Science and Culture Today | Page 1327 | Discovering Design in Nature

[Editor’s Note: This is crossposted at Discovery Blog] Schools are in recess this time of year, so busloads of girls using “like” as a verbal crutch and wise cracking, baggy pants boys are wending their way through the cherry blossoms of America’s capital. In these security-conscious times it is harder than ever to get a tour of the White House or Capitol, so parents and chaperones are quick to steer the young to the Mall. A traditional favorite is the National Museum of Natural History, where for several years now Darwinian fairytales have been presented in an exhibit on mammals that encourages our offspring to have a family reunion with their “relatives”, including chimps, dogs, and mice. Here are strange Read More ›

Display content from video.google.com Click here to display content from video.google.com. Always display content from video.google.com Open content directly

Marvin Olasky has a great review of Expelled in the new issue of World magazine. Ben Stein takes on the debate-phobic Darwinian establishment“The shot heard round the world” that started the American Revolution came on April 19, 1775. On April 18 this year, a seriously funny documentary is scheduled to hit 1,000 theaters across America and fire a shot that will go unheard if debate-phobic Darwinists get their way.The 100-minute documentary, Expelled, is perfect for adults and children of middle-school age or above: It should be rated R not for sex or violence but for being reasonable, radical, risible, and right. (It is rated PG for thematic material, some disturbing images, and brief smoking.) The expelling of Intelligent Design (ID) Read More ›

Last week CSC senior fellow David Berlinski gave a presentation based on his new book The Devil’s Delusion in the Discovery Institute Washington DC offices. C-SPAN’s Booknotes was there and will broadcast the event at least twice this weekend, so set your DVRs for Saturday at 11pm EDT / 8PM PDT.From C-SPANs website:

Commenting on the recommendations by Matt Nesbit and Chris Mooney that Darwinists tone down the venality of their attacks against religious faith and against scientists who support intelligent design, atheist “evolutionist” Dr. Larry Moran, professor of biochemistry at the University of Toronto, replied:

I’m opposed to censorship of any kind but I really wish Matt Nisbet and Chris Mooney would voluntarily decide to keep their stupid mouths shut for a few years.

Is Dr. Moran genuinely “opposed to censorship of any kind”? Consider his statement a few months ago on the moral dilemma that Darwinists face regarding students who are Christians:

Of course, we all recognize the problem here. How do you distinguish between a good Christian who is lying for Jesus and one who has actually come to understand science? It seems really unfair to flunk the honest students who admit that they still reject science and pass the dishonest ones who hide their true beliefs…As we’ve seen time and time again on the blogs (and elsewhere), the Christian fundamentalists have erected very strong barriers against learning. It really doesn’t matter how much they are exposed to rational thinking and basic scientific evidence. They still refuse to listen…This is one of the reasons why I would flunk them if they took biology and still rejected the core scientific principles. It’s not good enough to just be able to mouth the “acceptable” version of the truth that the Professor wants. You actually have to open your mind to the possibility that science is correct and get an education. That’s what university is all about. [empahsis mine]

Dr. Moran insists that professors investigate students’ religious beliefs in order to ascertain whether or not Christians who “mouth the acceptable version” (i.e., who pass their exams) genuinely believe “science,” which Dr. Moran defines as materialist metaphysics. If they don’t accept Dr. Moran’s personal atheist ideology, he “would flunk them,” regardless of their grades.

Expelled continues to generate buzz. Earlier today, Ben Stein spoke in support of the Academic Freedom Act introduced this week in the Missouri state legislature, and both he and the film were praised by Governor Blunt. With all the academic freedom issues coming to a boil the film is receiving more attention than ever.

We get a lot of e-mail asking how people can find out if Expelled will be showing in their local theater. Well, here’s where to check. The Expelled website features a theater locator which will tell you the theater closest to you that will be screening the film when it opens on April 18th.

If you don’t find a theater near you in the list generated from the locator, or you know of a particular theater that you’d like to see carry the film but currently isn’t on that list, here’s what to do.

Following on the heels of Florida and Louisiana, Missouri legislators have now filed an academic freedom act bill, and a companion bill to protect scientists and researchers, along with educators. Legislators in Louisiana and Missouri have introduced academic freedom bills that would ensure the freedom of teachers to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of theories of biological and chemical evolution. Florida legislators introduced a similar bill recently which passed through its first committee hearing on a 4-1 vote.In Louisiana, Sen. Ben Nevers introduced SB 561, and in Missouri Rep. Wayne Cooper has introduced HB 2554. Both bills would protect teachers’ academic freedom to teach scientific information that supports Read More ›

An academic freedom bill has been submitted in the state of Louisiana, and Darwinists have been quick to claim that the bill promotes religion. Columnist James Gill followed the Darwinist talking points perfectly in his editorial in The Times-Picayune, using the fear-mongering tactic of claiming that this bill is part of a “creationist attack” and that “[t]he bill is of no conceivable benefit to anyone but Christian proselytizers.” So what exactly does this bill’s dangerous “attack” say? The language of the bill simply states that “teachers shall be permitted to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories pertinent to the course being taught.” The only people Read More ›

The so-called new atheists like Richard Dawkins have hijacked science in an attempt to bolster the foundations of their anti-religious views and in so doing are enshrining a new secular religion of scientism.

And now, along comes an agnostic to challenge them.

In a refreshing counterpoint, agnostic science writer David Berlinski, an urbane scholar with a withering wit to delight and entertain, vigorously defends religious thought against a movement of intolerance which now includes much of the scientific elite.

• Click here for more about David Berlinski
• Click here for more about The Devil’s Delusion
• Click here to see when and where Dr. Berlinski will be speaking

“If science stands opposed to religion, it is not because of anything contained in either the premises or the conclusions of the great scientific theories,” Berlinski writes. “Confident assertions by scientists that… they have demonstrated that God does not exist have nothing to do with science, and even less to do with God’s existence.”
A secular Jew, Berlinski nonetheless delivers a brisk defense of religion.

I have theorized elsewhere about the Darwinists’ diminishing status in the gene pool, but there is new and even more alarming evidence of the deterioration of the Darwinist subspecies–further proof that those who believe in the survival of the fittest are less fit for survival. It is becoming increasingly evident that there is a serious lack of creativity among a few Darwinists that could threaten their station on the evolutionary tree.

These days I get most of my news via my Google Reader, and about half of it over the last week seems to be about an attempt by biologist P. Z. Myers to sneak into a private viewing of the new movie “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” Ben Stein’s expose of Darwinist thought control in our institutions of higher learning. Myer’s attempt to get into the private screening (which was invitation only) was foiled when he was recognized and told that the private screening was, well, private.

From the indignation with which this incident has been received by the anti-ID crowd, one would think that he was beaten with truncheons by big men in steel-toed boots and physically dragged away from the theater. But, alas, it is not so. Turns out he was just standing there dumbly in line waiting to get in to see the movie, was recognized, and was then asked by theater security to go away, which he did, according to reports, without a struggle.

Such is the state of the Darwinist mindset these days that so unimpressive a performance is considered the stuff of heroism. But P. Z. thought it was something, and he has recounted several times now how he bravely endured his confrontation with theater security (and we know their reputation). I mean, what was he supposed to do? They had badges.