In the News

As reported in ENV by Johnathan M...ID is making impressive strides in Europe and Asia. As he reports from personal experience, the future looks particularly bright in the United Kingdom.

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From ENV...contrary to the hopes and expectations of the Darwin lobby, the post-Dover years have seen ID's scientific and cultural footprint grow only more prominent and impressive.

Critics of ID who fume on the Internet, preach in university classrooms, and feign knowledge and authority in the media love to proclaim that the ID movement is dead. As their story goes, in 2005 a federal judge ruled in the Kitzmiller v. Dover lawsuit that ID is religion and thus unconstitutional to teach in public schools. This supposedly dealt a "deathblow" to the ID movement, which according to critics, has since lost momentum and all but dissipated.

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We were saddened to hear of the passing of Christopher Hitchens at age 62.

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Year-end Donation Opportunity: Support ARN today and receive the Phillip Johnson Greatest Hits collection celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Darwin on Trial.

Greetings from the ARN Staff. In case you haven't heard, 2011 is the 20th Anniversary of Phillip Johnson's seminal book Darwin on Trial. With this book the Law Professor from UC Berkeley made it intellectually respectable to be a Darwinian Skeptic and helped launch the intelligent design movement. Discovery Institute is celebrating the occasion with a website honoring the man and the book. At ARN we are celebrating the occasion by releasing two Phillip Johnson archive DVDs, one containing 10 of his best video lectures, debates and interviews in digital format (.mp4 files), and the other containing 25 of his best audio lectures, debates and interviews in digital format (.mp3 files). For a listing of the contents of each DVD go to Phillip Johnson Greatest Video Hits and Phillip Johnson Greatest Audio Hits. These archives are designed to be played on digital media players such as your computer, iphone, ipad, ipod, etc., and most likely will NOT play on your standard DVD or CD player. Our standard products are still available for those formats, but with the digital age upon us, this is a great way to get Phil’s fabulous presentations available to a wider audience in a compact format. Even if you own some of the original DVD lectures, this archive set will certainly become a collector’s item in years to come.

Initially these two DVDs will only be available on a donation basis. We want to thank you for your support of ARN over the years. We depend on your product purchases and donations to make ARN one of the leading information portals on Intelligent Design. In appreciation for a $50 donation or more received by December 31, 2011, we would like to send you either the Video or Audio DVD Collection. For a donation of $100 or more we will be happy to send you both.

Donations may be made online at http://www.arn.org/arnproducts/donation.htm. Specify either Audio DVD or Video DVD in the comment field when you check out (or Audio & Video DVD if your donation is $100 or more). Credit card donations can also be made by phone by calling 888-259-7102 and leaving your information on our secure answering machine or with our office manager, Sarah. Of course old fashion checks are always welcome which you can send to ARN, PO Box 38069, Colorado Springs, CO 80937. Donations sent by mail must be postmarked by 12/31/2011 in order to receive a charitable contribution receipt for 2011.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the ARN Staff.
Dennis Wagner, Executive Director

Casey Luskin...in ENV...writes a brief overview of the incivility of many who are not on the side of Intelligent Design.

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As reported in ENV...During a recent visit to London, Dr. Stephen Meyer was invited to debate Keith Fox on Premier Radio UK about issues raised in Meyer's 2009 book Signature in the Cell.

Fox, the man chosen to debate with Meyer, is professor of biochemistry at the University of Southampton, England. He holds a PhD in Pharmacology from Cambridge, and his research on DNA focuses on the molecules, oligonucleotides, and proteins that bind to DNA in sequence-specific patterns.

In a lively yet respectful discussion moderated by host Justin Brierly, Meyer explains the argument of Signature in the Cell: "The enigma is where did the information [in DNA] come from?"

Fox, who believes in God as creator but opposes intelligent design, calls ID theory a "science stopper" because it invokes a designer. Fox finds Meyer's arguments difficult to swallow because they are not based on purely naturalistic or materialistic processes.

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As reported in ENV...Lynn Margulis, an eminent evolutionary biologist, professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, has died. She was 73 years old.

Dr. Margulis was well known for advancing the theory of endosymbiosis, which hypothesizes that eukaryotic cells arose when prokaryotic cells engulfed other prokaryotic cells and formed a symbiotic relationship. According to the theory, the engulfed cells ultimately evolved into cellular organelles like mitochondria or chloroplasts found in many eukaryotic cells.

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From ENV...A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled that a jury will decide whether NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) unlawfully discriminated against a former employee for discussing the scientific theory of intelligent design (ID) at work.

David Coppedge, a 14-year JPL veteran and team lead computer administrator on the Cassini Mission to Saturn, was demoted for lending ID-related DVDs to coworkers, behavior that one JPL complainant called "harassment," and another branded "pushing religion." After he filed suit to vindicate his free expression rights, JPL terminated Coppedge.

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Hard to believe, but it has been 20 years since the release of Phil Johnson's "Darwin on Trial".

Here is the LINK to 20th anniversary materials.

In ID the Future...Casey Luskin discusses the viewpoint discrimination that resulted in the cancellation of a pro-ID film by the California Science Center (CSC).

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In ENV...And unlike some other prestige media sources that have covered the story, Science, the journal in question, gets the story right, mostly. Particularly telling is the cited opinion from our Darwin-lobbying friends at the National Center for Science Education:

Steven Newton, a paleontologist at National Center for Science Education (NCSE), an Oakland, California-based nonprofit organization that monitors creationism activities, disputes [Casey] Luskin's characterization of the settlement, saying it was a case "without clear victors." But NCSE and others in the science crowd believe that the science museum ended up with egg on its face.

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In an MSNBC report in Cosmic Logic, Gov. Rick Perry says he is a "firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution." Intelligent design is the view that the complexity seen in nature is best explained as resulting from the efforts of an intelligent designer - for example, God, or an alien civilization. But in Perry's case, certainly God.

Romney said during his presidential campaign that he believes "God designed the universe" and that he believes God "used the process of evolution to create the human body." As Massachusetts governor, he opposed the teaching of intelligent design in public-school science classes. "The science class is where to teach evolution, or if there are any other scientific thoughts that need to be discussed," he told The New York Times. "If we're going to talk about more philosophical matters, like why it was created, and was there an intelligent designer behind it, that's for the religion class or philosophy class or social studies class."

Bachmann says "evolution has never been proven" and believes that intelligent design should be taught alongside the evolutionary view of biological change. "What I support is putting all science on the table and then letting students decide," Bachmann told reporters at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans in June.

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It is a sure bet that shortly, Gov. Rick Perry will be questioned about being a sympathizer of ID. Stay tuned...

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In "Dangerous Influences: The New Yorker, Michele Bachmann, and Me" (Human Events, August 12, 2011), philosopher Nancy Pearcey muses on how Michele Bachmann (that ID-friendly US Prez hopeful) came to be associated with a "political movement" Bachmann had probably never heard of.

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In ENV, Casey Luskin reveals some of the tactics in the Darwinian playbook. Ad hominem attacks seem to be a favorite.

Click HERE for more...

This article in ENV by Casey Luskin touches on the recent Granville Sewell controversy, and the 2nd Law.

While some may have already read the seven part BioLogos blog post on C. S. Lewis's views regarding this subject, this could be new to some.

This blog series, adapted from this article in "Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith", is a comprehensive study of the views of Christian author and apologist C. S. Lewis on the theory of evolution and the argument from intelligent design. It explains how he would distinguish expressly philosophical arguments for a Transcendent Mind from the current claims of the intelligent design (ID) movement to provide scientific evidence for such a reality. It also expounds Lewis’s important distinction between evolution as a highly confirmed scientific theory and evolution as co-opted by naturalistic philosophy. In the end, Lewis’s rich Trinitarian framework—stemming from his commitment to historic orthodoxy, or “mere Christianity”—is developed as a context for how he engaged all human knowledge, which includes his acceptance of evolution as well as his criticism of ill-conceived versions of the design argument.

Click here to access all seven parts.

John G. West reports (Evolution News & Views, June 7, 2011) that University of Texas, El Paso math professor Granville Sewell has receive an apology and $10,000 because Applied Mathematics Letters withdrew his article on the Second Law of Thermodynamics, just before publication, based on the say so of a Darwinist blogger...

Click here for the story.

In ENV, David Klinghoffer, points out that agnostics are "getting it".

Could it be a trend, with critics of intelligent design and others outside the familiar world of ID's friends and advocates at last realizing that ID isn't merely NOT the same thing as creationism? More than that, a couple have noted lately, intelligent design isn't necessarily even theistic.

At Panda's Thumb, Jack Scanlan stirred up a huge number of comments for the site with the revelation that ID seems to imply not theism but dualism, the notion that there's a separate realm of the mind and of ideas that may interact with the physical world and influence or direct it but is not reducible to material terms. Meanwhile on the Chicago Tribune website, an agnostic named James Kirk Wall endorses ID as a natural support for agnosticism!

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Each year Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture offers a free summer seminar for college juniors, seniors and graduate students is an intensive 9-day summer learning opportunity in Seattle, July 8-16.

These seminars are designed for outstanding and motivated students who seek a deeper understanding of science and its implications for society. Past alumni credit the seminar with giving them focus and inspiration for their research, as well as a place to network and receive the support and mentoring they need to equip themselves for the rewarding but difficult work ahead.

This year, in addition to the seminar focusing on ID in the natural sciences, the Center for Science and Culture announces the new C. S. Lewis Fellows Program on Science and Society, which will explore the growing impact of science on politics, economics, social policy, bioethics, theology, and the arts.

The CSC Seminar on Intelligent Design in the Natural Sciences will explore cutting-edge ID work in fields such as molecular biology, biochemistry, embryology, developmental biology, paleontology, computational biology, ID-theoretic mathematics, cosmology, physics, and the history and philosophy of science. This seminar is open to students who intend to pursue graduate studies in the natural sciences or the philosophy of science.

Click here for details and to apply.

The C. S. Lewis Fellows Program is an inspiration from the work of its namesake, particularly The Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength, where Lewis foresaw the dangers of both scientism and technocracy.

Click here for details and to apply.

Discovery Institute will pay expenses for students who are accepted into these programs (travel, lodging, meals, books and other course materials). Applications will be accepted until April 22, 2011, but earlier applications may receive priority consideration.

Aman Batheja in the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram writes that an Arlington, TX lawmaker has filed a bill aimed at protecting Texas college professors and students from discrimination because they question evolution.

The measure from Republican state Rep. Bill Zedler would block higher education institutions from discriminating against or penalizing teachers or students based on their research into intelligent design or other theories that disagree with evolution.

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Reported by The Science Network, J Craig Venter says that the Tree of Life "is an artifact of earlier ideas that haven't held up" and, indeed, "there isn't a tree of life" around 9 minutes into the program.

At about 11:20, Richard Dawkins expresses his shock. He asks Venter to endorse a single Tree of Life, and the latter only smiles in silence.

The program...

Ron Matus, for the St. Petersburg Times, Florida science teachers must offer a "thorough presentation and critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution" under a bill (SB 1854) filed by a key state senator.

Evolution supporters say the language is another attempt by Florida lawmakers to undermine the teaching of evolution, introduce the faith-based concepts of creationism and intelligent design, and water down state science standards that were narrowly passed by the state Board of Education in 2008.

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James Perloff will speak on the topic of his two books "Tornado in a Junkyard" and "The Case Against Darwin: Why the Evidence Should Be Re-examined". The topic will be layman's level discussions of the growing scientific case against Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

New scientific discovery has led to a more in depth understanding of the nature of the human cell that does not correspond with Darwin's limited understanding at the time his Origin of the Species was written.

The meeting will take place at the Holiday Inn in Runnemede, NJ on March 18 at 7:30 p.m.

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An Oklahoma House committee rejected a measure that critics said would allow creationism and intelligent design into public school classrooms.

Rep. Sally Kern, the author of House Bill 1551, said her measure would allow teachers the freedom to teach without fear of losing their jobs and to teach various scientific theories.

Rep. Fred Jordan, a member of the House of Representatives Common Education Committee, said he was concerned the measure was too confusing.

"This bill is running circles around itself, and it's going to make it harder and harder for teachers to know what to do in the classroom," said Jordan, R-Jenks.

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Educators in Oklahoma would be forced to openly question in their classes the legitimacy of the scientific theory of evolution should a new bill become state law.

"It's a simple fact that the presentation of some issues in science classes can lead to controversy, which can discourage teachers from engaging students in an open discussion of the issues," state Rep. Sally Kern, a Republican, said in defense of the bill she filed recently.

The legislation (HB 1551) titled the "Scientific Education and Academic Freedom Act" singled out "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning" as topics that are controversial and thus questionable.

It is the second of such anti-evolution proposals in Oklahoma and the fourth filed nationwide so far this year.

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The Pasadena Star-News reports that David Coppede,who was laid off last week plans to add retaliation charges - and a possible free speech violation claim - to a pending discrimination suit against his former employer, an attorney said Wednesday.

David Coppedge, a specialist and systems administrator who worked on NASA's Cassini mission at the Laboratory since 1997, was terminated on Jan. 24.

A well-known figure among proponents of "intelligent design" - the proto-scientific strain of creationism that attributes life and the universe to the hand of an intelligent being - Coppedge writes the blog "Creation-Evolution Headlines."

He filed suit with the Los Angeles Superior in April of last year, claiming he was demoted at JPL for propagating his beliefs at work, citing protection under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.

More about the additional charges...

Colorado Springs, CO - January 31, 2011

A new journal, BIO-Complexity, and a new computer game CellCraft, were two of the top 10 Darwin and Design resources for 2010 named on the annual list released by Access Research Network this week.

BIO-Complexity is a peer-reviewed scientific journal with the unique goal to become the leading forum for testing the scientific merit of the claim that intelligent design is a credible explanation for life.

Those looking for slightly less cerebral resources might like the new online computer game, CellCraft that is designed to teach about cellular biology. This is a game crafted by people who love games and is enjoyable even if you learn nothing from it. It is a blend of real time strategy, tower defense, and city planning all cast within a cellular setting. But it is hard to play and not be impressed by the complexity and design of the cell.

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.

By Robert Deyes
ARN Correspondent

Three months ago Princeton evolutionary biologist Andrea Graham became the talk of the ecoimmunology town through her summarization of the apparent connection between immunity and fertility (1). From trials carried out on 1476 individuals of wild Soay sheep from the St Kilda island archipelago in northern Scotland, Graham et al painted a complex picture of competing trade-offs the strengths of which were intimately dependent on the prevalence of environmental extremes. They found that higher immunity amongst animals, while promoting better survival, negatively affected reproductive prowess (1,2). More specifically sheep with increased immune readiness against 'parasite infested winters' were less likely to sire offspring, which Graham et al attributed to the concomitantly higher levels of auto-reactive antibodies (1,2).

Low immune-response animals fared better in low 'parasite prevalence' environments perhaps because energy for reproduction was not frivoled away on energy-costly antibody manufacture (1,2). The conclusion drawn was that the selective advantage of low immune-and high-immune response animals in low parasite prevalence and high parasite prevalence environments respectively explains why evolution has in effect "failed to eliminate alleles that confer susceptibility to infection or promote autoimmunity"(2).

So can we pack our bags and head home content with yet another open-and-shut case in which natural selection has been incontrovertibly authenticated? Not quite. The work of Graham et al also brought into view a nagging theoretical belly-ache for evolutionists by demonstrating natural selection to be, as prominent anti-Darwinist Phillip Johnson once quipped "an all-purpose explanation which can account for anything, and which therefore explains nothing" (3). In his book Darwin On Trial Johnson underscored the idea, most commonly attributed to the philosopher Karl Popper, that just about any characteristic can be deemed to be disadvantageous or advantageous depending on the surrounding environmental conditions (3). The above example makes this plain. One cannot make a case for the propagation of detrimental immunity genes without first knowing what climatic and parasitic sways have possibly influenced the eventuality. Johnson's own choice example brought this point home:

"It may seem obvious that it is advantageous for a wild stallion to be able to run faster, but in the Darwinian sense this will be true only to the extent that a faster stallion sires more offspring. If greater speed leads to more frequent falls, or if faster stallions tend to outdistance the mares and miss opportunities for reproduction, then the improvement may be disadvantageous" (3)

Johnson further noted how in such cases "it is impossible to identify the advantage independently of the outcome" (3). Since advantages are not readily identifiable ahead of time, not much is excludable. The goal posts of permissibility are kept wide enough so that just about any outcome is admissible. In the Soay sheep study the author's closing inference- that "a complex and potentially balancing set of associations in a variable environment suggest a mechanism for the maintenance of immunoheterogeneity" proved to be about as uninformative and open-ended a statement as one might find in life science circles. Simply put, heterogeneity begets heterogeneity.

Pennsylvania State University evolutionary biologist Andrew Read remarked that ecoimmunology, which looks at the interplay between ecological factors and immune response "has been a controversial field because it's really hard to decide what to measure without a history [of the population]" (1). For the Soay sheep on St. Kilda, the history was well known: "longitudinal information on both individual life histories and population dynamics" had been available since as long ago as 1985 (2). But truth be told, even if such histories were not readily available Darwinists have freed themselves from the need to predict what natural selection will or will not do in the future by "adjusting the theory as necessary to conform to the observed facts" (3). Writing on the philosophical necessity of Darwinism, Johnson added that "the adjusting devices are so flexible that in combination they make it difficult to conceive of a way to test the claims of Darwinism empirically" (3). In short, Darwinism is immune to disproof.

It would appear that some exobiologists have learnt a lesson or two from their evolutionist brethren. In a NewScientist piece on the telltale chemistry of life last week, NASA's Chris McKay speculated that the relative abundances of life-signature chemicals might be all the indicatory evidence we need to home in on potential life-berthing planets (4). Christoph Adami, who garnered notoriety as co-designer of the evolutionary algorithm AVIDA, has compared amino acid levels from earth's soils and oceans with those of abiotic sources and found that, while terrestrial/biotic samples were rich in more complex amino acids, the simpler Alanine and Glycine residues dominated the abiotic fingerprint (4). Not much of a surprise there. Adami then decided to put his AVIDA brainchild through its paces by 'evolving' populations of Avidians as a way of showing that chemical 'signatures' are a reality of any life-sustaining habitat including those in the digital realm (4,5).

Yet accompanying this 'universal principle' (term chosen by Adami) was a disclaimer that would conveniently allow any budding exobiologist to eschew the clutches of maligning critics lest extra-terrestrial life were never found. Washington State University's Dirk Schulze-Makuch led the disclamatory charge by maintaining that "different minerals, temperatures and pressures could allow for chemical reactions that do not occur on Earth" and might therefore be difficult to pull out from the hubbub of non-biotic reactions (4). The announcement (contentious at that) of arsenic-backboned DNA in one bacterial strain (6) has also been pounced on to fuel speculation that life outside of our fuzzy warm planet may truly be "not as we know it" (7,8). That there is life outside our planet is not in doubt, inevitabilists assure us (9). These same protagonists of the universality of life would have us believe that we simply have not had sufficient time to search alternative exotic life-fostering chemistries (7,8). Immunity from disproof is as present in this sort of reasoning as it is in Darwinist ideology. After all, one can interminably argue for what is not there if one unwaveringly assumes that it is hidden from view.

Further Reading
1. Vanessa Schipani (2011) Strong immunity=low fertility, The Scientist, October 28th.
2. Graham et al (2010) Fitness Correlates of Heritable Variation in Antibody Responsiveness in a Wild Mammal, Science, Volume 330 pp.662-65.
3. Phillip Johnson (1991), Darwin on Trial, 1st Ed, InterVarsity Press Publishers, Madison, Wisconsin, pp. 20-30
4. Michael Marshall (2011) Telltale chemistry could betray ET, NewScientist, 21st January, 2011,
5. Evan D. Dorn, Kenneth H. Nealson and Christoph Adami (2011) Monomer Abundance Distribution Patterns as a Universal Biosignature: Examples from Terrestrial and Digital Life, Journal of Molecular Evolution, DOI: 10.1007/s00239-011-9429-4
6. Felisa Wolfe-Simon et al (2010) A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus, Science, Published online 2 December 2010 [DOI:10.1126/science.1197258]
7. Seth Shostak (2010) Life But Not As We Know It, The Huffington Post, December 5th, 2010
8. Richard Alleyne 'Life as we don't know it' discovery could prove existence of aliens, The Daily Telegraph, 1st December, 2010
9. Inevitabilists believe that the origins of life is truly an inevitable consequence of some fundamental natural tendency in the universe towards great complexity, See Improbabilists, Inevitabilists And The Astonishing Mystery Of Life

David Klinghoffer in ENV reports that Richard Dawkins has now commented on the Martin Gaskell discrimination case where a distinguished astronomer was turned down for a job at the University of Kentucky (UK) because he expressed views sympathetic to intelligent design. UK ultimately felt compelled to cough up a $125,000 settlement to Dr. Gaskell, the university's lawyers reasoning they would fare worse if the case went to trial. Dawkins jauntily endorses such academic discrimination.

What's really contemptible about Dawkins's article is the illustrations he gives of "anti-science" views that would justify turning down a candidate for a job in a scientific field.

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Worthless bully? I think he is a delusional (engaged in the propagation of false beliefs) idealogue (an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology). Not an ad hominem attack, just a description.

As reported in ENV (and many other outlets)...NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) just dumped a lot of fuel on the fire of David Coppedge's discrimination lawsuit by firing him on Monday. Coppedge's lawsuit against JPL alleges discrimination because he was prevented from talking about intelligent design (ID).

This could potentially expose JPL to a claim of wrongful termination and increase the merits of Coppedge's claim that JPL retaliated against him. According to Coppedge's attorney William Becker, JPL claims the firing resulted from downsizing in the face of budget issues, but Coppedge is the most senior member of the team that oversees the computers on NASA and JPL's Cassini Mission to Saturn. Coppedge doesn't seem at all like the first person who would normally be forced to leave in such a situation.

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Casey Luskin writes in ENV..."We've discussed how articles critiquing intelligent design (ID) in the latest issue of Synthese could not rebut the theory without blatantly misrepresenting what ID says. There are a couple of papers in the issue, however, that discuss scientific matters."

"In fact, I'd like to start on a positive note and say that the one article in this issue which I found to be highly civil in tone and thoughtful was Bruce Weber's."

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Very informative...

Here's the magazine...

As reported in ENV...According to news articles, the University of Kentucky (UK) has settled the discrimination lawsuit filed against it by Martin Gaskell, an astronomer who was denied a job due to his perceived doubts about neo-Darwinian evolution. The case was scheduled to go to trial on February 8th, but today counsel for both sides filed a joint motion to dismiss the case pursuant to the settlement. According to the Associated Press:

The university has agreed to pay $125,000 to Martin Gaskell in exchange for Gaskell dropping a federal religious discrimination suit. Gaskell claimed he was passed over to be director of UK's MacAdam Student Observatory in 2007 because of his religion and statements that were perceived to be critical of evolution.

Court exhibits showed Gaskell was a top candidate, but some professors called him "something close to a creationist" and "potentially evangelical" in e-mails.

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In Uncommon Descent, it is written that "The blogosphere is abuzz with reports about a physics paper, Evidence against fine-tuning for life, written by an evangelical Christian physicist named Don Page, professor of physics at the University of Alberta. The paper is surprisingly non-technical and very easy to read. Also worth reading is Dr. Don Page's non-technical online presentation, Does God so love the multiverse?

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In Uncommon Descent a commentary is offered on P. Z. Myers' recent claim.

The author wishes to quiz the top 25 most influential atheists about the status of the newborn.

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Some atheists, who are intellectually honest about their worldview, express their rather hopeless view of their existential meaning. This can be reflected in their view on the pre-born or newborn.

While this may be "off topic" with regard to ID, their views have important consequences for the pre-born, and now, newborns. Some suggest giving parents a one-month option, after birth, to rid themselves of the new child with no civil penalty. A few years ago, this would have been considered barbaric, even in academia.

In a thoughtful consideration of the status of our most vulnerable, the SLED test is a fairly compelling argument for the pre-born as being fully human.

The SLED test...

Suppose an adult parent is busy with a task, and his or her young child enters the room and says, "Can I killed it?" Almost instinctively the parent would ask, "What is it?" If it's a spider crawling on the child's arm, the answer would likely be "yes". If it's the family pet, the answer would be unequivocally "no". So, it makes a great deal of difference on what "it" is. And, so it is with the pre-born and the newborn. Since the pre-born has unique human DNA and is living and growing, it qualifies, using the SLED test, as being fully human. IMHO, it's not really all that difficult. But, many would try to justify their claims using some rather convoluted reasoning.

ENV reported that...a 2009 peer-reviewed scientific paper by David Abel in International Journal of Molecular Sciences titled "The Capabilities of Chaos and Complexity" asks, "If all known life depends upon genetic instructions, how was the first linear digital prescriptive genetic information generated by natural process?" The author does not consider himself per se a proponent of intelligent design, and warns materialists that there is an easy solution to the challenges posed by intelligent design: "To stem the growing swell of Intelligent Design intrusions, it is imperative that we provide stand-alone natural process evidence of non trivial self-organization at the edge of chaos. We must demonstrate on sound scientific grounds the formal capabilities of naturally-occurring physicodynamic complexity." However, while the author notes that much effort has been spent "arguing to the lay community that we have proved the current biological paradigm," he concludes that the actual evidence for self-organization is "sorely lacking" and has been "inflated."

The author emphasizes a distinction between "order" and "organization," arguing that self-ordered structures like whirlpools are readily constructed by natural processes, but "have never been observed to achieve 1) programming, 2) computational halting, 3) creative engineering, 4) symbol systems, 5) language, or 6) bona fide organization"- all hallmarks of living organisms. In contrast, living organisms are built upon programming and are highly organized...

More on this honest assessment of the state of affairs...