Science and Culture Today | Page 1238 | Discovering Design in Nature

Over the past couple of months at Jerry Coyne’s blog, Why Evolution Is True, he and Matthew Cobb have written several blog posts attacking Stephen Meyer’s Signature in the Cell — by my count, five posts. The most recent by Coyne accusesMeyer of dishonesty: Meyer does not mean well. He is spreading lies and confusing people by distorting real science. Is that the unfortunate result of “meaning well”? Do you think that because somebody is a “Christian brother,” he’s incapable of lying for Jesus? Isn’t it strange, though, that for all the persistent attacks on Meyer, in quite personal terms, Professor Coyne hasn’t dared toactually read Steve’s book? That’s obvious because Coyne’s throwaway summary ofits contents — Signature “maintains that Read More ›

In this LeVake v. Independent School District, the Minnesota Court of Appeals did NOT find it was illegal to offer scientific critiques of evolution. What they did find is that administrators may exercise tight control over the curriculum, and may discipline teachers who would express doubts Darwin in the classroom. Cases like this show the need for academic freedom legislation to protect the rights of teachers to discuss both the evidence for and against evolution in the classroom. For podcast interviews with the plaintiff in this case, Rodney LeVake, see here and here. 1. SummaryIn LeVake v. Independent School District, high school biology teacher Rodney LeVake was reassigned after he allegedly failed to adequately cover the curriculum requirements for evolution Read More ›

You can watch the live “Signature in the Cell” intelligent design one-night event featuring some of the leading voices challenging Darwinian evolution including Stephen Meyer, Michael Medved, David Berlinski and Tom Woodward.The event will be broadcast LIVE tonight from 7:05-9:00pm, on the internet You can stream it live from either of these radio websites: AM 570 and 910 or AM 860 WGUL.To listen to the event in its entirety, click here. Click here to register for this event Discovery Institute senior fellow and national radio personality Michael Medved will lead a two-hour discussion about the evidence for intelligent design and the challenges it proposes to modern evolutionary theory. Joining him will be Signature in the Cell author, Stephen C. Meyer, Read More ›

Stephen Meyer’s Signature in the Cell is stirring up a thoughtful debate over at Biologos’ blog, Science and the Sacred, where Darrel Falk and Francisco Ayala both reviewed Meyer’s book. Today, Meyer’s response to Falk is posted: In 1985, I attended a conference that brought a fascinating problem in origin-of-life biology to my attention–the problem of explaining how the information necessary to produce the first living cell arose. At the time, I was working as a geophysicist doing digital signal processing, a form of information analysis and technology. A year later, I enrolled in graduate school at the University of Cambridge, where I eventually completed a Ph.D. in the philosophy of science after doing interdisciplinary research on the scientific and Read More ›

Discovery Institute is proud to announce a series of Academic Freedom Day events at the University of Arkansas happening on February 11 (Darwin Day Eve!). First, there’s a free screening of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed starring Ben Stein. Q & A about the movie with Casey Luskin, Program Officer in Public Policy and Legal Affairs at Discovery Institute, will follow. Time: 5 pmLocation: University of Arkansas Union TheatreFollowing that is a lecture, “The Positive Scientific Case for Intelligent Design and Why it’s being Expelled from Academia,” by Casey Luskin. Time: 7 pmLocation: University of Arkansas Union Theatre

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is now available on DVD in the United Kingdom in a newly expanded edition with 44 minutes of never-before-seen interviews.Interest in intelligent design is growing in Britain. Earlier this month, Stephen Meyer, who appears in Expelled, defended both the film and ID in a debate with atheist Peter Atkins, which you can listen to here. The “Bad Boy UK Version” promises to be a hit in a market that has been dominated by the likes of Richard Dawkins, whose appearance in the film and startling admission that intelligent design exists — coming from aliens, of course — might raise a few eyebrows in his native land.What’s the old saying about prophets and honor in their homeland?

SEATTLE — “Darwin’s attempt to explain the origins of all the magnificent species in the living world in terms of the struggle for survival is easily the dumbest idea ever taken seriously by science,” writes Dr. Granville Sewell in his new book In the Beginning and Other Essays on Intelligent Design published by Discovery Institute Press.

What do you get when you add together the big bang, the fine-tuning of the laws of physics and the evolution of life? Definitely not a materialistic theory of origins, answers Sewell, a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas El Paso.

In this wide-ranging collection of essays, Sewell concludes that while there is much in the history of life that seems to suggest natural causes, there is little evidence to support Charles Darwin’s idea that natural selection of random variations can explain major evolutionary advances.

The second, third, and fourth installments of the review of Steve Meyer’s book Signature in the Cell are up over at Beliefnet. (I responded to the first installment here.)

Although this series appears on Scot McKnight’s Jesus Creed blog, they’re written by anonymous blogger “RJS.” I’m guessing that RJS is a scientist, or is in a sensitive academic position, and doesn’t want to risk banishment for saying reasonable things about an ID argument. If so, that tells us something of the social pressures against writing publicly about this issue.

Download the Complete “Truth or Dare” with Dr. Ken Miller Lecture GuidePermission Granted to Copy and Distribute for Educational Use. Links to our 7-Part Series Responding to Ken Miller: • Part 1: Science and Religion: Is Evolution “Random and Undirected”?• Part 2: Misrepresenting the Definition of Intelligent Design• Part 3: Confusing Evidence for Common Ancestry With Evidence for Darwinian Evolution• Part 4: The Name-Dropping Approach to Transitional Fossils• Part 5: Spinning Tales About the Bacterial Flagellum• Part 6 (This Article): Misrepresenting Michael Behe’s Arguments for Irreducible Complexity of the Blood Clotting Cascade• Part 7: Ken Miller and the Evolution of the Immune System: “Not Good Enough”? Another area where Ken Miller misrepresents irreducible complexity is the blood clotting cascade. With Read More ›

Since its publication in 2007, the innovative science textbook Explore Evolution: The Case For and Against Neo-Darwinism has helped trailblaze a new way of teaching about evolution, one based on Charles Darwin’s own acknowledgment that “a fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question.” The original goal of Explore Evolution was to provoke discussion about Darwinian evolution, and provoke discussion it has! This week Discovery Institute launches an extensive “Further Debate” website inspired by the book in the hope of encouraging even more discussion. The new site offers cogent responses to a variety of reviews of the book issued by Darwinists over the past two years, including Read More ›