In the News

Bill Sammon, writing in Fox News, says,

"Biden also used unusually strong language to ridicule those who believe in creationism or intelligent design."

"'I refuse to believe the majority of people believe this malarkey!' the senior senator from Delaware exclaimed."

"But less than six months earlier, CBS News conducted a poll that found a majority of Americans (51 percent) do believe that God created humans in their present form. Even larger majorities reject the theory of evolution, according to the poll."

Biden knows what he said would be very unpopular with more than half the country.

More...

Butteville (CA) Union Elementary School District trustees, as well as school administrators, are considering adding "intelligent design" to the school's seventh-grade science curriculum.

In a discussion on an information / action agenda item, "Evolution versus Intelligent Design Taught in the Classroom," during the district's board meeting last Wednesday, trustees agreed to seek legal counsel regarding the issue.

"I think this will be a big issue in the Supreme Court before long," said board president Stephen Darger, a practicing attorney and former police officer.

More...

Ben Stein, the famous conservative speaker and star of "Win Ben Stein's Money" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", will be speaking in Raleigh at a Chamber of Commerce event.

Stein has also been in the news lately for his recent film called "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed", which he says questions the education field's acceptance of the theory of evolution, which Stein calls "Darwinism," while blocking other theories such as intelligent design.

More...

Slaughter of the Dissidents: The Shocking Truth About Killing the Careers of Darwin Doubters by Dr. Jerry Bergman

August 2008, 488 pages, softbound, with index and extensive bibliography

Ben Stein's movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed has been called the "tip of the iceberg" regarding the discrimination that exists in academic and media communities against those who challenge Darwin's theory of evolution. With the release of Jerry Bergman's new book, Slaughter of the Dissidents, you are about to meet the rest of this Titanic-sized iceberg. Bergman experienced the slaughter of his own career over thirty years ago while teaching at Bowling Green University, which started him on a life-long quest to document the academic and religious discrimination exhibited against students, scientists and educators who dare to doubt Darwin. Bergman interviewed over 300 people in his quest to document one of America's growing hate crimes. He also went to great lengths to interview folks on both sides of each case and sought to have each victim review his case description before publication. Kennedy, Eidsmoe, Bergman and Wirth lay the ground work in the opening pages to help you understand the context of this situation. Then Bergman dives into a page-turning narrative describing how career after career was mowed down by the big Darwinian machine...and there is no end in sight of this growing discrimination, unless you get this book into the hands of everyone who cares about our academic and religious freedoms.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY.

A Web site named

X-Ray Technician Schools [Alabama]

has offered its "Top 100 Cutting-Edge Science Blogs" list, and ID Update (#39 on the list) is included under the Biology section.

Is evolution about to enter a new phase? Three hundred biologists, computer scientists, physicists, mathematicians, philosophers and social scientists from around the world are gathering in Winchester, UK. Their aim is to address one of the greatest challenges in modern science: how to create a genuine artificial life form.

Maybe the facts are beginning to cause cracks in the wall of scientism...

Prof Mark Bedau of Reed College in Portland, Oregon, argues at the 11th International Conference on Artificial Life that despite the promise that organisms could one day breed in a computer, such systems quickly run out of steam, as genetic possibilities are not open-ended but predefined. Unlike the real world, the outcome of computer evolution is built into its programming.

His conclusion? Although natural selection is necessary for life, something is missing in our understanding of how evolution produced complex creatures. By this, he doesn't mean intelligent design (of course not) - the claim that only God can light the blue touch paper of life - but some other concept. "I don't know what it is, nor do I think anyone else does, contrary to the claims you hear asserted," he says. But he believes ALIFE will be crucial in discovering the missing mechanism.

Additionally...

Dr Richard Watson of Southampton University, the co-organiser of the conference, echoes his concerns. "Although Darwin gave us an essential component for the evolution of complexity, it is not a sufficient theory," he says. "There are other essential components that are missing."

And for good measure...

"Evolution on its own doesn't look like it can make the creative leaps that have occurred in the history of life," says Dr Seth Bullock, another of the conference's organisers. "It's a great process for refining, tinkering, and so on. But self-organisation is the process that is needed alongside natural selection before you get the kind of creative power that we see around us.

Changing one's worldview is like trying to turn a bus around on a one-lane road with no shoulders. Some can do it...and some will not.

Lori Yount, of the Wichita Eagle, reports that five seats on the State Board of Education are up for grabs this year. Education advocates say how children learn about evolution hangs in the balance - and who voters choose could affect Kansas' national reputation.

A frequent flip-flop between moderate and conservative majorities on the 10-member board has resulted in the state changing its science standards four times in the past eight years.

Conservatives have pushed for standards casting doubt on evolution, and moderates have said intelligent design does not belong in the science classroom.

In 2007, a new 6-4 moderate majority removed standards that called evolution into question.

This year, none of the three moderates whose seats are up for election are running again. Only one of the two conservative incumbents is running for re-election.

More...