In the News

Colorado Springs, CO - December 21, 2010

Access Research Network has just released its annual "Top 10 Darwin and Design Science Stories" for 2010.

Gaining top honors on the list was new research that revealed the optimal design of the human eye. Physicists from the Israel Institute of Technology have created a light-guiding model of the retina, which reveals that the glial (or Muller) cells provide low-scattering passage of light from the retinal surface to the photoreceptor cells, thus acting as optical fibers. Researchers concluded "The fundamental features of the array of glial cells are revealed as an optimal structure designed for preserving the acuity of images in the human retina. It plays a crucial role in vision quality, in humans and in other species." These findings open up potentially fruitful areas for biomimetics research and might find applications in more successful eye transplants and better camera designs.

The gold rush toward biomimetics research (human designs mimicking biological designs) was another top story this year. According to Dennis Wagner, ARN Executive Director "Dozens of articles appeared in the 2010 scientific literature reporting how scientists are learning how to 'reverse engineer' living systems." Examples include: 1) Caltech scientists who are studying jellyfish in order to build a better aquatic pump; 2) German engineers who are building a robotic arm inspired by the design of the elephant trunk; 3) a European team that is building a robotic arm with inspiration from a octopus's limb; 4) swim suits and ship hulls that are being patterned after shark skin; 5) students at the University of Texas, Dallas, that are trying to harness the chemical sensing capability of bacteria to build synthetic sensors for toxins; 6) researchers at the University of Queensland who are inventing navigation systems that can perform complex maneuvers by imitating the optical flow of honeybee eyes; and 7) researchers that are pursuing new lightweight and high performance materials based on a new spider species found in Madagascar that spins silk twice as strong and twice as elastic as any previously studied. This "toughest biomaterial ever seen" is 10 times stronger than Kevlar. Wagner observed, "Many of these research articles seem to miss the rather obvious point that in order to reverse engineer a system, it had to be engineered in the first place."

An online version of the ARN Top 10 Darwin and Design stories for 2010 with hyperlinks to original news sources can be found at www.arn.org/top10.

The NY Times reports that...In 2007, C. Martin Gaskell, an astronomer at the University of Nebraska, was a leading candidate for a job running an observatory at the University of Kentucky. But then somebody did what one does nowadays: an Internet search.

That search turned up evidence of Dr. Gaskell’s evangelical Christian faith.

The University of Kentucky hired someone else. And Dr. Gaskell sued the institution.

Whether his faith cost him the job and whether certain religious beliefs may legally render people unfit for certain jobs are among the questions raised by the case, Gaskell v. University of Kentucky.

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Casey Luskin wrote an article for the Christian Science Monitor on the Louisiana textbook decision. Luskin writes that...

Critical inquiry and freedom for credible dissent are vital to good science. Sadly, when it comes to biology textbooks, American high school students are learning that stubborn groupthink can suppress responsible debate.

In recent weeks, the media have been buzzing over a decision by the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to adopt biology textbooks. A Fox News summary read "Louisiana committee rejects calls to include debate over creationism in state-approved biology textbooks...." There was one problem with the story. Leading critics of evolution in Louisiana were not asking that public schools debate creationism, or even that they teach intelligent design. Rather, they wanted schools to simply teach the scientific debate over Darwinian evolution.

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Casey Luskin writes ENV...Martin Gaskell is an astronomer who is originally from the United Kingdom. He came to the U.S. in 1975 and later received his M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He's not a creationist. As we'll see below, he's generally a theistic evolutionist, who has at times expressed minor criticisms of some aspects of evolution (he accepts common ancestry) and an openness to the possibility of intelligent design. In 2007, Gaskell was on the faculty at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, where he taught in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. At that time, he applied for a job at the University of Kentucky (UK), hoping to serve as the founding director of a newly planned observatory. But the UK didn't hire Gaskell. Instead they hired Timothy Knauer, who was considerably less experienced. Why? The hiring search committee at UK confused intelligent design (ID) with theistic evolution, and both with creationism, ending up with Gaskell filing a religious discrimination lawsuit against UK. His case shows that if academia merely thinks you're an ID-sympathizer - regardless of whether you actually are - then you're a "creationist" who should have no role in public outreach at the university.

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On December 2, 2010 NASA staged a big press release to announce the discovery of an arsenic-based form of DNA that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. This week Slate dismissed the issue as shoddy science.

This should be interesting...

Link here...

Casey Lusken, in ENV, gives tribute to a great scientist and ID advocate Dr. Phillip Skell.

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On ID the Future...Dr. Donald L. Ewert continues to explain why the vertebrate adaptive immune system does not use "random" or "chance" processes like Darwinian evolution to generate antibody diversity. Instead, he argues that the immune system is intelligently designed. Listen in as Dr. Ewert shares one of the most interesting stories in science, the generation of antibody diversity.

Link to audio...

As reported on Uncommom Descent...Michael Behe is currently on a speaking tour around the UK (tour website here), organised by the newly founded Centre for ID UK. Last night, the Glasgow lecture was entitled "Darwin or Design - What Does the Science Really Say?" As is to be expected, Behe spoke both articulately and persuasively, developing a powerful cumulative positive case for design based on the nanotechnology which pervades life at the level of the cellular world. Behe is a very gifted speaker, especially when it comes to conveying his scientific ideas and concepts to an audience without a scientific background.

Link to blog...

Online videos of the debate between renowned atheist Christopher Hitchens and intelligent design proponent William Dembski over God's existence were in such high demand Monday that the school behind the event said it had to relocate the content to another server.

Mary Carl Finkelstein, special assignments coordinator at Prestonwood Christian Academy and organizer of the debate, told The Christian Post that over 5,000 viewers accessed the online videos Monday morning, causing the school to search for a different server to better host the videos.

Link to article...

The Baptist Press reports on the debate. Intelligent Design proponent William Dembski and famed atheist Christopher Hitchens disputed the existence of a benevolent God in a recent debate.

Link to article...

The word "proves" may be a stretch, but a cumulative case continues to be built.

As reported in Uncommon Descent, seeing is believing.. Over at Creation.com, Brian Thomas has posted a fascinating article entitled, ATP synthase: majestic molecular machine made by a mastermind. ATP synthase is an enzyme that synthesizes an energy-rich compound, ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which is used by almost every biochemical process in the body. ATP synthase is also the world's tiniest rotary motor, and it operates at near 100% efficiency, which is far greater than that of any man-made motor. In his article, Brian Thomas does an excellent job of describing the workings of this enzyme and of exposing the inadequacies of proposed evolutionary explanations for its origin.

Click HERE to see the article and video...

Here for "In the News" updates...

Here for weather and science...

Thanks...and enjoy!

As reported in Medical Daily, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, applying a state-of-the-art imaging system to brain-tissue samples from mice, have been able to quickly and accurately locate and count the myriad connections between nerve cells in unprecedented detail, as well as to capture and catalog those connections' surprising variety.

Observed in a new method called array tomography, the brain's overall complexity is almost beyond belief, said Stephen Smith, PhD, professor of molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford University. "One synapse, by itself, is more like a microprocessor - with both memory-storage and information-processing elements - than a mere on/off switch. In fact, one synapse may contain on the order of 1,000 molecular-scale switches. A single human brain has more switches than all the computers and routers and Internet connections on Earth," he said.

"In a human, there are more than 125 trillion synapses just in the cerebral cortex alone," said Smith. That's roughly equal to the number of stars in 1,500 Milky Way galaxies, he noted.

Mark Hartwig, long time ID advocate, commented that "Probably the only thing more complex than this will be Darwinists' explanation of how a mindless process and time produced such stunning structures."

The article...

On the Uncommon Descent web site, Gil Dodgen opines on the Dembski-Hitchens debate in Texas.

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According to reviewer Dora the new online game CellCraft "is one part resource management, one part puzzle, one part strategy, and even one part funny. Oh, and did I mention? It's(*gasp!*)... educational!"

If you are looking for a fun way to teach your kids (or yourself) about the complexity and of the cell give this new online game a try. It can be played at the popular Kongragate website or you can download a copy to your computer from the CellCraft game website.

Dembski and Hitchens will debate the existence of a good God during a conference for the Biblical Worldview Institute at Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, Texas. Click here for the flyer...

William Dembski, research professor in philosophy at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, will spar with "anti-theist" Christopher Hitchens, known as a champion of the "new atheism," Nov. 18th.

Dembski and Hitchens will debate the existence of a good God during a conference for the Biblical Worldview Institute at Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, Texas. The debate will be hosted in the worship center at Prestonwood Baptist Church from 8:40 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. It will also be webcast on www.pcawebcast.com.

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Jay Richards writes in The American about Stephen Hawkings "nothing". Gravity seems to be a placeholder for a personal, eternal, intelligent designer. But, from whence came gravity? Using equivocal definitions of nothing gets you nowhere.

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Justin Brierley, host of Premier Christian Radio's popular faith debate programme Unbelievable? will host "An Evening with Michael Behe" on Monday, 22 November at Westminster Chapel in central London.

For all the information you will need to attend this event...

http://www.premier.org.uk/behe

For more information on the entire Darwin or Design? tour...

http://www.darwinordesign.org.uk/

The Guardian reports that Gideon Sa'ar, the education minister who installed Avital as his chief scientist on a "trial period" last December, dismissed the former head of aeromechanics at defence firm Elbit Systems and member of the right-leaning Professors for a Strong Israel, over his statements "denying the tenets of evolution and global warming". (Avital also unsuccessfully ran for Sa'ar's Likud party in the 2006 Knesset elections.)

The paper reports a ministry official as saying: "Someone who holds the opinions of Avital cannot serve as chief scientist of the education ministry."

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On Thursday, October 28th the world's largest museum of African American history will host a debate exploring the impact of Darwin's theory on eugenics and scientific racism. Organized by the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, "Darwin's Legacy: Scientific Breakthrough or Breakdown?" is co-sponsored by Discovery Institute and WLQV-AM 1500. Moderator for the event is author and broadcast journalist Edward Foxworth.

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According to ENV...Mark A. Chancey claims ID "originated within certain religious circles and has credibility only within those same circles - mostly theologically conservative Christian groups that find aspects of evolutionary theory threatening." Whatever else may be said of his characterizations, the statement above is surely bad history and not an accurate reflection of the development of modern ID.

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An Intelligent Design lecture/discussion group will meet at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Tuesday, October 19th

7-9 PM

University of New Mexico Law School

Room 2405

More for topics...

As reported in Inspire Magazine, Professor Michael Behe, a key figure in the Intelligent Design (ID) movement, will challenge his critics in a lecture tour of the UK in November.

Prof Behe is one of an increasing number of scientists who believe that modern biochemical evidence undermines the basis of Darwinian evolution.

The author of two ground-breaking books on ID - Darwin's Black Box (1996) and The Edge of Evolution (2007) - Behe's theory of irreducible complexity has drawn attacks from many neo-Darwinists, but not one of them has been able to refute it.

As Behe himself writes, in the years since the publication of 'Darwin's Black Box', "the As Behe himself writes, in the years since the publication of 'Darwin's Black Box', "the scientific argument for design is stronger than ever. Despite the enormous progress of biochemistry in the intervening years...despite implacable opposition from some scientists at the highest levels, the book's argument for design stands … there is very little of the original text I would change if I wrote it today.

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Politically Incorrect Scientist - How the Co-Founder of the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection Advocated Intelligent Design

Alfred Russel Wallace, co-founder of the theory of evolution by natural selection, was second only to Charles Darwin as the 19th century's most noted English naturalist.

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In ENV...On Thursday, September 23, 2010, following a showing of the film Darwin's Dilemma, we presented a program of short talks in the Hughes-Trigg Theatre at Southern Methodist University (SMU). We argued that the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution has not solved these related problems:

- The origin of novel protein folds (talk by Axe)
- The origin of anatomical novelties (talk by Sternberg)
- The origin of animal body plans (talks by Nelson and Wells)

SMU biology lecturer John Wise attended the event - or so it appears, because he wrote a long "reply" to both the movie and our presentations, and cites our handout distributed at the information table. Wise did not ask any questions during the Q & A, however, or interact with any of us during our visit. Over the weekend (September 25-26), he then posted his comments at his webpage.

We put "reply" within quotation marks because Wise's page comprises such a rambling pastiche of assertions - some mutually contradictory, others irrelevant, or simply non-sequiturs - that it is difficult to sort out what he is actually arguing.

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In ENV, and a press release from the new centre...In recent years, the development of Intelligent Design theory has been associated with the USA, but now a Centre for Intelligent Design has opened in the UK.

Intelligent Design (ID) theory argues that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by intelligent causation. As the scientific case for ID has become increasingly visible around the world, it deserves a voice in Britain.

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A new "Intelligent Design Applet" for Android, BlackBerry, iPad, and iPhone has been created by IDEA Center Board Member, Dr. H. Wayne House, the editor of Intelligent Design 101. The App includes links to pro-ID websites, pro-ID blog updates, and FAQs on intelligent design. For more information, visit the Intelligent Design Applet's website

Casey Luskin, of the Discovery Institute, reports in the Liberty Legal Journal that for years, David Coppedge offered pro-ID videos to co-workers at JPL in a non-aggressive, respectful manner. If his colleague declined to watch the DVD, he dropped the matter. But in early 2009, one of Coppedge's supervisors learned of his distributing pro-ID videos among JPL employees. After yelling at Coppedge and accusing him of "pushing religion," his supervisor ordered him to cease distributing the DVDs.

Coppedge felt singled out and harassed, and he expressed this to his supervisor. Coppedge later learned that JPL's human-resources department had started investigating the matter.

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A full screening of Darwin's Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record, followed by Q & A will occur at SMU on September 23rd. Panelists will be Douglas Axe, Johnathan Wells, Richard Sternberg, and Stephen Meyer.

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In a USA Today article...

click here for a link to article

it is claimed that...the universe blasted itself into existence spontaneously, following M-theory's rules to create physical laws that we call gravity, magnetism and so on, purely by chance. "He's (Hawking) pointing to a crucial and fascinating feature of Einstein's general relativity (law of gravity): universes are free!" says Caltech physicist Sean Carroll in an e-mail. He's the author of From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time. "It costs precisely zero energy (and zero anything else) to make an entire universe. From that perspective, perhaps it's not surprising that the universe did come into existence."

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What is that "fascinating feature of Einstein's general relativity" that allows something to come from absolutely nothing? Or is it not really absolutely nothing, but, in fact, "something" from which the universe arrives. As pointed out by those in the know...it is assumed that the space-time continuum can be created in an inflationary big bang while maintaining zero net energy. If true, the universe might be the ultimate example of a free lunch. If not, then the quantum vacuum state might be the "something" from which the universe sprang as a physical entity. It has yet to be demonstrated that a quantum vacuum with the right energy density and growth rate can accompany the birth of a general relativistic, big bang universe. It is merely an article of faith on the part of some theoretical physicists that it can be so. One of the present issues is that the quantum vacuum energy density is about 120 orders of magnitude different from what can be reconciled with the apparent rate of acceleration of the expanding universe. But too many physicists don't want to let that stubborn fact get in the way of a good, just-so story.

It is clear that chance has no being (ontology); therefore chance is powerless. Chance turns out to be a label we give for processes we don't understand. If Parmenides was correct (ex nihilo nihil fit), and chance is powerless, then Hawking and Sean Carroll are wrong, as was John Stuart Mill and Bertrand Russell. With regard to the infinite regress, it is not "everything must have a cause", but rather, "every effect must have a cause". For example, the Judeo-Christian God is eternal, and not an effect, therefore, God (the intelligent designer?) was not caused.

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More critique of Hawking's ideas found...

Here...

In Christian Darwinism - Why Theistic Evolution Fails As Science and Theology (Broadman and Holman, November 2011), mathematician Dembski and journalist O'Leary address a powerful new trend to accommodate Christianity with atheist materialism, via acceptance of Darwinian ("survival of the fittest") evolution.

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This is very technical, but the research shows that the randomness of Darwinism should be seriously questioned.

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From the Oxford Journal...

"Throughout evolution, eukaryotic genomes have been invaded by transposable elements (TEs). Little is known (emphasis mine) about the factors leading to genomic proliferation of TEs, their preferred integration sites and the molecular mechanisms underlying their insertion. We analyzed hundreds of thousands of nested TEs in the genome, i.e. insertions of TEs into existing ones. We first discovered that most TEs insert within specific 'hotspots' along the targeted TE. In particular, retrotransposed Alu elements contain a non-canonical single nucleotide hotspot for insertion of other Alu sequences. We next devised a method for identification of integration sequence motifs of inserted TEs that are conserved within the targeted TEs. This method revealed novel sequences motifs characterizing insertions of various important TE families: Alu, hAT, ERV1 and MaLR. Finally, we performed a global assessment to determine the extent to which young TEs tend to nest within older transposed elements and identified a 4-fold higher tendency of TEs to isnert into existing TEs than to insert within non-TE intergenic regions. Our analysis demonstrates that TEs are highly biased to insert within certain TEs, in specific orientations and within specific targeted TE positions. TE nesting events also reveal new characteristics of the molecular mechanisms underlying transposition."

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These are not isolated results...such as the identical exon substitutions in the GULO pseudogene in humans, chimpanzee and the guinea pig and the linear pattern of placement of retroviral elements among mice and rats.

A story on NPR by Barbara Bradley Hagerty reports on the question...Do universities discriminate against religious conservatives?

Some professors and students say they do, but it's not an easy charge to pin down.

When Elaine Howard Ecklund began asking top scientists whether they believe in God, she got a surprise. Ecklund, an assistant professor at Rice University and author of the book Science Vs. Religion, polled 1,700 scientists at elite universities. Contrary to the stereotype that most scientists are atheists, she says, nearly half of them say they are religious. But when she did follow up interviews, she found they practice a "closeted faith."

"They just do not want to bring up that they are religious in an academic discussion. There's somewhat of almost a culture of suppression surrounding discussions of religion at these kinds of academic institutions," Ecklund says.

She says the scientists worried that their colleagues would believe they were politically conservative - or worse, subscribed to the theory of intelligent design. Ecklund says they all insisted on anonymity.

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Horrors...the conservative professor may even believe that intelligent design is plausible!

The culture of suppression reminds me of a passage in the Christian Bible, Romans 1:18-19.

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From ENV...

This past June, Discovery Institute announced it was settling its public documents lawsuit against the California Science Center (CSC). The lawsuit had been filed last December after CSC refused to disclose public documents pertaining to its cancellation of a rental contract with American Freedom Alliance (AFA) to allow AFA to show a pro-intelligent design video at CSC's facilities. Per the terms of the settlement, CSC was to deliver to Discovery Institute many of the documents which we originally requested. Those documents have now been delivered, and combined with other previously known documents, they reveal striking evidence of CSC's viewpoint discrimination against intelligent design (ID) in AFA's case.

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From BBC News...Charles Darwin may have been wrong when he argued that competition was the major driving force of evolution.

He imagined a world in which organisms battled for supremacy and only the fittest survived.

But new research identifies the availability of "living space", rather than competition, as being of key importance for evolution.

The study conducted by PhD student Sarda Sahney and colleagues at the University of Bristol is published in Biology Letters.

Focusing on land animals - amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds - the scientists showed that the amount of biodiversity closely matched the availability of "living space" through time.

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So, we are asked to believe that opportunity alone causes complex body parts to "emerge". We don't exact know how. Maybe it's the "miracle" of time. Does "life's creative power will these changes?

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Cincinnati researchers are reporting on the discovery of a bug with bifocals.

"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of truly bifocal lenses in the extant animal kingdom," the researchers state in the August 24 cover feature of the life-science journal Current Biology.

The new article is an exploration of two eyes of the larvae of the sunburst diving beetle (Thermonectus marmoratus). The two eyes have the bifocal lens, which the researchers have found in four of the larvae's 12 eyes, says researcher Elke K. Buschbeck, a UC associate professor of biology.

The article explains that using two retinas and two distinct focal planes that are substantially separated, the larvae can more efficiently use these bifocals.

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The miracle of natural selection plus time or the creative genius of an intelligent designer?

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From ENV...biologist Kathryn Applegate's astonishing attempt to attribute the bacterial flagellum to "magic" rather than intelligent design. But, another problem with her critique of ID is that she apparently does not understand what the theory of intelligent design actually proposes.

ID would claim that the process is NOT undirected.

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In an episode of ID the Future, Anika Smith interviews mathematician and philosopher William Dembski on a break from teaching at Discovery Institute's Summer Seminars on Intelligent Design. Listen in as Dr. Dembski shares his advice for young scientists interested in ID and the hope he has for the future of intelligent design.

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Several great debates with Stephen Meyer and opponents...

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In an ID the future podcast, Mario Lopez is interviewed. He is founder of the Organizacion Internacional para el Avance Cientifico del Diseno Inteligente (OIACDI), a group dedicated to promoting awareness about intelligent design (ID) to the Spanish speaking community. The group's website, OIACDI.org, contains a variety of online resources in Spanish, including articles, news updates, and an ID FAQ in Spanish.

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And this occurred through very small, incremental steps. Unbelievable...yes!

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As reported in cyberspace, including ENV, the California Science Center (CSC) has agreed to settle a lawsuit with the pro-intelligent design Discovery Institute and release records that it previously sought to conceal regarding its cancellation of the screening of a pro-intelligent design film last year.

The paying of attorney's fee could be interpreted as an implicit admission of guilt, buy CSC likely would not agree with that assessment.

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As reported in ENV, recently, Stephen Meyer presented his groundbreaking Signature in the Cell at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Sao Paulo, one of Brazil's oldest and most prestigious colleges, as hundreds of students listened.

The Brazilian press was there, as well, giving intelligent design ample coverage. Unfortunately, instead of reporting intelligent design straight, ISTOE Independente is cribbing from the American mainstream media...

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From Evolution News & Views...
When I first read the complaint filed in the David Coppedge case against NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I had a sense of deja vu. Something similar happened to me in college.

As Jay Richards points out, a striking thing about the computer specialist's experience with the thought police is the way he was punished by Darwinist supervisors (for occasionally distributing samizdat documentaries on intelligent design) after having already agreed to abide by the outrageous demand to stop loaning out the DVDs and talking about intelligent design. There's no indication he did anything other than keep his promise. Yet his supervisor came down hard on him, stripping Coppedge of a prestigious title and position, embarrassing him in front of colleagues. In Kafkaesque fashion, Coppedge received a formal written warning (against promoting ID) at the very same meeting where he was informed of his punishment.

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And, from Intelligent Design the Future...
A special commentary from Discovery Institute's David Klinghoffer about Jet Propulsion Laboratory employee David Coppedge's discrimination lawsuit against his employers. Coppedge is suing his employers for discrimination after being demoted for talking about intelligent design on the job.

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As reported in ENV by Anika Smith...Supervisors at NASA's prestigious Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) illegally harassed and demoted a high-level computer system administrator for expressing support of intelligent design to co-workers, according to a discrimination lawsuit filed in California Superior Court.

The lawsuit was filed by attorneys on behalf of David Coppedge, an information technology specialist and system administrator on JPL's Cassini mission to Saturn, the most ambitious interplanetary exploration ever launched. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a NASA laboratory managed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where robotic planetary spacecraft, such as the Mars Rovers, are built and operated. Coppedge was a "Team Lead" Systems Administrator on the Cassini mission until JPL demoted him for allegedly "pushing religion" by loaning interested co-workers DVDs supportive of intelligent design.

"For the offense of offering videos to colleagues, Coppedge faced harassment, an investigation cloaked in secrecy, and a virtual gag order on his discussion of intelligent design," said attorney Casey Luskin of Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. Luskin serves as a consultant to the Coppedge lawsuit. "Coppedge was punished even though supervisors admitted never receiving a single complaint regarding his conversations about intelligent design prior to their investigation, and even though other employees were allowed to express diverse ideological opinions, including attacking intelligent design."

If you want to stand up for academic freedom, there are three people who need to hear from you...

First, call 818 354-4321 and ask for Director of JPL Dr. Charles Elachi, respectfully letting him know that your tax dollars should never be used to fund discrimination against a government employee.

Second, you can call and email President of Caltech Jean-Lou A. Chameau (626-395-6301, chameau@caltech.edu) and politely tell him that you support David Coppedge. Caltech oversees the JPL and has some jurisdiction.

Third, the JPL is NASA's laboratory. Call them at 202 358-0001 and email public-inquiries@hq.nasa.gov.">ppublic-inquiries@hq.nasa.gov.

Antony Flew, atheist philosopher, who late in life became a deist, died at the age of 87.

A link to the LA Times obituary...

For a more indepth look at Flew's life and thoughts please read ARN correspondent Denyse O'Leary's piece.

Michael Behe and Stephen Barr will debate at Wheaton College.

For full information click HERE.

Francisco J. Ayala, an evolutionary geneticist and molecular biologist who has vigorously opposed the entanglement of science and religion while also calling for mutual respect between the two, has won the 2010 Templeton Prize.

Ayala, 76, a naturalized American who moved from Spain to New York in 1961 for graduate study and soon became a leader in molecular evolution and genetics, has devoted more than 30 years to asserting that both science and faith are damaged when either invades the proper domain of the other.

Ayala, the Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, whose groundbreaking research into parasitic protozoa may lead to cures for malaria and other diseases, has equated efforts to block religious intrusions into science with "the survival of rationality in this country."

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Stephen Meyer responds to Francisco J. Ayala's review of his book Signiture in the Cell.

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Stephen Meyer responds to Francisco J. Ayala's review of his book Signiture in the Cell.

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A great example of ID...and far less complex than the working inside a human cell, as shown in THIS ANIMATION.

and in Unlocking the Mystery of Life

Here is the Rube Goldberg machine...

In the EnterpriseBlog, Jay Richards comments on the story in the New York Times about the linking of climate change and evolution.

Richards opines...there are budding initiatives in state legislatures and boards of education to encourage or require balance in classroom discussions of global warming. The point of the piece, though, is to connect the teaching of evolution to the climate change debate:

Critics of the teaching of evolution in the nation's classrooms are gaining ground in some states by linking the issue to global warming, arguing that dissenting views on both scientific subjects should be taught in public schools.

Now when I read anything on the environment in the New York Times, I try to keep a couple of deconstructionist qualifiers running in the back of my head: "This is what the New York Times wants me to believe about the issue" and "What are they trying to accomplish with this piece?" I know it's cynical, but when it comes to environmental stories, I just don't trust New York Times reporters to keep it straight.

Some things they want to accomplish with this piece:

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A fossil that was celebrated last year as a possible "missing link" between humans and early primates is actually a forebearer of modern-day lemurs and lorises, according to two papers by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin, Duke University and the University of Chicago.

In an article now available online in the Journal of Human Evolution, four scientists present evidence that the 47-million-year-old Darwinius masillae is not a haplorhine primate like humans, apes and monkeys, as the 2009 research claimed.

They also note that the article on Darwinius published last year in the journal PLoS ONE ignores two decades of published research showing that similar fossils are actually strepsirrhines, the primate group that includes lemurs and lorises.

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Well known theologist, R.C. Sproul, interviewed Stephen Meyer, author of Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, on philosophy, evolution, education, Intelligent Design, and more.

The GospelCoalition has the link. Scroll down to Justin Taylor's March 5 post.

Click HERE.

This debate was held at Indiana University.

Craig's analysis, as usual, was beautifully precise and accurate.

For the debate, click HERE.

The Israeli Education Ministry's chief scientist sparked a furor among environmental activists and scholars with remarks questioning the reliability of evolution and global warming theory. The comments from Dr. Gavriel Avital, the latest in a series of written and oral statements casting doubts on the fundamental tenets of modern science, led several environmentalists to call for his dismissal.

"If textbooks state explicitly that human beings' origins are to be found with monkeys, I would want students to pursue and grapple with other opinions. There are many people who don't believe the evolutionary account is correct," Avital said.

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There will be a showing of "Darwin's Dilemma" and a dessert, sponsored by Probe Ministries in the Dallas/Fort Worth area on Tuesday, February 23rd.

Details at this Web page

"I would never have predicted that an atheist would name a book about intelligent design as one of the top books of 2009, while another atheist would write a book defending intelligent design?" commented Dennis Wagner, ARN Executive Director, about the organization's Top Ten Darwin and Design Resource List for 2009. "This is a sign that open minds in the academic and scientific communities are beginning to take the evidence for intelligent design seriously," Wagner concluded. He was referring to the number one book on the list, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design by Stephen Meyer and number three book Seeking God in Science: An Atheist Defends Intelligent Design by Bradley Monton.

Kevin Wirth, ARN Director of Media Relations, pointed out that several other resources on the 2009 list show a growing international interest in intelligent design: "Hungarian scientists published an English version of their book, Nature's IQ, that documents over 100 irreducibly complex behaviors in nature, while a well-published British medical doctor documented his reservations about Darwinian evolution in the book Why Us? How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves."

An online version of the ARN Top 10 Darwin and Design stories for 2009 with hyperlinks to original news sources can be found at www.arn.org/top10.

"If you don't think viewpoint discrimination is alive and well in this country when it comes to Darwin's theory, then you must be living on another planet," said Dennis Wagner, announcing this year's Top Ten in Media News in the growing Darwin vs. design controversy. This year, top honors went to Texas and Louisiana for protecting students' and teachers' rights to examine and critique all sides of evolution and other controversial science issues.

"The theory of evolution has been elevated to the status of a sacred dogma in many parts of our modern culture" observed Dennis Wagner, ARN Executive Director. "Students, teachers and science professionals have suffered recrimination for challenging Darwin's theory, and political policies like those recently passed in Texas and Louisiana are now required to maintain academic freedom and freedom of speech. Critical thinking skills are key not only to the learning process, but more importantly to scientific progress," said Wagner.

Kevin Wirth, ARN Director of Media Relations, pointed out that several other stories on the 2009 Top Ten Media list indicate the growing need for this type of legislative protection: "Ben Stein was 'expelled' as the commencement speaker at the University of Vermont, Michael Behe was temporarily 'expelled' from Bloggingheads.tv, and the California Science Center censored the showing of a movie that was critical of Darwin’s theory. We thoroughly documented case after case of this type of viewpoint discrimination in the book Slaughter of the Dissidents and the list just keeps on growing."

An online version of the ARN Top 10 Darwin and Design stories for 2009 with hyperlinks to original news sources can be found at www.arn.org/top10.

Discovery Institute has two intensive summer seminars on intelligent design, science, and culture from July 9-17, 2010 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).

These seminars are designed for highly-motivated college students who seek a deeper understanding of science and its implications for society. The seminar focusing on ID in the natural sciences will explore the scientific issues in greater technical detail and the seminar on ID in the social sciences and humanities will give more in-depth attention to the social impact of science. This year's seminar will feature Michael Behe, Douglas Axe, Stephen Meyer, Jay Richards, and many other leading lights in the intelligent design community.

Discovery Institute will pay expenses for students who are accepted into this special program (travel, lodging, meals, books and other course materials). Applications will be accepted until April 16, 2010.

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The debate between Darwin and design is coming to Tampa, Florida with a major one-night event featuring some of the leading voices challenging Darwinian evolution...Michael Medved, Stephen C. Meyer, David Berlinski. The event will occur Thursday evening, January 28th.

Info HERE...

In ENV...Discovery Institute is gearing up for the celebration by supporting what Darwin supported: academic freedom.

Academic Freedom Day couldn't come at a better time, as academic freedom is threatened around the country. We have seen Darwinists launch cyber attacks on a pro-ID conference website in Colorado and engage in an illegal coverup in the censorship of a pro-ID film in California.

It's time like these when Darwin's own words should instruct everyone on how to have an open and honest debate over evolution and intelligent design.
In On the Origin of Species, Darwin wrote, "A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question." This quote is the cornerstone of the Institute's Academic Freedom Day efforts.

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Dr. William Dembski, internationally known as a paradigmatic figure in the world of science - particularly as he has advanced the theory of intelligent design regarding the creation of the world in contrast to Darwinian evolution is featured on a recent PODCAST. The subject is his recent book - The End of Christianity: Finding a Good God in an Evil World.

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Frank Turek, of (http://www.CrossExamined.org) and much more, will have an internet radio talk show on Tuesday, January 19th, beginning at 7 p.m. CENTRAL time. His guests will be some of the top apologists in the world.

The evening will start with the man who is one of the best debaters in the world, Dr. William Lane Craig www.ReasonableFaith.org.

Next will be one of the founding fathers of the Intelligent Design movement-- Dr. Bill Dembski www.designinference.com. He'll show us very simply how life points to an intelligent designer, and how most of the so-called "evidence" for macroevolution is based on materialistic and counter-factual philosophical assumptions.

Next will be Dr. Mike Adams, a Christian professor on a secular campus and one of the most popular conservative columnists on www.Townhall.com.

The show will be capped off with Josh McDowell www.Josh.org. Josh will give us very helpful insights on the importance of relationships to a young person's faith.

A listing of the 200 stations carrying the program can be found here (http://action.afa.net/Radio/). For the live web simulcast, go here: http://action.afa.net/Webcast/WebcastPlayer.aspx?id=2147491014
The American Family Association, who are producing this event, will create a DVD of the program that will be available afterwards. Check www.CrossExamined.org later for details.

ENV reports that Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth has sent a letter to the California Science Center (CSC) requesting documents related to the Center's cancellation of a screening last October of the pro-intelligent design documentary "Darwin’s Dilemma." The screening was sponsored by the American Freedom Alliance (AFA), a private group that had rented the Center's IMAX theater.

Senator Hollingsworth's letter follows two lawsuits filed against the state government-operated Science Center charging that it violated both the First Amendment and California's open records law in its effort to stop the screening and then cover up the real story behind the cancellation.

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As reported in ENV, Dr. Atkins, is a noted critic of intelligent design and author who appeared in Expelled, stating: "Religion, it's just fantasy...and is evil as well." According to a 1992 article by Atkins in New Scientist, "Darwin effectively swept purpose aside in the living world," and "[a]ll reimpositions of purpose are artifices of the religious to feed their faith." He holds little back on religion, claiming that it only offers only "empty gulping and the verbal flatulence that passes for theistic exposition."

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Access Research Network has just released its annual "Top 10 Darwin and Design Science Stories" for 2009.

Gaining top honors on the list was a peer-reviewed article by intelligent design theorists William Dembski and Robert Marks II in the September 2009 journal IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics. The authors used computer simulations and information theory to challenge the ability of neo-Darwinian processes to create new functional genetic information. This research provides validation for the core ideas in Dembski's 2001 book No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence. "For years the scientific establishment has tried to brush off intelligent design claiming that there are no peer-reviewed scientific articles supporting the theory and no research being done from the intelligent design paradigm," stated ARN Executive Director, Dennis Wagner. "This article is yet another rebuttal to both charges, and the research results put the monkey squarely on the back of the scientific materialists' to prove Darwinian processes can actually create new functional genetic information" Wagner concluded.

While there was a lot of hype in the media this year about the Darwin Bicentennial Celebration, Kevin Wirth, ARN Director of Media Relations, found it ironic that a several of the stories on ARN's top ten list this year were articles in scientific journals proclaiming that Darwin's theory should be abandoned because it no longer fits the data, or is severely limited in what it can do or explain. According to
Wirth "a cross disciplinary approach to biology is leading scientists away from reductionistic theories like Darwinian evolution toward more collective, holistic, systems approach." In one of the top ten articles on this topic Mark Buchanan states in Nature Physics "A coming revolution may go so far as to unseat Darwinian evolution as the key explanatory process in biology."

An online version of the ARN Top 10 Darwin and Design stories for 2009 with hyperlinks to original news sources can be found at www.arn.org/top10.

As reported by ENV...there are two big stories arising from the California Science Center's censorship last October of the pro-intelligent design film Darwin's Dilemma. The first big story, which was the primary focus of a Los Angeles Times article last week, is the act of censorship itself. As an agency of state government in California, the Science Center is required to abide by the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. The Science Center didn't have to rent its facilities to the public, but once it did so, as a government agency, it was legally obliged by the First Amendment to treat all citizens equally.

But there is another big story tied to the Science Center that hasn't received sufficient attention yet: The Center's illegal cover-up.

The California Science Center has flagrantly violated California's open records law in an apparent effort to hide the real story behind its censorship of Darwin's Dilemma. The Center's evasion of the law is the reason for the open records lawsuit recently brought by Discovery Institute against the Center.

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William Dembski and Lewis Wolpert had an audio debate a few weeks ago, which is now available online as a podcast. There is around three minutes of stage-setting by the interviewer Justin Brierly before the actual discussion begins. The debate is part of a program series called UNBELIEVABLE.

Go to podcast...

This is not a book about God, or about intelligent design. Rather, here is a remarkable book, one that dares to challenge natural selection - not in the name of religion but in the name of good science. Most scientists are so terrified of religious attacks on the theory of evolution that it is never examined critically.

But there are major scientific and philosophical problems with the theory of natural selection. Darwin claimed the factors that determine the course of evolution are very largely environmental. This is a thesis that empirical results in biology are increasingly calling into question. The authors show that Darwinism is committed to inferring, from the premise that a kind of creature with a certain trait was selected, the conclusion that that kind of creature was selected for having that trait. Though such inferences are fallacious, they are nevertheless unavoidable within the Darwinist framework. Ultimately, Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini level a devastating critique against Darwinist orthodoxy and suggest new ways of thinking about evolution.

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The book, God in Science: An Atheist Defends Intelligent Design by Bradley Monton has been out for five months and has not gone unnoticed by the ID community. In fact, Dr. Monton, a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado-Boulder, is a contributor to ARN. Monton argues that ID is legitimate as a scientific endeavor, although he is unconvinced, at this time, that an intelligent designer exists. It is refreshing to meet up with a clear-thinking, intellectually honest atheist.

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Monton's thinking is blogged in Proslogian by Dr. Jay L. Wile, Nuclear Chemist at the University of Rochester.

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