In the News

Ross Anderson, in Crosscut Seattle, writes on the Discovery Institute, and offers an extended biography of Bruce Chapman.

More...

This just in from our IDArts website:

"We recently received a large brown envelop from our mail carrier with no return address. Inside we found photocopies of what appear to be internal memos from the Natural Sciences Department at the University of Ivory Tower. A note inside indicated that the sender was a graduate student at the university who felt these documents needed to be made available to the public. The sender simply referred to himself/herself as "Sager". We will be posting these memos (that our staff dubbed the "Ivorygate Documents") one at a time as we are able to review and authenticate them. Today we are releasing the memo entitled 'Educators Guide to dealing with intelligent design'".

AP reports that a requirement for public schools to teach "critical analysis" has passed in the Florida House.

The issue now returns to the Senate, which already has rejected the House approach and passed a different version.

The term "critical analysis" is one used by intelligent design advocates. The bill's sponsor, though, denies it would require or allow teaching intelligent design.

More...

Tim Woods of the Waco Tribune-Herald reports on Baylor's part in the documentary "Expelled".

(to read this article you will need to provide some information)

More...

Tristen Abbey reports in the Stanford Review on Darwinism's impact on the world.

In a point-counterpoint Q & A, Michael Ruse and Richard Weikart weigh in.

More...

Does neuroscience leave room for God? That was a question debated Saturday April 19, 2008 at the University of Minnesota. While Dr. PZ Myers was appearing in theaters around the country that night as Darwin's bulldog in the movie Expelled, he also appeared in person to debate Dr. Angus Menuge, Professor of Philosophy at Concordia University Wisconsin. The central issue of the debate was to examine the materialist contention that the brain reduces to the mind. Does the scientific evidence indicate that something more is going on in the brain that can't be explained purely by material causes? Dr. Menuge provided us a full report of the event along with a copy of his Powerpoint presention, and a link to a web video of the debate.

Here are a couple quotes from the report:

Myers was surprisingly passive in debate and did not really seem eager to spar. I got the sense that he had previously dismissed me as another creationist "ID-iot," and that he was not really prepared for me to make a serious case. Here are some of the main points of our discussion...

I had two very big surprises. First, Dr. Myers denied being a Darwinist, which produced the kind of stunned silence one would expect if the Pope announced his non-Catholicity. Myers' stated grounds were that Darwin has been dead for over a hundred years. I wished I had pointed out that I am on many issues a Platonist, even though Plato has been dead for 2400 years. Second, as I mentioned, Myers denied that science is really about truth. I had to wonder why it was so important for him to exclude design from science if all that matters is what works. After all, I had noted earlier on in my presentation that the Darwinist philosopher Michael Ruse agrees that methodological design does work in biology by helping scientists decode the machinery of life.

In ENV, Jonathan Wells writes that "surprisingly, in a lengthy interview with Ben Stein in Expelled, Dawkins says that living things on the Earth could be actually (and not just apparently) designed - and that the design might be detectable. Dawkins thereby concedes the central claim of ID, though he insists that the designers - if there were any - must have been highly evolved space aliens, not God."

More...

From AP...

An assistant professor at Iowa State University who says he was denied tenure because of his support of intelligent design has accepted a new position.

Guillermo Gonzalez will continue to work in ISU's physics and astronomy department until the end of the semester, but is leaving by August 1st to take an associate professor position at Grove City College in Pennsylvania.

More...

William Mayer, in Pipeline News, wordsmiths one of my favorite reviews of "Expelled" and reaction from the opposition.

More...

Chris Mooney, no friend of ID, tells it like it is...

More...

In the American Spectator, Richard Weikart, who appeared in "Expelled", writes that Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers, and some other Darwinists are horrified that the documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, will promote Intelligent Design to a large audience. Ironically, their campaign to discredit Ben Stein and the film confirms its main point, which is to expose the persecution meted out by Darwinists to those daring to criticize Darwinian theory.

More...

A review of "Expelled" and reactions of critics by Martin Cothran in ENV...

Bill Dembski's review of "Expelled" at townhall.com...

The Uncommon Descent website has a blog entry with impressions of opening day for the Expelled movie. The early showings were sparsely attended (as expected on a work day) but Friday night showings were selling out to enthusiastic audiences.

With the opening of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed on over 1000 screens, the rhetoric on the evolution side has been at fever pitch. It has been said that "people believe what they want to believe, not the truth". People's judgment can be warped by prejudices, emotions, and plain bullheadedness.

At the base level, there are those who do not want to surrender self-autonomy to a higher power. They will claim that there is no debate.

They defend their view by going for emotional appeal, and by personal attacks on their opponents. It is easier to call someone an ignoramous or a moron, then to debate the science.

They say Intelligent Design cannot be determined by science, and yet science can determine intelligent agency in archaelogy, forsenics, search for extraterrestial life, etc. Of course, in their thinking, in those disciplines of science, the intelligent agent is a being created by evolution...so, no problem. But, if a cause is posited outside the physical cosmos, forget it. Even though science sees remarkable evidence of design in microbiology, THAT intelligent agency is forbidden...that is religion. Funny, because the multiverse theory, which attempts to explain the fine-tuned cosmos we live in, is putting faith in an entity which cannot be seen or measured, the multiverse. So who has to exercise more faith, the atheists/agnostics or the theists? Evolutionists in the past 50 years have been walking on thin ice, especially in the discipline of microbiology, and the cracks are widening.

Roger Moore, the man who snuck into a private screening of the documentary film in Orlando months ago, gives Expelled a poor rating. Because the film was not released to film critics, his review is getting a lot of play this week. See the review...

Meantime...Brent Bozell III, who initially was expecting little from Expelled, came out of the showing stunned. See his review...

The LA Times reports that the film could have a bigger opening than expected by many. See story here...

We shall see. One thing for sure, the blogs will be on fire with comments about Expelled once people see it for themselves.

Watch for one of the most stunning parts of the film, which was the interview with Richard Dawkins near the end. His bumbling response to the question, "How did life arise" is priceless.

Darwin and the Nazis
By Richard Weikart
Published 4/16/2008, The American Spectator

Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers, and some other Darwinists are horrified that the forthcoming documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, will promote Intelligent Design to a large audience when it opens at over a thousand theaters nationwide on April 18. Ironically, their campaign to discredit Ben Stein and the film confirms its main point, which is to expose the persecution meted out by Darwinists to those daring to criticize Darwinian theory. more...

Regis Nicoll, in the Salvo Blog...

For those who think that the object of science is to follow the truth wherever it leads, there's this in from the AP: "Some scientists are urging Florida's Legislature to reject a bill that would protect teachers from being fired if they present information challenging evolution."

If you're wondering why any scientific theory should be immune from criticism in institutions which are supposedly training young people for critical thinking, it's because the stalwarts of science orthodoxy have proclaimed, ex academia, that evolution is "a scientific fact" and that its alternative, Intelligent Design, is "religion posing as science." Neither is true.

More...

Michael Behe will give his first lecture at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 17th in the Ballrooms of the University Center of the University of Northern Colorado, 11th Avenue and 20th Street in Greeley. He will then speak at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 18th at the Colorado State University Lory Student Center Theater and again at 7 p.m. on Friday at Timberline Church, 2908 S. Timberline Road in Fort Collins.

All of the lectures will be free and open to the public.

In ENV...The National Center for Science Education has just unveiled its expanded website denouncing the upcoming movie "Expelled," but the website's clunky attacks merely provide confirmation that the film's essential thesis is correct: Darwinists really don't believe in academic freedom regarding evolution, and they're more than willing to smear any scientist who disagrees with them.

The basic thrust of the NCSE's website seems to be the preposterous claim that pro-ID scientists never, ever face harassment, intimidation, or persecution. Not ever! Scientists who claim otherwise - such as biologist Richard Sternberg, astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, and Baylor University engineering professor Robert Marks - must be cry-babies or worse.

The NCSE's approach is otherwise known as "blaming the victim."

More...

Where does the truth lie, Neo-Darwinian Evolution or Creative Design? On the heels of the April 18th release of the film "Expelled" by Ben Stein, the Antelope Valley Chapter of Reasons to Believe in cooperation with the Department of Biology at Antelope Valley College will be hosting a "free to the public" scientific discussion of creation and evolution presented by three distinguished scientific authors and educators. On Wednesday evening, April 23rd at 7:00 pm at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center in Lancaster, California, Dr. Hugh Ross, Ph.D., and Dr. Fazale Rana, Ph. D. will be presenting scientific arguments on the evidential merits of Creative Design theory. They will be questioned by Dr. Matthew Rainbow from the Biology Department at Antelope Valley College. Dr. Rainbow favors a naturalistic interpretation of the evolution of life. The implications and scientific merits behind both positions either supports or negates the plausibility of a Creator of the universe. For additional event information, please contact: Lee Bush at (661) 724-0341 or by email at leebush@verizon.net.

(Los Angeles, Calif.) April 14, 2008. - Even before its April 18 release nationwide, Ben Stein's movie, EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed has triggered heated reactions from both sides of the debate between religion and science.

Atheists are "crashing" EXPELLED screenings and conference calls; critics are slamming it; and leaders are raving about it. One organization is urging theaters to reject the film, while another is holding a movie marathon for all 15 EXPELLED showings at their theater.

And EXPELLED screenings for legislators in Florida and Missouri are causing political firestorms and driving "Academic Freedom" bills that challenge Darwinism. more

Agnus Menuge, Professor of Philosophy at Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin will debate PZ Myers on April 19th at 8 p.m. in the Science Auditorium.

Myers has postulated that "religious belief is an emergent consequence of much broader genetically determined property of the brain." He will argue that "there is no 'god gene', no specific hard-coding of religion into human brains, and that religion itself is a kind of conceptual parasite that takes advantage of other desirable and even 'virtuous' intrinsic qualities of the brain."

Casey Luskin interviews Iowa State University alumnus Dave Eaton on FreeGonzalez.com, a new organization created by ISU alumni concerned about supporting renowned astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, who was recently denied tenure at ISU.

Dave Eaton explains how FreeGonzalez.com came about and why it is necessary to support scientists such as Dr. Gonzalez who have been expelled.

More...

The Florida Senate Judiciary Committee voted 7-3 this week to submit the Evolution Academic Freedom Act, which would guarantee the freedom of teachers and students in Florida public schools who challenge theories of Darwinism, for debate in the Senate.

Lawmakers felt prompted for the need of an academic freedom bill after the Florida Board of Education voted for the first time in its history to require the teaching of evolution in schools back in February.

More...

On TED.com, the incredible innovations of underwater life are looked at in this short video. Having just finished Michael Behe's book "Edge of Evolution", and seeing the paltry innovations that random mutation and natural selection can achieve, the only conclusion you can draw from these sea creatures is "DESIGNED!"

More...

Discovery Institute is pleased to announce two intensive summer seminars on intelligent design, science, and culture from July 11-20, 2008 in Seattle. The first seminar is for students in the natural sciences and philosophy of science; the second seminar is for students in the social sciences and humanities (including politics, law, journalism, and theology). Both seminars are designed for highly-motivated college students who seek a deeper understanding of science and its implications for society.

More...

In the Baptist Press, Michael Foust writes on an interview with Ben Stein, and the upcoming documentary film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed".

The film opens April 18, and Stein believes he's involved in one of the leading cultural and political battles of his life: the fight for academic freedom against an establishment that teaches Darwinian evolution as fact. Intelligent Design (ID) - the belief that certain aspects of the world are so complex that they must have been created by an intelligent being, instead of by a random process - deserves a place at the academic table, he says.

"I think I'm engaged in a struggle that's very much uphill in which the establishment is very much against me," he said in a recent telephone conference call with reporters. "But I'm a rebel to my core ... and happy to be in an uphill struggle, as long as the cause is right."

More...

Dr. Larry Moran is a professor of biochemistry at the University of Toronto. He is a materialist, and some striking comments he makes tie in nicely with the upcoming release of "Expelled".

Intellectual bullying is going strong.

More at ENV...

David Berlinski, teacher and author of books on mathematics, challenges the fields of science and atheist thought by arguing that science has not been able to prove the inexistence of a God nor explain the start of the universe. This event was hosted by the Discovery Institute in Washington, D.C.

Details...

Here is the LINK...