In the News

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.

More...

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?"

More...

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.