridge University Press, 2001 Reprint). If you want a clear-headed assessment on the status of any environmental issue, including global warming, this is the book for you. Lomborg, a former member of Greenpeace, challenges widely held beliefs that the world environmental situation is getting worse and worse. Using statistical information from internationally recognized research institutes, Lomborg systematically examines a range of major environmental issues that feature prominently in headline news around the world, including pollution, biodiversity, fear of chemicals, and the greenhouse effect, and documents that the world has actually improved. He supports his arguments with over 2500 footnotes, allowing readers to check his sources. Lomborg criticizes the way many environmental organizations make selective and misleading use of scientific evidence and argues that we are making decisions about the use of our limited resources based on inaccurate or incomplete information. Concluding that there are more reasons for optimism than pessimism, he stresses the need for clear-headed prioritization of resources to tackle real, not imagined, problems. The Skeptical Environmentalist offers readers a non-partisan evaluation that serves as a useful corrective to the more alarmist accounts favored by campaign groups and the media.

14. Shattered Consensus: The True State of Global Warming edited by Patrick J. Michaels (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005). A collection of ten papers by scientists who disagree with global warming alarmism. If you love graphs and data, this is the book for you. Again well referenced to the scientific literature.

15. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism by Christopher C. Horner (Regnery Publishing, 2007). In general we are big fans of the P.I.G. series of books (especially the ones on Science and Darwinism), but this one seems a little over the top as the author refers to global warming proponents as "the greens" throughout the book. If you can get past the author's tone (he's just trying a little too hard to be politically incorrect), the book is a useful expose on the political motivations behind environmentalism in general and global warming alarmism in particular. The book is a little light on contrary data graphs that we appreciated in some of the other books, but it is probably the most readable book for the average citizen and a real eye-opener regarding the political motivations of the global warming alarmists.

16. Is There a Basis for Global Warming Alarm? Report by Richard S. Lindzen. The author asks whether alarmism is good for science or likely to have an impact on global warming: "The global warming issue parts company with normative science at an early stage. A good indicator of this disconnect is widespread and rigorous scientific agreement that the Kyoto Agreement would have no discernible impact on climate. This clearly is of no importance to the thousands of negotiators, diplomats, regulators, general purpose bureaucrats and advocates whose livelihood is tied to climate alarmism."

17. New Perspectives in Climate Change: What the EPA Isn't Telling Us, Report by S. Fred Singer, John R. Christy, Robert E. Davis, David R. Legates, and Wendy M. Novicoff. This report reveals that critical portions of science in the IPCC 2001 TAR reports and the 2000 National Assessment of U.S. Climate Change report are misleading, inaccurate, unreliable, or simply wrong. However, that is not an indictment of the individuals involved, but is rather more symptomatic of the nature of science when funded by a government leviathan.

18. Hot Talk, Cold Science: Global Warming's Unfinished Debate, Book by S. Fred Singer. Are the often alarming claims about global warming based on science and justified by the facts? Is the human race really facing a major crisis due to emissions from fossil fuels? Would the proposed Climate Treaty solve a real environmental threat or would it create worldwide economic and social harm? S. Fred Singer is a distinguished astrophysicist who has taken a hard, scientific look at the evidence. In this book, Dr. Singer explores the inaccuracies in historical climate data, the limitations of attempting to model climate on computers, solar variability and its impact on climate, the effects of clouds, ocean currents, and sea levels on global climate, and factors that could mitigate any human impacts on world climate.

19. Global Crises, Global Solutions edited by Bjorn Lomborg (Cambridge University Press, 2004). This book is an outcome of the Copenhagen Consensus 2004. Eight economists ranked 38 proposals for spending $50 billion to address ten problems - climate change, communicable diseases, conflicts, access to education, financial instability, government corruption, hunger, migration, sanitation and clean water, and subsidies and trade barriers. Leading economists evaluate the evidence for costs and benefits of various programs to help gauge how we can achieve the most good with our money. Each problem is introduced by a world-renowned expert analyzing the scale of the problem and describing the costs and benefits of a range of policy options to improve the situation. Shorter pieces from experts offering alternative positions are also included; all ten challenges are evaluated by a panel of economists from North America, Europe, and China who rank the most promising policy options. Global Crises, Global Solutions provides a serious, yet accessible, springboard for debate and discussion and will be required reading for government employees, NGOs, scholars and students of public policy and applied economics, and anyone with a serious professional or personal interest in global development issues. The need for safe drinking water and solutions to communicable diseases such as AIDS and malaria rank at the top of the world's priority list while spending limited research money on climate change solutions falls at the bottom of the cost/benefit list.

20. Aliens Cause Global Warming A lecture by Michael Crichton (California Institute of Technology, January 17, 2003). Here are Crichton's opening remarks: "My topic today sounds humorous but unfortunately I am serious. I am going to argue that extraterrestrials lie behind global warming. Or to speak more precisely, I will argue that a belief in extraterrestrials has paved the way, in a progression of steps, to a belief in global warming. Charting this progression of belief will be my task today. Let me say at once that I have no desire to discourage anyone from believing in either extraterrestrials or global warming. That would be quite impossible to do. Rather, I want to discuss the history of several widely-publicized beliefs and to point to what I consider an emerging crisis in the whole enterprise of science-namely the increasingly uneasy relationship between hard science and public policy."

21. The Reference Frame. A blog by Harvard Physics Professor Dr. Lubos Motl. There is nothing politically correct about this guy who likes to write about "the most important events in our and your superstringy Universe as seen from a reactionary physicist's viewpoint". Global warming is one of his favorite topics these days and if you want to know his thoughts about the IPCC, give him a gander.

22. I Was On the Global Warming Gravy Train. David Evans is a mathematician and engineer who spent six years doing global warming-related research for the Australian government. He jumped on the funding gravy train as a true believer, convinced by the early data that a strong link existed between carbon emissions and climate change, but in time became more skeptical, as new scientific evidence made the causal connection seem more tenuous. His "confession" reveals that the debate is no longer just about the evidence.

23. Scientific Consensus on Global Warming. The Heartland Institute has made available this survey of climate scientists that reveals a wide range of views on Global Warming data and issues. If you poke around on the Heartland website you will find a host of other resources on the topic.

24. What Would Jesus Drive? Global warming is heating up as a 2008 election issue. In this National Review article, Jay Richards takes a look at the varied positions of Evangelical Christians on global warming and explains that there are four distinct questions to be asked (and answered). He concludes by predicting that global warming will be a focus of Democratic candidates to woo the Evangelical vote in the upcoming elections.

25. What You Ought to Know about Global Warming. A hilarious five minute rebuttal of Al Gore and the Global Warming alarmists..."In junior high my science teacher said that the world would be out of fossil fuels by the year 2000."

26. Yellow Science. In this June 25, 2008 Wall Street Journal Online article James Kerian points out that when journalists ignored the standards of their profession, Yellow Journalism was born. Global warming proponents are falling into the same trap resulting in Yellow Science.

27. Climate Change Reconsidered. On June 2, 2009 as Congress debated global warming legislation that would raise energy costs to consumers by hundreds of billions of dollars, the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) released an 880-page book challenging the scientific basis of concerns that global warming is either man-made or would have harmful effects. In "Climate Change Reconsidered: The 2009 Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC)," coauthors Dr. S. Fred Singer and Dr. Craig Idso and 35 contributors and reviewers present an authoritative and detailed rebuttal of the findings of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The scholarship in this book demonstrates overwhelming scientific support for the position that the warming of the twentieth century was moderate and not unprecedented, that its impact on human health and wildlife was positive, and that carbon dioxide probably is not the driving factor behind climate change. The full 880 page report can be downloaded for free at the link above. A free 48 page downloadable summary is also available and the recommended place to start for those who want a quick overview or the evidence and arguments.

Dr. Marcus Ross will be giving a lecture on ID and the Cambrian Explosion at Temple University Monday, April 9. The lecture will be located in Gladfelter Hall, Room #16. Also giving a lecture that evening, on the side of evolution, is dinosaur paleontologist Dr. Peter Dodson of the University of Pennsylvania. The lectures begin at 6 and go until 8:30 p.m. This event is open to the public, and is in the Philadelphia area.

Temple University Web site...

WorldNetDaily reports on the passing anniversary of another great bioethics debate. Only one century ago, eugenics - the attempt to improve the human race through better breeding - was all the rage in the scientific world. And this spring marks the centenary of the world's first forced-sterilization law.

While modern Darwinists may wince, eugenics clearly drew inspiration from Darwin's theory. Back then, Francis Galton (Darwin's cousin), took evolutionary theory seriously, arguing persuasively that hospitals, mental institutions and social welfare all violate the law of natural selection. These institutions preserve the weak at the expense of the gene pool. In the wild, such people would die off naturally, thus keeping the human race strong. As Darwin himself declared in "The Descent of Man," "No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this has been highly injurious to the race of man...Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed."

Todays' Family News reports that science journalist Denyse O'Leary believes Canadian advocates of the theory of evolution are attempting to "import a controversy" by claiming, as the Toronto Star reported, that God-centred instruction on the origins of life is "creeping into this country's public school science classes and it's up to parents to do something about it."

Read on...

In Evolution News & Views, John West reports that in an over-the-top op-ed appeared in Dallas Morning News, journalist Lee Cullum attacks the upcoming "Darwin v. Design" conference at Southern Methodist University (SMU) as "intellectually confused," complains that ID proponents "refuse to understand who and what they are," and asserts that Southern Methodist University "needs to rethink its policy regarded future use of its facilities" in order to prevent intelligent design proponents from expressing their views on the SMU campus in the future.

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Dr. Kenneth Poppe, author of "Reclaiming Science from Darwinism," will lecture at Northwest Nazarene University Tuesday, April 3 at 7 p.m. Poppe's presentation will be held in the Science Lecture Hall on NNU's campus.

Dr. Kenneth Poppe received his doctorate in secondary education from North Texas State University in 1984. He has been the Colorado state consultant for alternative schools, Colorado legislative coordinator for the "Schools of Choice" grant program, and guest lecturer for Boise State University's teacher education department. He is also the executive director of the International Foundation for Science Education by Design, and has assisted in DNA research of stream ecology. With 25 years of teaching high school biology, Dr. Poppe is well acquainted with public education's stance on evolution and the many challenges now being levied against strict Darwinism.

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One ID proponent, Jay Richards, research fellow of the Acton Institute and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, recently spoke at a "Darwin vs. Design" conference in Knoxville, Tenn. He strongly urges people to question the validity of evolution, and hopes that ID can gain more support in the future.

Richards was interviewed by The Christian Post's Doug Huntington to give his take the recent storm over the origins of life.

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Here is installment #3 in a series by Casey Luskin of the Discovery Institute.

Read...

For you coffee-lovers out there, Starbucks has just put out a cup with the following printed on it:

"The Way I See It #224

Darwinism's impact on traditional social values has not been as benign as its advocates would like us to believe. Despite the efforts of its modern defenders to distance themselves from its baleful social consequences, Darwinism's connection with eugenics, abortion and racism is a matter of historical record. And the record is not pretty.

Dr. Jonathan Wells
Biologist and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design.

This is the author's opinion, not necessarily that of Starbucks. To read more or respond, go to this site

Here is more from Evolution News & Views on how some SMU biology professors want to guard their turf (paradigm).

Read...

Evolution News & Views has a write up on the SMU and New Mexico controversies.

Read...

Rikki Hall, of the Knoxville Metro Pulse, who is obviously not on ID's side, writes a fairly fair commentary on the recent Design vs Darwin Conference in Knoxville, TN.

Read...

In the Dallas Morning News, letters to the editor are wondering why a "Methodist" university have so many intolerant, close-minded professors. Good question. May SMU is MINO (Methodist in Name Only)

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Joe Renick, who helped draft legislation of a controversial bill in NM, comments in the Albuquerque Tribune.

The principle objectives of this legislation are to "give teachers the right and freedom, when a theory of biological origins is taught, to objectively inform students of scientific information relevant to the strengths and weaknesses of that theory and protect teachers from reassignment, termination, discipline or other discrimination for doing so," and to give students the "right and freedom to reach their own conclusions about biological origins."

Renick comments that "There is a lawyer's adage that says, 'If the facts are on your side, argue the facts. If the law is on your side, argue the law. If neither are on your side, change the subject and go after the motives of your opponent.' Bingo! Right out of the Darwinist playbook."

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Rarely does the public catch a glimpse of how Darwinists actually behave toward colleagues who disagree with their view of biological origins. Thus, as a public service, William Dembski presents a correspondence, initiated by Darwinists and unsolicited by our side, that provides readers of Uncommon Descent with such a glimpse.

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In Evolution News & Views, a post is offered on the varying slants of press coverage on the Design vs Darwin Conferences.

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Tia Duerrmeyer, of the Sisters OR Nugget Newspaper, reports that Kris Helphinstine lasted less than two weeks on the job as a new Sisters High School biology teacher. The school board fired him last Monday night on the recommendation of Superintendent Ted Thonstad for deviating from accepted curriculum by presenting materials supporting creationism to his biology class.

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Millette Birhanemaskel, of the Knoxville News Sentinel, reports on the reaction to the conference.

Attendees ranged from protesting skeptics, to supporters of ID, to those who weren't quite sure.

More...

An AP news story has been picked up by numerous papers, including the Houston Chronicle.

Science professors at Southern Methodist University have written letters of protest to school officials to complain about an upcoming conference about intelligent design.

Members of the school's anthropology department demanded the school shut down the "Darwin vs. Design" conference, co-sponsored by the SMU law school's Christian Legal Society. The conference will argue that a higher power is the best explanation for aspects of life and the universe.

"These are conferences of and for believers and their sympathetic recruits," a letter from the anthropology department said. "They have no place on an academic campus with their polemics hidden behind a deceptive mask."

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Alvin Plantinga, Ph.D., renowned professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, will give two lectures at Bethel College on Tuesday, March 27. "Science and Religion: Why the Debate Continues," will occur from 3:30-5:00 p.m., followed by "An Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism," from 7:00-8:30 p.m.

Both lectures, which will take place in the Miller/Moore Academic Center room 347, are free and open to the public.

Dr. Plantinga is known across the United States and abroad as a leading epistemologist and philosopher of religion. He received his doctorate from Yale and has served as the John A. O'Brien Chair of Philosophy at Notre Dame since 1982. Dr. Plantinga has authored numerous books and journal articles, including Warrant and Proper Function (Oxford University Press, 1993). Affiliations include the Society of Christian Philosophers (which he founded) and the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences.

This event is sponsored by the Bethel College philosophy department as part of Bethel Lectures in Philosophy series, which brings distinguished philosophers of various disciplines to campus each year.

For More information, contact Dr. Chad Meister at Meistec@BethelCollege.edu or contact the philosophy department at 574.257.3324.

Evolution News & Views shows that Ken Miller gets it wrong when offering his take on Dembski's idea of inferring intelligent design.

An inference to intelligent design not only requires improbability, but, more importantly, conformity to a pattern.

Please read more...

Saturday, in a conference at the Knoxville Convention Center, the chief supporters of intelligent design will outline their argument: behind the complexity of the universe is an intelligent cause.

From 9:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Saturday, the "Darwin vs. Design" conference will address the evidence in favor of intelligent design.

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Evolution News & Views points out that Elliot Sober, philosopher at the University of Wisconsin, attack on ID is unimpressive, as is his grasp on ID history.

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In Evolution News & Views, a post by Michael Egnor is instructive, and I think his point is fairly obvious...you do not need Darwinism to be an effective doctor.

Egnor simply, and rightly states that, "Teaching medical students about the anatomy of the brain or the molecular structure of DNA is very important. Teaching students about Darwinian speculations about the random origins of the brain or of DNA adds nothing to students' knowledge of medicine."

More...

The Discovery Institute will bring another in the series of conferences, this time, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas on April 13th and 14th.

For more information, click
HERE.

For even more details, click
HERE.

The Tennessean reports that state senator Raymond Finney, R-Marysville, who proposed legislation to force Tennessee's top education official to answer if a supreme being created the universe said he would probably pull the plug on the matter.

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Evolution News & Views ran across this op-ed piece (as I did) in the Albuquerque Tribune by Dave Thomas.

Thomas exposes himself as a dogmatic Darwinist...and Casey Luskin points this out well.

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Aaron Vandenbos, a student at Boise State University, has a guest opinion in the Arbiter, the student newspaper.

Frustrated,he gives his take on the tactics of the other side.

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Dr. Arthur Falk, professor emeritus of philosophy at Western Michigan University, will speak on "Darwinism and the Meaning of Life" at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 15, in the Brown and Gold Room of the Bernhard Center. His talk is presented by the WMU Center for the Study of Ethics in Society and is open to the public free of charge.

Falk maintains that Darwinism does provide the material for individuals to construct the meaning of their lives, once they understand their situation in the world.

How he will justify ultimate meaning, significance, and purpose to life should be challenged by all who attend. It looks like he will say you can make up your own meaning to life, which would just be a self-delusion, and avoidance of the real consequence of an atheistic worldview.

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What is intelligent design and what scientific evidence supports it? How does it differ from Darwin's theory of evolution? Is there a purpose to the universe? What new scientific facts are turning evolutionary theories upside down?

Answers to these and other intriguing science questions will be the focus of a two-day conference called Darwin vs. Design, coming to Dallas April 13-14 at McFarlin Auditorium on the campus of Southern Methodist University.

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Andy MacIntosh of Truthinscience and Dr. Lewis Wolpert "discuss" the Truthinscience packet sent to schools in the UK.

Wolpert's best "argument" against having the packets in schools is that ID is not science. He says it over and over and over again. The old saying could hold true; say something enough times and people will believe it.

Of course, Wolpert's "science" is strictly defined in methodological naturalism terms, where only natural causes can explain effects. In effect he is saying, "Get off my playing field...you're breaking the rules."

Go to YouTube...

Casey Luskin, of the Discovery Institute, will speak at Boise State University on March 19th at 7 p.m. on The Positive Case for Design. The Boise State University IDEA Club is sponsoring the lecture.

Dr. Geoffrey Simmons, a fellow of the Discovery Institute, will be on the radio show "Coast to Coast AM", Tuesday March 13, from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. and repeated 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. (all PST) across the nation with open lines to call in at least between 1 and 2 a.m.(PST). He will discuss his new book Billions of Missing Links.

Dr. Simmons wrote What Darwin Didn't Know in 2004.

As reported in Evolution News & Views, Discovery Institute senior fellow Jonathan Wells recently visited Japan to deliver two speeches on intelligent design and evolution.

Dr. Wells' first lecture (in English, with simultaneous translation into Japanese) was to an international philosophy conference. More than 150 people attended, including scientists and scholars from Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, India, Taiwan, Greece and Mongolia. A few Americans were present, along with participants from Bangladesh, France, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic. According to Wells, the audience was polite, the questions were penetrating and the Q&A was lively.

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Dr. Marcus Ross will be on the Frank Pastore show Tuesday night, March 13th on KKLA (Los Angeles) to discuss the question of what happens to a culture when only one side of the origins debate is allowed in schools. The program airs on 99.5 FM in Los Angeles and can be audio-streamed HERE.

From the Discovery Institute...yes indeed...while Darwinists trot out scientists and philosophers who like to harmonize Darwinism and religion...how about John Dupre? He is unabashedly an atheist.

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Peter Steinfels, in The New York Times, discusses that criticism of the new wave of atheism books is not primarily from the pious, but from avowed atheists as well as scientists and philosophers writing in publications like The New Republic and The New York Review of Books, not known as cells in the vast God-fearing conspiracy.

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Jacques Monod's 1972 work was Chance and Necessity, subtitled A Philosophy for a Universe without Causality.

The outstanding French biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize, explained to the layman his revolutionary approach to genetics and its far-reaching ethical and philosophical implications.

Read more in Uncommon Descent by clicking the link above.

In case you missed it, here is Johnathan Witt's review of Francis Collins' book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief which appeared in Touchstone Magazine. Collins is the head of the Human Genome Project, the monumental and successful effort to map the 3.1 billion letters of the human genetic code and, surprisingly is a serious Christian.

As reported by the Discovery Institute, in Evolution News & Views, a recent law review article by self-described "liberal First Amendment theorist" Arnold H. Loewy argues that it is constitutional to teach intelligent design in public schools. Writing in First Amendment Law Review, Loewy points out that "[t]o allow all ideas about the origin of man that do not presuppose an intelligent designer, but forbid all theories that explore the possibilities of such a designer, expresses hostility, not neutrality, towards religion."

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Seminar Title:
Are microevolutionary processes sufficient for Macroevolution: birds and
mammals?

Thursday, March 15 at 2 PM

Location:
National Center forBiotechnology Information
Lister Hill Auditorium Building 38a

David Penny, Research Director
Allan Wilson Center for Molecular Ecology and Evolution
Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Although 'descent with modification', and the necessity of microevolutionary processes, are now accepted by the scientific community, there is still debate over the issue of whether microevolutionary processes are sufficient to explain all of macroevolution. Is there still some great missing principle, or the need for physical forces to 'drive' evolution? Such questions are difficult to answer, but do stimulate viable scientific research programs. The combination of molecular data and fossil calibration points allow good progress to be made. Although molecular data has well established excellent databases, we are still limited in having equivalent databases for fossil data.

Jean Cowden Moore, of the Ventury County Star, reports that a science book for seventh-graders has brought the national debate over evolution and creationism to Ventura County.

On Monday, the Ventura County Board of Education postponed a vote on the textbook, "Focus on California Life Science," because board member Ron Matthews objected to its discussion of evolution.

While the book talks about "the theory of evolution," it also uses the phrase "students know" when discussing aspects of evolution, Matthews said.

"This is taught as theory, yet it's taught as fact," he said. "We need to present a broad spectrum of knowledge, and we don't do that here."

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Wartburg College, in Waverly Iowa, will host an evolution and intelligent design conference on March 16 and 17. The conference was organized by Iowans for Religion and Science Dialogue.

According to Brian Jones, assistant professor of religion and one of the conference organizers, some of the main objectives of the conference are to lay out what intelligent design is and to equip K-12 teachers to respond to conflicts about evolution in a religiously sensitive way.

The conference will feature four major presenters: Wesley Elsberry, information project director for the National Council for Science Education; John Haught, theologian and research professor from Georgetown University; Jennifer Miller, teacher in Dover, Penn.; and John Ayers, adjunct professor from Waldorf College.

Besides the major presenters and panel discussion, the conference will also provide seven workshops. Each participant can attend three workshops, which cover topics such as understanding and evaluating intelligent design and understanding the relationship between science and religion.

Jones said conference organizers are planing for 300 attendants.

People who want to attend the conference need to register beforehand at this Web site. Registration costs $30. Registration at the door is $40.

The Center for Continuing Education is providing 200 scholarships to any Warburg student and any Iowa K-12 educator that will cover the $30 registration fee.

Paying the full registration fee will provide entrance to all major presenters and the panel discussion, as well as entrance to workshops, a DVD featuring interviews with specialists discussing all of the workshop themes, a discussion guide for use in both religious and secular discussions of the material and food during the conference.

For a smaller $5 fee, people can still attend the major presenters and panel discussion.

KTVB reports that members of the Idaho Science Teachers Association have approved an official position against teaching intelligent design in Idaho's public schools.

Rick Alm is the president of the ISTA's board and a science teacher at Bonneville High School.

He says teachers in public schools are charged with teaching methodology that's been approved by the scientific community.

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Steve Renner, in the American Chronicle, writes that "Darwinists are famous for using the blanket statement that intelligent design is the result of 'blind faith.' It's easy to write that, but is it true?"

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Jerry Bergman, of Northwest State College, will be speaking on Wednesday, February 28th, At Undiana University Purdue University at Fort Wayne. The talk begins at 5:30 p.m. and will be on the advantages of ID in doing science. He will be presenting several case histories.

The talk will take place in the Medical Bldg., Room 134.

In a series of lectures beginning Thursday, March 1, Duke University Professor Alexander Rosenberg will argue that Charles Darwin's theories best explain human behavior, culture and morality.

See if you can find holes in his premises and conclusions.

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In a thought-provoking paper from the March issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology , Elliott Sober (University of Wisconsin) clearly discusses the problems with two standard criticisms of intelligent design: that it is unfalsifiable and that the many imperfect adaptations found in nature refute the hypothesis of intelligent design.

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Friday at noon in Seattle, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., will speak at a luncheon event being co-presented by the Discovery Institute - the controversial organization that promotes intelligent design theory and combats Darwinism.

Much more...

Science Daily reports on remarkable molecular "machines" in living cells, ribosomes. These remarkable factories are giving scientists clues to the development of new antibiotics and revealing secrets about how cells use the genetic information encoded in DNA. The full story is in a February 19th article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), American Chemical Society's weekly newsmagazine.

And we are asked to believe that this highly complex system slowly evolved in existence...

More...

In Evolution News & Views a summary of an article by Dr. Phillip Johnson, In Think, a philosophy journal published by The Royal Institute of Philosophy, is presented. The article is entitled Intelligent Design in Biology: the Current Situation and Future Prospects which assesses the current state of the debate over intelligent design.

Johnson explains that, despite the advances of the 20th century, many Darwinists still use old arguments that merely reflect microevolution.

Johnson observes that "because a gag order is in force, ID is not discussed in the scientific literature.

More...

A day-long conference called Darwin vs. Design will take place at the Knoxville (TN) Convention Center on March 24th.

The New York Times bestselling author Lee Strobel and a panel of scientists and experts will examine the evidence for Darwin's theory of evolution and the emerging scientific theory of intelligent design.

Featured speakers include Lee Strobel, Dr. Stephen Meyer, Dr. Michael Behe, and Dr. Jay Richards.

Attendees will interact with intelligent design scientists and philosophers whose discoveries in cosmology, biology, physics, and DNA present astonishing scientific evidence that is overturning the evolutionary thinking of the past.

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William F. Buckley comments on John McCain addressing the Discovery Institute in National Review Online.

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Eugenie Scott's latest award is from the AAAS for "Scientific Freedom and Responsibility."

This is the name of the AAAS committee that in 1990 unanimously defended the position that articles in science publications should be judged on their merit and not on the religious beliefs of the writer, even if such beliefs are in conflict with scientific views.

It is so ironic that Eugenie Scott received this award.

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William Mulgrew opines in the Triangle Oneline, the student newpaper of Drexel University.

Mulgrew writes, "Some oppose intelligent design because it doesn't explain who designed the intelligent designer. It's a metaphysical objection. It demands an answer that scientific observation, analysis and experimentation cannot provide. It presupposes that the Intelligent Designer was designed or had to be designed, and that it was designed by a "who" - some person or sentient being. Whether it's a god or gods, space aliens, or a time traveler who went back in time to create life, ID simply does not speculate on that question."

He further remarks, "In the past, it was religious theists who suppressed scientific pursuits because they didn't conform to their beliefs. Now the tables have turned. Opponents want to suppress ID because it doesn't conform to their materialist beliefs. Your religious views don't dictate what's taught or not taught in the science classroom. I'm sorry that ID makes light of scientific evidence in a way that puts atheists in an uncomfortable position, but please don't force your materialist religion on us."

There is much more clear thought in the remainder of this opinion.

More...

This week ARN announces the launch of the ID Arts website to explore the relationship between intelligent design and the Arts. Here you will find original artwork, poetry, literature, film festivals, movie reviews and more. Read why artist Jody Sjogren thinks the existence of art, and the human creativity experience, is one of the most convincing proof-positive experiences we have to validate intelligent design theory. Be the first on your block to own one of Jody's metamorphosis art prints like Blackbird or Dominant Raptor that illustrate how man-made designs often imitate the best designs found in living systems.

Darwinists are famous for their "just so" stories that seem to explain everything about nature, without any actual evidence. A new Darwinian Stories Blog has recently been sighted to document such stories from the mouths of real scientists. If you want to know how butterfies got their spots or elephants acquired their trunks, according to the theory of evolution, then give this blog a visit. Some of the stories are better than the ones your grandpa used to tell.

In Scientific American, Robert Shapiro is very candid on...
the problems with Miller-Urey experiment and DNA-first hypotheses about the OOL, the RNA world hypothesis, and the Pre-RNA world hypothesis.

Shapiro's hypothesis is anything but simple, though.

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In Evolutionary Psychology Journal, Hiram Caton of Griffith University in Australia does a critique on the traveling Darwin museum display.

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In National Review Online, John G. West, of the Discovery Institute, comments on the religious fervor of the observance of Darwin Day, and how the atheist's and agnostic's faith in Darwinism practiced openly could backfire on them.

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February 13, 2007

Today the Kansas State Board of Education threw out a model for teaching origins science objectively. In the place of objective standards the Board inserted a new model which allows only material or natural causes to explain the origin of natural phenomena.

According to the new standards all of scientific knowledge can be reduced to the "physical" " in terms of matter, energy and the forces." Even human consciousness, which science studies, is reduced to the physical. Only one answer is allowed to the question: Where do we come from? The answer: material causes - the random interactions of matter, energy and the forces.

Along with this materialistic doctrine that allows no alternatives, the new standards sweep aside objective standards that would introduce students to legitimate scientific controversies regarding chemical evolution (origin of life) and macro-evolution (origins of new body plans and sophisticated bio-chemical systems). Given the doctrine that only material causes are allowed to explain where we come from, criticisms of evolutionary theory become irrelevant.

The placard on the wall of the Kansas State Board of Education proclaims:

"Our students come first in every Board decision."

Today the State Board made a decision designed to withhold from students important relevant information about the most important question they may have to answer in their lives: Where do we come from? What is the origin of life and its diversity." Today the State sent a message to its school districts to withhold information relevant to that question and to teach impressionable young children that life derives from only material causes. Many Kansans who signed over 3,000 petitions to the Board believe that decision does not put the student first. Instead it puts first those who seek only a material cause to explain life - Materialists.

"Materialism is a very controversial idea that lacks a sound evidentiary basis," said Dr. William S. Harris, a biochemist. "It is the foundation for non-theistic religions and belief systems. State promotion of materialism effectively puts the state in the posture of discriminating between religions. Materialism favors the non-theist over the theist."

"The public has not been properly educated on this issue,"said John Calvert, the managing director of IDnet. "Eventually the truth will emerge as the public becomes better educated. A new documentary that follows the testimony of the science hearings held two years ago does that."

"The decision of the Board, not only disregards the needs of the students, it also undermines the home by discrediting parents who reject materialism and the ethics and morals it fosters," said Greg Lassey, a former biology teacher and an author of the objective model that was removed from the standards.

Richard Dawkins will be the guest with Paula Zahn on Monday, February 12th at 8pm EST on CNN. It's Darwin Day. Arm yourself with the baloney detector.

The above link is to an important document on Smithsonian episode.

In Physorg.com an article discusses the first fossil of a leaf insect.

"One thing that was discovered shows that little has changed with leaf insects during the last 47 million years. Though the fossil has a few differences, it bears a considerable resemblance to extant leaf insects in the size and shape of its segments. This specialized cryptic behavior and morphology, the scientists say, exemplifies evolutionary stasis."

Statis is particularly troubling to the whole Darwinian paradigm. How random mutation and natural selection cannot possibly improve on a species is puzzling and remarkable. Take the bacteria...

More...

Evolution News & Views reports that in a recent speech in New York City, Roman Catholic Cardinal Cristoph Schoenborn of Vienna sharply criticized efforts in America to prevent students and the public from learning about the debate over Darwin's theory. According to the Associated Press report:

Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna said that restricting debate about Darwin's theory of evolution amounts to censorship in schools and in the broader public.

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PRnewswire reports that another 100 scientists have joined the ranks of scientists from around the world publicly stating their doubts about the veracity of Darwin's theory of evolution.

"Darwinism is a hoax that has been perpetrated for 150 years," says
dissent list signer Dr. Michael Egnor. "It's a trivial idea that has been
elevated to the status of the scientific theory that governs modern
biology." Egnor is a professor of neurosurgery and pediatrics at State
University of New York, Stony Brook and an award winning brain surgeon
named one of New York's best doctors by New York Magazine.

More...

If you view the proposed changes to the Kansas Science Standards
you will see two models for teaching origins. A model that teaches the materialistic theories of chemical and biological origins objectively and a model that teaches those theories dogmatically. The present standards incorporate the objective model. Next week the Kansas State Board will consider throwing out the objective model and replacing it with the materialistic model.

In many's opinion, the effect of the change would be is to cause the state to promote Materialism in public education. The question is whether it is fine for the State to promote materialism?

Student - the Edinburgh University Student Newspaper, recognizes that intelligent design is slowly working its way back onto the agenda and into the classroom.

In the past, what alarmed the secular police was a loophole in the National Curriculum that allowed the critiquing of scientific theories otherwise accepted as fact - and thus, potentially allowing the discussion of creationism and ID in science lessons. That loophole was closed.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society explains: "The government has put out guidelines, but they're just that. They're statutory, not mandatory. People can disregard them if they want to. It all depends on what agenda particular teachers have got."

That cuts both ways, Terry Sanderson.

Sanderson's primary concern is that evangelist Christians could slip creationism or essentially religious theories into classrooms under the cloak of science. "Truth in Science is evangelists who are trying to sneak into schools with their strange ideas under the guise of being scientifically legitimate. It's theology not science, and it's not even good theology. It's absolute bunkum.

And there you have it...if you don't have a good rebuttal, it's time for ad hominem attacks.

The issue appears to pivot upon whether ID which has ostensibly little to do with the account in Genesis that the Earth was created in six days - is a valid scientific theory and whether evolution can be accepted as unequivocal fact.

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Nick Jackson, of The Independent, interviewed Stuart Burgess, Professor of design and nature in the department of mechanical engineering at Bristol University. He argues that intelligent design is as valid a scientific concept as evolution.

The mammalian knee-joint appears irreducible. Everyone has a four-bar linkage in their knee. Engineers know that for this to work, you need all four bars to be present.

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Randy Olson's anti-ID film "Flock of Dodos" is being shown at various venues (museums and universities) in honor of Darwin Day. The film makes many patently false claims about ID. Discovery Institute has posted a response Web site to the film. Access by clicking the link above. The site has many resources, including handouts which can be used to expose some of the falsehoods in the film, plus a short you-tube video.

A post responding to the film is also available at Evoluiton News & Views

Jonathan Dudley, a student at the Divinity School and a molecular oncology researcher at Yale School of Medicine, writes a commentary in the Yale Daily News.

Dudley writes, "Few scientists or philosophers from respectable academic institutions have given serious consideration to ID." But, apparently, many from academic institutions which are not respected have seriously considered ID?

He further states, "Modern science is characterized by what philosophers call 'methodological naturalism' - the pragmatic assumption that every physical phenomenon has a natural, versus a supernatural, explanation." The key word is philosphers. Methodological naturalism is a science philosophy, not what drives the vast amount of empirical research.

Dudley calls ID "pseudo-science". He adds, "Since ID invokes a supernatural being to explain the formation of 'irreducibly complex' physical structures, it does not employ methodological naturalism. Thus, by modern standards, it cannot be called 'science.' So, by defining away the possibility of supernatural cause, ID cannot be "science". ID is pushed off the playing field.

Dudley fairly points out, "Just because modern science is characterized by methodological naturalism, that does not mean that it should be. The above characterization of science is descriptive, not normative... Perhaps 'science' should be re-defined, allowing the explanation of natural phenomena by both natural and supernatural means. Indeed, if God exists and created the universe, why shouldn't we look for God's supernatural intervention in natural affairs?"

Dudley poses the question: If you are claiming that something in nature has a supernatural cause "Why continue searching for a naturalistic explanation if you believe there isn't one?" Again we are into the philosophy of science, where worldviews clash.

He remarks, "If those at the Discovery Institute truly want to 'defeat scientific materialism,' perhaps they would be better served taking a cue from evangelical Christians doing respectable science. Francis Collins GRD '74, ex-director of the Human Genome Project, might be a good place to start. Those at the Discovery Institute could join Collins in emphasizing why evolutionary theory is not incompatible with belief in the supernatural." The implication is obvious, namely DI and its proponents do science which is not respectable. Then he uses the equivocal term "evolutionary theory". No Christian, who is intellectually honest could square Darwinism with their faith. However, common descent is at least a possibility with God front-loading the cosmos with information rich matter.

We need to more clearly define terms and more clear thinking on this subject, and Dudley is further along than most.

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Evolution News & Views comments on an article in Seattle Post-Intelligencer about Darwin Day. The reporter notes that the Discovery Institute marks the same occasion with a lecture and discussion on "Darwin Day and the Deification of Charles Darwin." On Darwin Day the Discovery Institute will broadcast a short lecture by Dr. John West and Dr. Jonathan Wells about Darwin and his impact on modern science. The 30 minute program will be available at ID The Future and on Youtube.

According to the article the film's maker, oceanographer Randy Olson, started out really liking the work of Discovery Institute, but only after they didn't want to appear in his film did he resort to motive mongering and distorting our position on evolution.

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The University of Georgia's Christian Faculty Forum will sponsor a debate Wednesday, February 7th, on the theory of intelligent design, an alternative to the theory of evolutionary biology.

The 7:30 p.m. debate will be in the auditorium of the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, 315 Riverbend Road.

Debaters on both sides will be Christians, said Chris Peterson, an associate professor in UGA's department of plant biology, who will argue against intelligent design. Arguing for the theory will be Paul Nelson, a fellow of the Discovery Institute in Seattle and a faculty member at Biola University in Los Angeles.

This is from Reuters...

PARIS: France's Education Ministry has warned schools around the country against Islamic creationism theories after several thousand copies of an anti-Darwinist book from Turkey were mailed to them, an official said.

The lavishly illustrated Atlas of Creation by Harun Yahya, a shadowy figure who runs a large Islamic publishing operation from Istanbul, was sent to schools and universities over the past 10 days in a move that has baffled authorities, she said.

The Turkish original of the 768-page book, which rejects evolution, first appeared in Turkey late last year when it was also sent unsolicited to schools.

It sees Charles Darwin's theory of the "survival of the fittest" as the root of many of today's ills, including modern terrorism.

The French official, who asked not to be named, said puzzled school rectors had alerted the ministry to the large-format book full of lavish photographs meant to show that current animal species look exactly like the fossils of their ancestors.

"We asked them to be very careful because this book develops theories that are not in harmony with what the pupils learn," she said. "Our teaching is based on the theory of evolution. These books have no place in our schools."

The book appears to have been mailed from Turkey and Germany to schools all around France. "We have no exact figures but I think they could number several thousand copies," she said. "They do not seem to have targeted specific areas," she added. France's five-million-strong Muslim minority, Europe's largest, is concentrated in some areas such as the Paris region.

The Atlas of Creation is a novelty because it puts an Islamic twist on criticism of the theory of evolution, a cause championed by conservative Christians in the United States. Harun Yahya is a pseudonym for a reclusive Islamic teacher named Adnan Oktar. Turkish intellectuals say it covers a pool of writers since over 200 books in Turkish - and dozens translated into 51 other languages - have appeared under this name.

The group's financing is unclear and it declines to answer questions about it. Speculation about its financial backers ranges from Turkish Islamists to US Christian activists.

Darwinism became an issue in Turkey in the political turmoil before a 1980 military coup because leftist bookshops often touted Darwin's works as a complement to Karl Marx's theories.

After the coup, the military-backed government added a paragraph about creationism to its high school science textbooks. Leading US creationists held several anti-evolution conferences in Turkey in the early 1990s.

Atlas of Creation has over 500 pages of lavish photographs and a long essay arguing that Darwinism, by stressing the "survival of the fittest", was the original inspiration for racism, Nazism, communism and ultimately the terrorism of today.

"The root of the terrorism that plagues our planet is not any of the divine religions, but atheism, and the expression of atheism in our times (is) Darwinism and materialism," it says. "Islam is not the source of terrorism, but its solution," it says. "God has made the killing of innocent people unlawful. God commands believers to be compassionate and merciful."

The Discovery Institute, in Evolution News & Views, discusses the many wrong facts and contradictions that the author of the Warren Report, Devin James Carpenter, brought forth.

One of the glaring mistatements was that "The main issues in Kitzmiller v. Dover were: the soundness of evolution and 'intelligent design' as science, the separation of church and state, and the philosophy of science itself."

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The Corvallis Gazette-Times announces a free talk, examining the 2005 Dover, Pa., trial that tested whether intelligent design could be taught alongside evolution in public school biology classes.

The talk begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday, in Oregon State University's Owen Engineering Hall, room 102.

Nicholas Matzke of NCSE, will discuss the trial and the ruling by federal Judge John Jones.

Too bas they don't have someone from our side.

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Here's a post from the Discovery Institute in Evolution News & Views on the new controversy in New Mexico.

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Regis Nicoll, a freelance writer, has a column in Breakpoint. It discusses the challenges of Black Holes and Multiverse creating our cosmos.

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Listen to this spoof on the non-existence of Richard Dawkins.

Find it at YouTube.

A news Release from Intelligent Design network:

February 2, 2007
NEWS RELEASE:
John Calvert, 913-268-0852
Exposing the Evolution Controversy Now showing at local theaters in Kansas!

Is there a genuine scientific controversy over evolution? A new documentary movie about Kansas Science Hearings held two years ago answer that question with a resounding "Yes." The film also shows why the controversy needs to be addressed in public schools.

Kansas Science Hearings: Exposing the Evolution Controversy will open with a special showing at the Glenwood Arts theater in Kansas City on February 12, 2007. The film begins at 7 PM, but arrive early to get a seat. The movie will also be shown between Feb 7 and 13 in other locations around the state, including Topeka, Leavenworth, Wichita, Independence, Dodge City/Meade, and Garden City. Go to www.KansasScience2005.com for specific times and locations.

Where did humans come from? What is the origin of life and its diversity? Any answer to these questions have a major impact on what we believe about religion, ethics, morals and even government. The US was founded on the idea that we derive unalienable rights from a Creator. However, materialistic cultures claim that because life is not a creation it has no inherent rights. Human rights exist only to the extent provided by government.

Twenty three expert witnesses testified about two distinctly different models for teaching about the ultimate question to children in Kansas schools. They included 5 PhD biologists, 4 PhD biochemists, 3 PhD Chemists, 1 PhD Geneticist (the inventor of the Gene Gun), 1 PhD Quantum Physicist, 3 Philosophers of Science, 1 PhD Professor of Education, 3 biology teachers, a Muslim science writer and an attorney.

The documentary is fast-paced and filled with drama as witnesses testify about systematic suppression of the controversy, fear in the class room and loss of jobs for teaching Darwin objectively. All of the witnesses were cross examined by an ACLU attorney. The hearings end with fireworks -a shocking refusal of the Materialists to submit to questions from the
other side.

"The materialistic model seeks to teach children that the universe is self existing and that life is the product of unguided evolutionary change. Because unguided material causation is assumed, the student is offered no information critical of that explanation," said William S. Harris, PhD, a biochemist who led the team that developed the competing objective model.

"The objective model we developed teaches only the materialistic explanation, but also informs students of genuine scientific
controversies about that view. There are two major controversies - one deals with the origin of life itself (chemical evolution), and the other deals with macro-evolution, the idea that random variation and natural selection have generated complex new bio-systems like cellular motors, factories and processing plants," said Greg Lassey, another team member.
"The presentations show undeniable controversies and the need to teach them."

"We have produced two versions of the documentary," said Brian Barkley, the producer of the movie. "A two hour version for the public, and a five hour version that covers the testimony of each witness in depth and includes all of the hearing exhibits and transcripts. This is an archival set for journalists and serious students of the debate."

Exposing the Evolution Controversy comes at the right time. The Kansas Board will consider proposals to throw out the objective model and replace it with the Materialistic one on February 13 and 14.
*******
Intelligent Design network, inc. is a nonprofit national organization that seeks institutional objectivity in origins science.

Aaron Vandenbos has a guest opinion in the Boise State Arbiter.

He points out what most ID proponents know, and Darwinists refuse to admit.

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Mississippi's House Bill 625, introduced by Representative Mike Lott (R-District 104) on January 9, 2007, died in committee on January 30, 2007, which was the last day for committees to report bills originating in their house of the legislature. If enacted, HB 625 would have provided, "The school board of a school district may allow the teaching of creationism or intelligent design in the schools within the district. However, if the theory of evolution is required to be taught as part of the school district's science curriculum, in order to provide students with a comprehensive education in science, the school board also must include the teaching of creationism or intelligent design in the science curriculum."

The latest ID The Future podcast from the Discovery Institute regards Scientific Research Projects from an Intelligent Design Perspective. The podcast is an interview with Joseph C. Campana, founder of ResearchID.org, a wiki-based website devoted to cataloguing scientific applications of intelligent design. CSC's Casey Luskin talks to Campana about what inspired the Web site, and how people can get involved to help constructively catalogue intelligent design scientific research.

Click HERE.

Michael Balter, who writes for Science magazine, wrote an opinion in International Herald Tribune.

He argues that the challenges to Darwinism should be included in the science classroom. He cites some research that suggests that when students were exposed to alternatives to Darwinism, a majority changed their minds, and moved in the Darwinist worldview.

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Evolution News & Views reports on Forthekids, a blogger who writes regularly at Reasonable Kansans. The blogger has been keeping things interesting since August of last year, holding the Kansas media accountable and getting to the truth of the matter, especially in regards to the debate over intelligent design. Recently, she had a great post.

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NCSE reports that a resolution was introduced by Representative Robin Hamilton (D-District 92) on January 26, 2007, in the Montana House of Representatives. Referring to the Committee on Education, it would, if enacted, express the Montana legislature's recognition of the importance of separation of church and state and support of the right of local school board trustees to adopt a science curriculum based on sound scientific principles.

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Interesting abstract in PNAS regarding Darwin's Tree of Life hypothesis.

Although the authors are no ID proponents, they say that a TOL hypothesis is imposed on the data, and those who advocate the TOL need to give up the quixotic search.

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Here is a column by Babu G. Ranganathan in The Conservative Voice.

He raises some great points that all ID proponents should commit to memory before engaging the other side.

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Christina Kauffman, of the York Dispatch, reports on the Pulitzer Prize-winner journalist and best-selling author Edward Humes' book about the Dover intelligent design trial, which was released to most major booksellers recently.

Humes interviewed several of the trial's key players for the nonfiction book, which classifies the events in Dover as a representation of the larger national conflict over what people believe about human origins.

Humes is no great friend to ID, saying, "People doubt or outright reject the theory of evolution but they don't even know what it is they've rejected. They just know they don't like it. Ultimately, the fallout for such thinking could be a national crisis; fewer young Americans are getting science degrees, and that doesn't bode well for the United States' progress against foreign competitors."

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Check out a brief and cogent post on the Dilbert Blog.

Steve appeals for a big bang which was front-loaded with "intelligence" which would strongly suggest that it was caused by an intelligent entity.

When we look back on the problem of the infinite regression of cause and effect, we eventually get to the point of a necessary, eternal entity; it may be either "God", or eternally existing matter, because you cannot have matter, energy, space and time pop out of absolutely nothing.

A great example of clear thinking is in Evolution News & Views by Logan Gage.

What's wrong with the title of this post?

Gage says "This is one of the most patronizing lines in the debate over Darwinism and public schools. Call me simple, but if something isn’t based in fact, why isn't it wrong?"

In our relativist society, something can be subjectively "right" for an individual, but not based on facts. How do you rationally and reasonably talk to people like that? You attempt to appeal to their rational intuition. There really is a Truth out there that corresponds with reality. A True Truth.

The press release below will likely spark a big fight over the issue of Kansas' institutionalization of materialism.

January 30, 2007

NEWS RELEASE:
John Calvert, 913-268-0852

KANSANS FIGHT AGAINST STATE MATERIALISM

The debate about evolution actually hinges on a deeper issue - materialism, also known as naturalism.

Materialism and naturalism are philosophies that claim that natural phenomena, including humans, derive simply from the interactions of matter, energy and the physical forces - by material or natural causes. Materialists reject any creative force or cause.

Many Kansans are concerned that proposed changes to Kansas Science Standards will cause Kansas Public Education to indoctrinate young children in Materialism, the philosophy that dominates Russian culture. This teaching model permits only material or natural causes to explain where we come from. It systematically excludes legitimate scientific controversies about materialistic theories of the origin of life (chemical evolution) and the origin of large scale changes in bio-diversity (macro-evolution).

Kansans are voicing their concerns in a variety of ways. A petition urging the Board to reject the materialistic proposals is circulating throughout Kansas. Over 2500 signatures were delivered to the State Board at its meeting on Jan 9. Yesterday the team that proposed the objective teaching model in the current standards posted the petition on their web site. This will allow people from all over the state to voice their concerns electronically.

http://www.KansasScience2005.com/petition.html

Kansans are concerned because Materialism is the origins story that is the foundation for a variety of non-theistic religions and religious beliefs. Atheism and Humanism depend on a purposeless self-existing universe with life being the product of unguided evolutionary change.

In response to the Petition one Board member has asked the Board’s legal counsel whether it is appropriate for State Schools to promote materialism and to systematically exclude scientific information relevant to evolution that is critical of the theory.

"We believe the State should be scrupulously objective when it engages children in a discussion of the origin of life," Said Bill Harris, PhD, a research biochemist. Dr. Harris led the Team of scientists and educators who proposed the current model for teaching evolution.

"The current objective standards were scientifically and educationally validated by extensive hearings in May 2005," said Greg Lassey, a biology teacher who helped with the project.

A new movie about the hearings and the testimony of the 23 experts will be shown at the Glenwood theater on January 12, 2007 in Kansas City: Kansas Science Hearings: Exposing the Evolution Controversy.

For information about "Materialism" go to this Web site and click on "What is Materialism? Click here and find out!"

For information about the proposal that will import materialism into the standards, click on the first item on the top left of the side bar for that Web page which is titled: "Proposed Changes which Substitute Materialism for Objective Origins Science." The provisions that mandate materialism are in red. The provisions being systematically excluded by the red are in blue.

The problem is not with evolution as a theory, it is with a construct that does not tolerate any critical analysis of it. That construct is called Methodological Naturalism or Scientific Materialism. It is actually worse than a philosophy because, its tenets can’t be questioned. They must be accepted. It converts evolution into a religious dogma.

This article (in the American Chronicle) by Kazmer Ujvarosy, the founder of Frontline Science, an independent think tank, based in San Francisco, comes from a Christian perspective.

He makes several salient points, which goes beyond what ID claims.

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Casey Luskin, of the Discovery Institute, comments on the many mistatements of Dr. George Kampis during a recent lecture at East Tennessee State University entitled "Intelligent Design Theory and the Poverty of Anti-Science Thought." Ironically Dr. Kampis is a historian, as well as a philosopher and cognitive scientist. Dr. Kampis' lecture spread much misinformation about intelligent design.

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Pat Boone comments on Darwinism and ID in WordNetDaily.

Coming from the persepective of a layperson with knowledge on the subject he starts out the commentary with a Steve Martin joke. "Would you like to make a million dollars and pay no taxes? OK. First, make a million dollars. Now, just don't pay any taxes; and if somebody from the IRS asks you about it, just say, 'I forgot!'" Nonsense? Sure. But funny, especially as Steve delivered it? You bet.

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Dr. C. John Collins, professor of Old Testament, Covenant Theological Seminary, will lecture for three days, February 1-3, at Covenant College, Lookout Mountain GA in the WIC Lecture Series. The topic will be Science and Faith.

Guy Kramer, of the Eastern Tennessean, reports on a lecture given at the university.

Science has been forced into a defensive position according to visiting professor and Basler Chair Dr. George Kampis. "What we need in science now is an offensive that is not offensive," he said during a lecture given Monday evening in the D.P. Culp auditorium. Kampis' lecture, titled "Intelligent Design Theory and the Poverty of Anti-Science Thought", focused on the debate between supporters of evolution and those who insist that living things were created by an Intelligent Designer.

Dr. Kampis hit every "talking point" of Darwinists.

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Maria P. Gonzalez, of the Union-Bulletin, reports on lectures on intelligent design at Walla Walla College by Michael Behe.

Today and Friday, Jan. 26th Behe of Lehigh University will hold two public talks focused on his studies of intelligent design. Behe is speaking at the Seventh-day Adventist university as part of its 2007 Distinguished Scholar Lecture Series.

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Bob Unruh, for WorldNetDaily, reports that a new study is blaming the monolithic public school system being used in the United States for the estimated 150 major battles over the course of the last year over religion, evolutionary theory, etc.

"All across the country, public schools threw Americans' fundamental values into conflict during the 2005-2006 school year, whether over intelligent design, dress codes, controversial school books..." said the study by Neal McCluskey, policy analyst with the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom.

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Evolution News & Views says Robert Naeye at Sky & Telescope recently posted a simplistic rant against intelligent design. His logic is astoundingly bad, and his "attacks" on ID are the most elementary sort that have been rebutted too many times to mention.

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The Guardian Unlimited reports that teenagers will be asked to debate ID in their religious education classes and read texts by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins under new government guidelines.

In a move that is likely to spark controversy, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has for the first time recommended that pupils be taught about atheism and creationism in RE classes.

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The University of Georgia Christian Faculty Forum will host a debate over evolution and intelligent design at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 7 in the Center for Complex Carbohydrate Research Auditorium.

The participants, Paul Nelson and Chris Peterson, are Christians, but they disagree on the best scientific explanation for the origin of life.

Click the link above, and scroll down a bit for more information.

The Christian Post advertises "The Cave Painting", offered at ARN.

"Masterful...winsome...entertaining". These are just some of the words one reader used to describe The Cave Painting: A Parable of Science.

Never before has the science of Intelligent Design been so artfully and forcefully presented in one book. The novel, together with the extensive, fully documented endnotes explains the theory of Intelligent Design and delivers a devastating critique of Darwinism, all with wit and style. There's simply no other book like it. Everyone will enjoy The Cave Painting: A Parable of Science.

ScienceDaily reports on the complex flight of bats.

Kenneth Breuer, a professor of engineering at Brown University, is particularly intrigued by bats because "they can generate different wing shapes and motions that other creatures can't."

"Bats have unique capabilities," says Breuer.

Breuer claims that "gliding has evolved in mammals seven times...and now it doesn't look like bats have any relationship to these gliding things."

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Evolution News & Views reports that The Chronicle of Higher Education is currently running a refreshing op-ed piece entitled, "Why Can't We Discuss Intelligent Design?," by J. Scott Turner, arguing for open discussion of ID on university campuses. The twist: Dr. Turner is a an associate professor of biology at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry who thinks intelligent design is "wrongheaded," but nevertheless deserves to be discussed in academia.

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In Slate, Gary Trudeau attempts to make the Facts vs Faith claim.

However, Darwinists and other scientists nearly always say that scientific results are controversial and more research is needed to push science forward. We need to have faith that science will find the answer no matter how unlikely that may seem at the moment.

If Trudeau is against "situational science," then he should also be against "situational ethics". But, no. His inconsistency is transparent.

Steven Weinberg's commentary on Richard Dawkins recent book, and other musings, appears in the London Times online.

While the commentary has some breadth, it lacks depth. He makes several factual errors, a couple concerning the early church Fathers. He quickly "dispatches" the ontological, cosmological, and design arguments for God/designer.

He attacks certitude, and yet seems rather certain of the arguments he posits. Would this be hypocritical?

The problem of "deadly certitude" is not that people groups are certain they have a correct worldview, it is what they are certain of (which may be false) that can lead to troublesome or horrific consequences. For instance, the decline of civility and morals can be traced to Darwinism, which asserts, as Weinberg points out, that our moral intuitions are merely a product of random mutation and natural selection, and have no objective basis. Therefore, individuals are actually accountable to no one: not their family, their neighbors, their government, or a supernatural creator. Weinberg fails to see that we are reaping the sown seeds of materialism. Professing to be wise, he is the fool.

Click the link above for Weinberg's thought-provoking commentary.

Below is the text of a 1996 op-ed from The Fairfield [CA] Daily Republic that compares Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. Among other things, the op-ed below shows how little the Darwinists' tired rhetoric has "evolved" over the past 10 years.

One amazing comment that the good professor made is that "there is no biology without him (Darwin)." Odd...because biology seemed to be practiced quite well before Darwin came up with his idea. In addition, there were other scientists of the time who had the idea. For example, Darwin just beat Wallace to the punch.

Another overreaching statement is that "natural selection now governs the interpretation of every one of the thousands of scientific papers published each month." According to the professor, natural selection is universally acknowledged as the mechanism. Says who?

This paragraph is also quite remarkable:
"Evolution refers to the obvious observation that there are no dinosaurs
walking down North Texas Street [the main drag in Fairfield, CA] - that is, that the plants and animals present on the planet today are very different from those present in the past. Natural selection, the mechanism of evolution, explains the process by which these differences arose."

Many atheist and agnostic scientists today question this "obvious" conclusion that it must be natural selection. Findings in the past 10 years suggest that natural selection is a poor candidate for explaining the historic phenomenon of different biological creatures.

The professor asserts that St. Augustine, the 6th century [sic] Christian scholar, concluded that evolution had to have occurred. By equivocating on the definition of "evolution", even I would say it has occurred. For instance, change over time is a definition of evolution, or (micro)-evolution, change within a "kind".

And the beat goes on...

The Fairfield [CA] Daily Republic
February 18, 1996

For biologists, Presidents Day can lead to thoughts of Darwin

By Jim DeKloe

Harvard biologist Stephen J. Gould often points out that Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day: February 12, 1809. So on Feb. 12, while most Americans celebrate the great president of the American Civil War, biologists everywhere commemorate the key historic figure in biology.

Professor Gould uses the term "soulmates" to describe the relationship
between the two men. As Abraham Lincoln freed U.S. slaves with his 1863
Emancipation Proclamation, Charles Darwin liberated science from oppressive Victorian dogma with the publication of his 1859 book, "The Origin of Species."

Darwin's bold idea transformed the field of biology, and changed geology,
astronomy and medicine forever. Darwin provided the glue that holds biology together - there is no biology without him.

Charles Darwin, of course, introduced the concept of natural selection as a mechanism of evolution (which he called "descent with modification"). Many prominent scientists of the day kicked themselves for missing such an
obvious idea. Natural selection now governs the interpretation of every one of the thousands of scientific papers published each month.

Public discussions of Darwin and his ideas usually betray a fundamental
misunderstanding. These discussions often confuse the fact of evolution with the mechanism of natural selection.

Evolution refers to the obvious observation that there are no dinosaurs
walking down North Texas Street [the main drag in Fairfield, CA] - that is, that the plants and animals present on the planet today are very different from those present in the past. Natural selection, the mechanism of evolution, explains the process by which these differences arose.

Natural selection explains why evolution proceeded in one direction or
another. The idea of evolution is ancient. St. Augustine, the 6th century [sic] Christian scholar, concluded that evolution had to have occurred. Centuries later, Charles Darwin explained how it occurred.

Of course, Darwin's idea created a firestorm of controversy, in both the
scientific and public realms, in the mid-1800s. Today, this controversy has entirely subsided in scientific circles thanks to universal recognition of the truth of natural selection.

But the controversy still periodically breaks out in public (and political) circles. "Creationists" sometimes improperly couch the dispute as "science versus religion," even though many denominations find no conflict between their beliefs and the scientific view of organic evolution.

In 1981 court case, clergy from the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, United
Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and African Methodist Episcopal
churches, Southern Baptist Convention, American Jewish Congress, Union of
American Hebrew Congregations and the American Jewish Committee filed as
plaintiffs against the state of Arkansas to strike down an "equal time"
provision. This provision would have forced Arkansas science teachers to
present the view that the world was created in six 24-hour days along with
the 4.6 billion year scientific alternative.

Most denominations find the scientific explanation of evolution and natural selection entirely compatible with their religious beliefs. Of course, those denominations don't own the religious radio stations.

Political interference on the issue has been known to encourage high school teachers to de-emphasize or sometimes entirely omit the key idea in biology. In a time when scientific literacy is more important than ever, such omission is a crime.

Even without "The Origin of Species," Darwin would have been recognized as
one of the best naturalists of the 19th century on the basis of his other
writings. His place of burial confirms his status in the world of scientific history; his grave is next to Isaac Newton's in Westminster Abbey.

So biologists celebrate Charles Darwin's birthday. His importance to
science rivals Abraham Lincoln's contribution to American history. It's
unfortunate that Darwin doesn't get his own three-day weekend.

Professor DeKloe is a Howard Hughes Teaching Fellow at the University of
California, Davis.

Nearly a quarter of Swedes think that astrology is scientific. Fourteen per cent consider Intelligent Design to be a scientific subject. At the same time, more than half dismiss these subjects as completely unscientific. This is according to a new opinion study.

The results show that people do not have enough knowledge about what science is. Read more about the survey in the link above.

In Evolution News & Views, Casey Luskin writes that after posting about the law review article in the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion which argued that Judge Jones went too far, he was sent an unsolicited e-mail with the subject, "Intelligent Design is Not Science." The e-mail was sent as a letter to the Editor-In-Chief and Managing Editor of the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, apparently intended for public consumption. The letter largely misunderstands ID and Mr. Italiano's legal arguments. Click the above link to read more...

eSkeptic magazine had quoted PEER's claim that Grand Canyon rangers were obeying some new policy about remaining agnostic about the age of the canyon. When challenged, Michael Shermer personally checked out this claim, found it was false, criticized PEER, and apologized in print.

Shermer is no friend of ID, but at least set a good example of not
putting total trust in "friendly" sources.

As YubaNet reported, the National Park Service insists that it does not teach creationism or endorse the view that the Grand Canyon is the product of Noah's Flood, according to a new agency public statement posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Despite this statement, the agency will continue selling a book making those "Young Earth" claims about the origin of the canyon - a book that top agency officials approved over the objections of its own park superintendent.

Scientists reported in an article in PLOS that all cells have the equivalent of a Zip-code built in to their DNA that partially determines their location in the body, thanks to gene expression.

Not only is the specified complexity of DNA impossible to expalin by random mutation and natural selection in finite time, but there is also much more information in the embryo than specified in its DNA. Even if neo-Darwinism could explain the specified complexity of DNA, neo-Darwinism would not even begin to be able to explain the nature of the all-important positional information in the embryo, or how it originated.

Evolution News & Views notes that a student note in Rutgers Journal of Law & Religion agrees that Judge Jones overextended the judicial arm when he decided on the question of whether ID is science. Observing that Judge Jones correctly found that the Dover School Board members had religious motives, Philip A. Italiano then explains that the ruling should have stopped its analysis there and not extended into broad questions about the definition of science. Click the above link to learn more...

Cindy Weiss of UConn Advance writes about a strong advocate of evolution.

Kent Holsinger, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, has seen his role evolve this year, from researching and teaching evolutionary biology to speaking out nationally on behalf of the theory on which it is based-evolution.

Holsinger says, ID proponents have failed to present any new predictions that can explain natural phenomena and be tested by other researchers, as the scientific method would require. Of course, neither has Darwinism. That's because Darwinism is a historic science.

"We don't ask geographers to teach flat world theory anymore," he says. Now here is an example of a backhanded ad hominem attack.

Weiss points out that some view humans as a species apart, and may worry that accepting humans as animals would mean rejecting human ethics and morals.

"If you hold these misunderstandings, accepting evolution is very threatening," says Holsinger.

The trouble is if man is the result of random motion of particles acted on by natural selection, then there is no objective foundation for morality. Dostoyevsky was right: If God does not exist, then everything is permitted.

Alvin Plantinga reviews Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion.

You might say that some of his forays into philosophy are at best sophomoric, but that would be unfair to sophomores; the fact is (grade inflation aside) many of his arguments would receive a failing grade in a sophomore philosophy class.

The review is a pure delight to read...

Kenneth Pidcock, Wilkes University professor, opines in the CentreDaily paper. He comments that American scientists are failing to act in good faith by refusing to accept intelligent design as a legitimate scientific alternative to Darwinian evolutionary theory.

This lack of respect, among scientists, for intelligent design is attributed to metaphysical bias and hostility to religious faith arising from a sort of default materialism among members of the scientific community.

Much of the ID proponent's argument rests on information and probability theory. However, they do not offer an alternative theory that can be tested against available evidence for how speciation occurs.

This article in the Murfreesboro, TN Daily News Journal by Ed Kimbrell is so typical of most people's understanding of ID.

Down near the end of the article he makes this statement:

"Turn to the sciences for a moment and look at Kansas and Georgia, where the boards demanded that intelligent design be taught along side evolution. Thankfully, the people dumped the Kansas board and the only major court decision ruled against intelligent design, calling it religion, not science, which it is."

His misunderstanding of the events and what ID really claims is sad. There has been no demand by thoughtful IDers to teach it in public schools. That assertion by Kimbrell alone makes me wonder about the truthfullness of other sections of the article.

The Chautauqua Lecture Series at Eastern Kentucky University last February 9th can be viewed or heard at the above Web link.

This is a good resource for those who want to learn more about orphan genes and the problems that they pose for common descent.

A thought-provoking parable by David Anderson...

As I thumbed my way through the pages of "The God Delusion", a question dropped into my head. Does Richard Dawkins really exist?

Being a scientific and rational person, I decided that I wasn't going to just accept any old theory on this question. If Richard Dawkins exists, then I would need to be shown the proper evidence for it...........

Richard Buggs comments in the Guardian about the scientific enterprise of ID. Buggs sits on the scientific panel of Truth in Science.

Tom O'Neill, of the Cincinnati Post, reports on the search for a new education commisioner in Kentucky.

The Kentucky Board of Education will not discuss ID.

Former Kentucky education commissioner Gene Wilhoit told state board members that it would be a mistake to hire a successor who believed in teaching intelligent design in public schools.

Steve Paulson, of Salon, interviews Dr. Ronald Numbers.

Numbers, a former Seventh-day Adventist and author of the definitive history of creationism, discusses his break with the church, whether creationists are less intelligent and why Galileo wasn't really a martyr.

Perhaps because of his background, Numbers is one of the few scholars in the battle of worldviews who remain respected by both Darwinists and IDers/creationists.

Kazmer Ujvarosy, in the American Chronicle, does a survey of ID, and interviews Mike Keas who teaches in the Master of Arts program in Science and Religion (MASR) at Biola University.

Ujvarosy seems very adamant about specifically identifying the designer, which ID proponent says is beyond the scope of science.

The fundamental essence of reality boils down to either a necessary, eternal being, or the cosmos springing from something outside of itself, or ultimately nothing. Science cannot address this, but philosophy and theology can.

Annie Hall, of the Cincinnati Enquirer, reports that a little-known West Chester mom who'd never won elected public office knocked off an incumbent.

Susan Haverkos, who spent $3,500 of her own money on her campaign, defeated school board member Tom Gunlock and two other opponents. Gunlock and the other candidates each spent three times as much, according to the Secretary of State's Office.

Haverkos emphasized support for teaching intelligent design in 10th-grade science classes - an issue over which the 19-member board has clashed.

Erika Niedowski, of the Baltimore Sun, writes that Russia's first-ever lawsuit on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution began with a biology textbook, a bunch of bananas and a man dressed in a monkey suit.

The case revolves around 16-year-old Mariya Shraiber, who says her biology text presents a one-sided version of life's origins based on Darwin's theory. The lawsuit challenges Darwin's theory as anti-religious, atheistic and unproven.