The ID Update

Dr. Meyer's interview with Michael Medved on ENV by David Klinghoffer.

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Click HERE for the interview.

In ENV, Casey Luskin reports that...The news media are reporting on a bill in the Missouri State Legislature that would require "equal treatment for evolution and intelligent design."

As we've mentioned many times before here on ENV, Discovery Institute opposes legislation like this, as it contradicts our longstanding policy to oppose pushing intelligent design in public schools. The Missouri "equal treatment" bill is entirely different from academic freedom bills, which we do support. Well-crafted legislation protecting academic freedom (a) doesn't cover the teaching of intelligent design, (b) seeks to ensure the freedom of teachers who choose to teach about scientific controversies, and (c) does not require instructors to change their teaching in any way.

So why does Discovery Institute - the main organization supporting research into ID - oppose pushing ID into public schools? It's simple. Our priority with ID is to see it develop as a scientific theory and not to politicize it by pushing the theory into public schools.

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In the Northwest Missourian, Tori Baigi reports that...A newly-proposed Missouri bill pushes the teaching of intelligent design, the idea that life was created in its present form by a form of intelligence, at all levels of public education, including public universities.

If passed, House Bill 291 will require teachers to allow "equal treatment" for curriculum on evolution and intelligent design.

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We shall analyze a skeptic's remarks and consider the future of intelligent design, about which the skeptic is skeptical. Graduate students and advanced undergraduates (and others who qualify) may wish to continue this conversation at Discovery Institute's Summer Seminars on Intelligent Design (apply here), which is aimed at "the next generation of scientists and scholars."

The Philosophy of Religion section of the Tyndale Fellowship hosted a one-day Conference in Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge on Saturday 14th July, 2012. The full title of the Conference was 'Design in Nature? Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives'.

This is the lecture given by Dr Stephen C Meyer at that event.

Best-selling author Nancy Pearcey and writer-editor J. Richard Pearcey have teamed up to create the Francis Schaeffer Center for Worldview and Culture on the campus of Houston Baptist University.

The purpose of the Francis Schaeffer Center is to "promote foundational research and out-of-the-box creative thinking based on historic Christianity as a total way of life informed by verifiable truth concerning God, humanity, and the cosmos," according to the FSC mission statement.

The Center is named for noted author Francis A. Schaeffer, whose work with wife Edith at L'Abri Fellowship in Switzerland won international respect for giving an "honest answer to honest questions." Time magazine hailed the Schaeffers' work as a "Mission to Intellectuals."

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As reported by the BBC...Failing to teach evolution by natural selection in science lessons could lead to new free schools losing their funding under government changes.

The new rules state that from 2013, all free schools in England must teach evolution as a "comprehensive and coherent scientific theory".

The move follows scientists' concerns that free schools run by creationists might avoid teaching evolution.

Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, said he was "delighted".

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In ENV...A newly elected Montana lawmaker, Rep. Clayton Fiscus, has filed a request with legislative services for a draft bill that would, if passed into law, put intelligent design into Montana's public schools. The news caught the notice of the Huffington Post and our friends at the National Center for Science Education.

As in the past, let's be clear: However well intentioned this draft bill request, the best place for mulling intelligent design is in the labs and lecture halls that host the scientific community and its activity, and in books and journals read by scientists and non-scientists alike - not in public schools, statehouses or courtrooms, as these tend to turn science into politics.

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David Klinghoffer in ENV reports on a website for younger kids. There's an adorable cartoon dog named Darwin who explains about how he likes science and being nice: "He believes in being a good person, even though he doesn't believe in any of the gods from his stories."

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