In the News

Whenever biochemist Michael Behe's argument for design from "irreducibly complex" molecular machines appears, there is a Darwinist waiting in the wings with a devastating critique (or so he thinks).

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In ENV...science standards review processes always seem to send Darwinists into a misinformation flurry. The current review of Texas' standards is no exception. Josh Rosenau has a post up recently attacking Casey Luskin that has a number of errors. Josh is in elite company, as these are the very same errors that spread like the flu through the main stream media last spring. At that time we reported how the New York Times and Washington Post, among others, were misreporting the facts about "strengths and weaknesses" language in the Texas science standards.

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In The Spectator (UK), Melanie Phillips reports on the latest Dawkins-Lennox debate.

Phillips attended the debate between Richard Dawkins and John Lennox at Oxford's Natural History Museum. This was the second public encounter between the two men, but it turned out to be very different from the first. Lennox is the Oxford mathematics professor whose book, God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? is to my mind an excoriating demolition of Dawkins's overreach from biology into religion as expressed in his book The God Delusion - all the more devastating because Lennox attacks him on the basis of science itself. In the first debate Dawkins was badly caught off-balance by Lennox's argument precisely because, possibly for the first time, he was being challenged on his own chosen scientific ground.

The latest debate, however, was different because from the off Dawkins moved it onto safer territory - and at the very beginning made a most startling admission. He said...

"A serious case could be made for a deistic God."

This was surely remarkable.

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William Dembski and Sean McDowell did a seminar on understanding Intelligent Design. This is based on their new book. Below is the link for the mp3.

LINK

Dr. William Dembski will present a lecture at Baylor University, Tuesday, October 21st at 5:30 p.m., Rogers Building, Room 109.

Natural selection is widely supposed to be an information ratchet that gradually accumulates the information organisms need to acquire novel adaptations. Yet natural selection is nothing of the sort. The Darwinian mechanism of natural selection and random variation is a low-level trial-and-error method for solving routine problems that is unequipped to handle the innovative problems that biological systems have solved in the course of natural history. Darwinism and evolutionary biology more generally, committed as they are to unguided material mechanisms, do not have the resources to solve biology's information problem. This talk will indicate why biology's information problem is unresolvable apart from intelligent design.

Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity will sponsor three events in mid-November in Oregon and Washington.

PSSI - www.doctorsdoubtingdarwin.org) is an international physician-member organization with members in 17 countries. PSSI is dedicated to educating the public and academia on the inability of Darwinian macroevolution to account for the origination and complexity of life.

Event Web Page...

The EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed DVD featuring Ben Stein can now be ordered at ARN. In addition, ARN is offering an EXPELLED Super Bundle which includes the EXPELLED DVD, Slaughter of the Dissidents book by Dr. Jerry Bergman. And for a limited time when you order this bundle we will include free copies of the three of the best selling Intelligent Design documentaries: Unlocking the Mystery of Life, Privileged Planet, and The Case for Creator. Normally this bundle would retail for $125 but for a limited time you can order this EXPELLED Super Bundle for only $50 (including shipping anywhere in the U.S). Even if you already own some of these ID documentaries or the book, this is a great opportunity to pick additional copies to give away to friends and colleagues. The EXPELLED DVD is officially released on Tuesday October 21 and orders will be shipping next week. Those who are interested in hosting a public showing of EXPELLED can purchase a license and movie event kit from Wing Clips Cinema.

NOTE: While the ID documentaries will play in any region worldwide, the EXPELLED DVD will only play on Region 1 (US & Canada) DVD players.

The fellowship enables ten print, broadcast or online journalists to
pursue an intensive two-month course of study in issues of science
and religion. The programme includes three weeks of seminars at the
university of Cambridge featuring eminent, well known authorities in
the field. Fellows are paid a stipend in addition to travel expenses
to Cambridge.

The fellowship, now in its fifth year, seeks to promote a deeper
understanding and a more informed public discussion of the interface
of science and religion. Potential areas of study include Islam and
science, neuroscience, cosmology, quantum uncertainty, multiverses,
the New Atheism and spirituality and health.

Applicants must demonstrate an interest in the field, originality of
thought displayed in previous writings and a superior record of
journalistic achievement. The awards are open to all journalists with
a minimum of three years’ experience, though priority will
be given to mid-career and senior journalists.. For more details on
the program and to apply for the fellowships, please go to

http://www.templeton-cambridge.org

Application deadline is Monday, December 15, 2008.

The Intelligent Design Network of New Mexico will hold its next scientific issues discussion meeting on Tuesday, October 14 from 7 to 9 PM in room 2405 of the UNM Law School. In preparation for a visit by Jonathan Wells in January, participants will listen to and discuss a lecture that he gave at a conference, "Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe," at Yale University in 2000, on the relationship between genes, development, and form. Participants will also listen to and discuss a lecture by Steve Meyer entitled "The methodological equivalence of design and descent."

These meetings are designed to be a forum to discuss new scientific findings related to origins from an open philosophical view. The goal is to become more knowledgeable about the subjects and to debate the evidence for and against Design and Naturalism. The public is welcome to engage in this open forum of guided discussion.

While the suit was dropped, the 15 second segment will not appear in the DVD version of "Expelled".

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Laura Heinauer, for the Austin American Statesman, reports that the state released an early committee recommendation for the new science curriculum that would excise ideas "based upon purported forces outside of nature" from what Texas students are taught in biology classes. The curriculum, once approved, will outline what will be taught about science to every public school student in the state.

Organizers of the 21st Century Science Coalition said the group formed about two weeks ago and blossomed in membership in response to comments by State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy, R-Bryan, who opposes a committee proposal to remove the requirement that the "strengths and weaknesses" of all scientific theories be taught in biology classes.

McLeroy has also said he wants to spell out in the curriculum that there are limits to what science can explain.

Of course, there is strong opposition from the other side.

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