Anika Smith

Stephen Meyer has already made year-end lists with Signature in the Cell, an Amazon bestselling science book and one of Times Literary Supplement’s books of the year for 2009, but the latest news goes far beyond that: Stephen Meyer has been named World Magazine’s “Daniel of the Year” for 2009: This fall Meyer came out with a full account of what science has learned in recent decades: Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (Harper One, 2009) shows that the cell is incredibly complex and the code that directs its functions wonderfully designed. His argument undercuts macroevolution, the theory that one kind of animal over time evolves into a very different kind. Meyer thus garners media Read More ›

After the Darwinists lost the debate in Beverly Hills, Donald Prothero — the man who cites imaginary eighteen-winged dragonflies as evidence for evolution — tried to salvage his reputation by attacking debate moderator Avi Davis for setting up an unfair encounter. As always, thoughtful readers might want to consider listening to the debate and judging themselves who won and just how fair the battle was. Courtesy of the American Freedom Alliance website, you can listen to the entire debate here. As the moderator of the debate, AFA’s Avi Davis responded to Dr. Prothero’s slurs in an email, which he gave us permission to post here at ENV:

WorldNetDaily has been covering the lawsuits filed against the California Science Center by the AFA and Discovery Institute over the cancellation of the pro-intelligent design film Darwin’s Dilemma and the suppression of public documents concerning the Center’s decision: The newest action comes from the Discovery Institute, which is accusing the California Science Center of unlawfully refusing to disclose public documents sought under the California Public Records Act. Discovery officials filed the request for the documentation about the center’s decision-making process when it rejected the video “Darwin’s Dilemma” Oct. 9. The center canceled a contract with the American Freedom Alliance to show the film Oct. 26. The center released 44 pages of documentation Nov. 2 and claimed “no documents have been Read More ›

This morning Discovery Institute announced their lawsuit against the California Science Center for unlawfully refusing to disclose public documents requested by Discovery Institute under the California Public Records Act. The petition, filed December 1, 2009, is available for viewing here.

It’s the question that bothers many Darwinists: why doesn’t everyone believe us? This is compounded of course by the fact that most of the people Darwinists interact with in the mainstream media believe everything anyone in the scientific establishment tells them (see: ClimateGate) as if it were gospel truth, causing them to wonder why a solid year of attention paid to Charles Darwin and his 150-year-old book isn’t convincing anyone.

As John West explains at ID the Future podcast, people have good reasons for rejecting Darwinian evolution, based on both the scientific evidence and the way it purports to overthrow long-cherished ideas about human dignity, morality, and God.
Click here to listen.

This is a hard pill for many Darwinists to swallow, particularly those who themselves uphold traditional morality and belief in God, but since they have no problem seeing no problems with the mounting scientific evidence against Darwin’s theory, it’s not too difficult for them to turn a blind eye to the social implications of Darwinian evolution.

In less than two weeks we will witness the rematch of the decade as Stephen Meyer and Michael Shermer face off on the question of intelligent design versus evolution. These two men have met several times before, most recently at Freedomfest in Las Vegas in 2008 (click here for video). They also sparred in 2005 at Westminster College and appeared together on Lee Strobel’s Faith Under Fire program (video here). It will be interesting to see the new insights into the questions at hand as this debate has matured and developed. The debate is hosted by the American Freedom Alliance and will take place at the prestigious Saban Theater in Beverly Hills on Monday, November 30, at 7:30pm. Dr. Meyer Read More ›

There’s a narrative that should be familiar to most of us by now: a man is considered the great hero of the faith, a sign of hope for every true believer as he advances its claims, but secretly he struggles with his doubts about what he’s preaching.

This time, there’s a twist to the old story: the faith the man espoused publicly was Darwin’s theory, and the man was the brilliant Stephen Jay Gould.

In Suzan Mazur’s fascinating new book, The Altenberg 16: An Exposé of the Evolution Industry, Richard Milner describes Gould as “a popular articulator of Darwinian evolution to a new generation, while privately, his creative and rebellious mind sought to move beyond it.” (emphasis added) A personal friend of Gould’s, as well as his editor at Natural History magazine, Milner goes on to explain that “Gould took issue with those who used natural selection carelessly as a mantra, as in the evidence-free ‘just-so stories’ concocted out of thin air by mentally lazy adaptationists.”

So here we have a picture of a man committed to his creed (“The universe is all there is, or ever was, or ever will be”) who was nonetheless unhappy with the easy answers of reductionists such as Richard Dawkins.

NewsBusters has a great interview with David Berlinski by Kevin Mooney, who praises The Deniable Darwin as “a series of mind-bending essays.” Proving once again that he is a skeptic’s skeptic, Dr. Berlinski addresses the lack of criticism in science: “In the U.S. you have the separation of powers that keeps different branches in check, but this is not true for science, where there is now a lot of corruption,” he observed. “Science needs its own critics. The same skepticism that is used in research now needs to be turned back onto science itself.” Dr. Berlinski’s essays go a long way toward rectifying this situation, while his observations and insights quickly reveal how ridiculous the anti-ID crowd can be: But Read More ›

This just gets better. Remember the International poll we highlighted earlier this week? British Darwinists, confused by the results (You mean our constant barrage of DARWIN RULZ msgs aren’t convincing anyone?), has taken to that old defense mechanism every psychologist knows too well: projection. That’s it! They must be confused about Darwin’s theory. After all, “scientific wording” like “intelligent design” tricks people into thinking what they couldn’t possibly think after all the money we’ve spent on advertising Darwin’s awesomeness.I almost wish they didn’t make it this easy: Surprisingly, this percentage [of support for teaching alternative theories] was higher than in the US — a comparative bastion of religious fundamentalism — and Egypt, where only a third as many people dissented Read More ›

A Colorado group is the target of malicious computer hackers in what appears to be a coordinated attempt to suppress information about an upcoming conference on Darwin and intelligent design in Colorado. Earlier this month the Shepherd Project Ministries website was breached using a “brute force attack” to break the password. The hackers then deleted webpages containing information about an upcoming conference featuring Discovery Institute speakers Stephen Meyer, Michael Behe, David Berlinski, and John West. “No question whatsoever about they were targeting,” said Shepherd Project Executive Director Craig Smith. “That was brazen. We were a little stunned, to be perfectly honest. We had seen some hostile language about the conference, but honestly we just assumed it was cyber-flaming. We didn’t Read More ›