In the News

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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