2007

What’s the single book that you would most like your friends to read? According to U.K. pro-ID blogger Exiled from Groggs, it is Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt’s book A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature. According to the reviewer, formerly at Cambridge, “Of all the books on the great debate that I have read – and there are a fair few on both sides! – this is probably the one I have enjoyed the most, and the one which ought ideally to have the most potential to influence.” He goes on to explain why: Wiker and Witt’s thesis is that the universe is rich in “meaning” – the dominance of the materialist worldview Read More ›

You can tell when the Christmas season is approaching — by the nip in the air, and by the jump in the level of crankiness exhibited by Darwinists in the blogosphere. This year Christmas apparently has come early for internet Darwinists, who have been raising a kerfluffle on their blogs about Discovery Institute Senior Fellow William Dembski’s usage of a clip of some Harvard-commissioned animation of the cell in a few of his lectures. In typical high dudgeon, Darwinists have accused Dr. Dembski of all sorts of nefarious violations of intellectual property law. Some have even claimed (as usual, without an iota of evidence) that Discovery Institute supports the disregard of copyright laws or even had something to do with Dr. Dembski’s usage of the animation in question. (Wrong on both counts.)

According to a recent article in the Seattle Times, “School officials unite in banning Wikipedia,” because “[t]here have been many cases of incorrect information on the Web site, some of which has been biased.” The article reports that sadly, “A teacher researching Martin Luther King Jr. found white supremacist information in his entry.” Dr. King is one of my personal heroes. His perseverance in support of a just cause, and his calls for civil, reasoned responses to false personal attacks and persecution should be seen as a model for any ID proponent on how to behave in the present political climate. Thus, it is tragically unsurprising that Wikipedia, which promotes so much incorrect and biased information against intelligent design, should Read More ›

As part of our response to the PBS-NOVA documentary “Judgment Day: Intelligent Design,” Discovery Institute recently released “The Theory of Intelligent Design: A Briefing Packet for Educators” (available free for download, here). The packet contains numerous resources for educators trying to effectively teach about biological origins in public schools. These resources include: The packet also details Discovery Institute’s preferred policy for teaching intelligent design (ID) and evolution in public schools, explaining that we oppose mandating ID in public schools: As a matter of public policy, Discovery Institute opposes any effort require the teaching of intelligent design by school districts or state boards of education. Attempts to mandate teaching about intelligent design only politicize the theory and will hinder fair and Read More ›

PBS-NOVA’s “Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial” documentary has evoked much commentary and response. In fact, we have recently received a flood of e-mails from members of the public who felt that “Judgment Day” was heavily biased and inaccurate, including e-mails from educators and teachers who thanked us for correcting the misinformation promoted by PBS. Other e-mails have not been so nice, showing that sadly, some Darwinists apparently lack the Thanksgiving holiday spirit. Below is a sampling of some of the e-mails we have received recently: One Darwinist wrote us to explain that he is a “science teacher,” showing the type of example that he sets for his students regarding how to discuss controversial scientific and social issues: “May you Read More ›

As we noted earlier, Mike Behe has a response to another critic, Dr. Ian Musgrave of University of Adelaide, who wrote “An Open Letter to Dr. Michael Behe.” Read Behe’s response to Musgrave at his Amazon blog using the links below. Behe has also responded to a number of other critics at that site, including Ken Miller, Sean Carroll and Nick Matzke. Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5

I just posted at Discovery Blog about the remarkable article in The Los Angeles Times by Richard Hayes and what it tells us about the political motivation of scientists who opposed embryonic stem cell research, but were reluctant to speak out because they didn’t want to go against the P.C. crowd in science and the media. The relevance to other issues, including Darwin’s theory, is obvious. http://www.discovery.org/blogs/discoveryblog/

Recently stories about intelligent design and evolution have been appearing more regularly in the mainstream media. Many of these have to do with ongoing arguments over the scientific evidence for and against Darwinian evolution, and academic freedom cases of scholars and scientists researching intelligent design theory. Here’s a rundown of some of the biggest stories of recent weeks. PBS’ NOVA aired its review of the Dover intelligent design trial and misrepresented what intelligent design is and what its proponents say about it.

Federal judges don’t ordinarily travel around the country speaking about their judicial rulings, but Judge Jones is no ordinary federal judge. While promoting the PBS-NOVA special on intelligent design, he recently appeared the Lehrer Newshour, where he made striking admissions that demonstrate the activist nature of the Kitzmiller ruling. Two hallmarks of judicial activism are (1) the tendency to resolve questions outside the scope of the judiciary, which are best left to other branches of government,1 and (2) the intent to make policy and influence parties outside of the case.2 Judge Jones’ own admissions on the Lehrer Newshour demonstrate that both of these criticisms correctly apply to his Kitzmiller ruling. Judge Jones’ Expansive Intrusion into Legislative QuestionsFirst, Judge Jones admitted Read More ›

We had a “heads up” yesterday from Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith to expect a breakthrough on the issue of embryonic stem cells, and now he has published on it. Read more here.