Robert Crowther

The New York Times periodically exhibits a questionable nose for news. What rises to the level of news for the science writers at the Times aren’t instances of scientific censorship or persecution of scientists. Today, complaints by Darwinists allegedly featured in a forthcoming (and as of yet unfinished, according to the filmmakers themselves) film, Expelled, that documents the persecution of scientists who question Darwin, is considered news by the Times’ science staff.

What about real news related to the debate over evolution and intelligent design? The Times has a snobbishly selective olfactory sense, it seems.

Yesterday the Boston Globe published an amazing and insightful article about DNA and what scientists are learning about the inner-workings of the cell. As it turns out, the more we learn, the more we realize how much more there is to learn.

“The picture that’s emerging” of how living cells actually operate and evolve “is so immensely more complicated than anyone imagined, it’s almost depressing,” Rigoutsos said.

One interesting thing that leapt out at me when reading this was the fact that, while many scientists now realize that it was a mistake to jump to the conclusion that there were massive amounts of “junk” in DNA (because they were trying to fit the research into a Darwinian model), they are on the verge of committing the same exact mistake all over again, this time with RNA.

No one knows what all that extra RNA is doing. It might be regulating genes in absolutely essential ways. Or it may be doing nothing of much importance: genetic busywork serving no real purpose.
Many researchers believe the truth falls somewhere in between.
“Half of it may be doing something very useful,” said Lander, who is also a professor of biology at MIT. “The other part may turn out to be, well, just junk – doing neither great good nor great harm.”

California Literary Review has a short and insightful interview with Michael Behe about his latest book and among other things asked him what evidence there is of a designer.Behe explains in part: Whenever we perceive a “purposeful arrangement of parts” we suspect design. The more parts there are, and the more clearly they fit the purpose, the more confident our conclusion of design becomes. In the past fifty years science has discovered a very purposeful arrangement of parts in the cell’s molecular machinery. That is the evidence for the involvement of a designer in life on earth. You can read the full interview here.

The Waco Tribune Herald today published an op-ed, keeping the spotlight on Baylor University’s crusade to stifle research questioning Darwinism or supporting intelligent design.
Aside from the fact that they got both the author and the professor’s name wrong (Mark Ramsey is the author, Robert Marks is the professor), the op-ed continues to showcase the censorship used by the Baylor administration to suppress intelligent design.

The Baylor student newspaper continues to report on the story of the shut down of distinguished professor Robert Marks’ evolutionary informatics website due to aonymous complaints that it was pro-intelligent design. Baylor president John Lilley refused to speak with Expelled filmmakers about the suppression of intelligent design scientists and scholars. Filmmakers had to settle speaking to a public relations reprsentative and the Dean of Marks’ school. “With both of them it was really limited because they have a certain line they are holding, which the issues are all about procedures and not about the content,” Mathis said, “and all the information we have seen says that that’s not true.”Mathis said the main indication to him about the issue being about Read More ›

According to the Baylor student newspaper:

Troubled by the Baylor administration’s removal of an intelligent design Web site from a Baylor server, a producer from the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is planning a Thursday trip to campus in hopes of meeting with President John Lilley.

Distinguished professor Dr. Robert Marks’ personal research Web site on evolutionary informatics was taken down from a Baylor server last month, and producers of Expelled want to speak to Lilley about it.

“We are disturbed with what happened with Dr. Marks,” executive producer Walt Ruloff said. “He was working on some really vital research.”

I just found out about a debate tomorrow that will be of interest to any of you in the Penn State area. Dr. Michael Shermer and Dr. Paul NelsonEvolution vs. Intelligent Design – A DebateThursday, September 20, 20077:30 p.m. – Wolf Kuhn Theatre – Misciagna Family Center for Performing ArtsClick here for more details.

Returning to Newsweek after a five year stint as a science writer for the Wall Street Journal, Sharon Begley posted a blog piece yesterday about Darwinist biology professor Richard Colling. Colling teaches at a small Nazarene university in Illinois and, according to Begley, has come under fire by church leaders because he is a theistic evolutionist and authored a book called Random Designer.

Anger over his work had been building for two years. When classes resumed in late August, things finally came to a head. Colling is prohibited from teaching the general biology class, a version of which he had taught since 1991, and college president John Bowling has banned professors from assigning his book.

Two years? Robert Marks’ evolutionary informatics website was barely online two months when Baylor admins gave it the heave-ho. Granted, private religious institutions–unlike state universities–have the right to enforce doctrinal beliefs as part of their First Amendment freedom. Of course, if Colling’s university–like Baylor University–has claimed that it guarantees academic freedom, then that is another matter. If Colling’s academic freedom has been hindered then that needs to be corrected. We support academic freedom, obviously, for Darwinists as well as Darwinist-skeptics.

Begley’s blog is a bit unclear as to just who is attacking Colling. It sounds more as if the attacks have come from church leaders as opposed to university administrators.

At least one local Nazarene church called for Colling to be fired and threatened to withhold financial support from the college.

Clearly, Colling has not been fired.

Maybe Expelled’s producers should rent some billboards in Waco.

Baylor University continues to come under fire for its suppression of Professor Robert Marks’ Evolutionary Informatics Lab. Clearly, Marks’ site was removed because it was implicated with ID (not because of any Baylor policy) and there are plenty of labs and groups (some belonging to Marks himself) that have not faced similar discrimination. It seems obvious that his site is being singled out — regardless of what Baylor says.

The story was on the front page of today’s Waco Tribune Herald and reported that:

. . . at an Aug. 9 meeting, attended by Beckenhauer, Gilmore, Marks, Kelley, provost Randall O’Brien and engineering department chair Kwang Lee that “a disclaimer would be put on the Web site and that it would then go back online as the provost had promised at the close of the meeting.”

It also quoted Marks’ attorney John Gilmore as saying:

(The disclaimer) might not have satisfied the absolutists who don’t want anyone at Baylor to think, even on their own time, about I.D. and its related issues. . . . Baylor has an obligation to defend Bob Marks’ position. Unfortunately, they’ve been taking the position of his persecutors. . . . It’s viewpoint discrimination.

The story is somewhat similar to that of noted astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez who suffered academic persecution at the hands of Iowa State University earlier this year. Like Gonzalez, Marks is an especially accomplished scientist and scholar. Among Marks’ numerous professional accomplishments are 120 peer-reviewed journal papers, 140 conference papers, and three patents. Just check this out.