Science and Culture Today | Page 1413 | Discovering Design in Nature

Today’s BreakPoint commentary features Chuck Colson, a longtime friend of Discovery and an ID proponent, honoring his personal hero Phillip Johnson. Colson asks, “How do you honor a man who started a groundbreaking movement that challenged the scientific establishment and is changing the way the world thinks about the origins of life?” He answers his question by introducing his readers to Darwin’s Nemesis, a collection of essays released earlier this year and highlighted here. In recognizing the Godfather of Intelligent Design, Colson identifies the secret to ID’s success: There’s no doubt that Phil’s willingness to encourage the work of scientists and help create a network for them has allowed the movement to flourish. This book really shows just how far Read More ›

The current issue of Time features a cover story preaching evolution to the skeptical public and editorializing that humans and chimps are related. Though the cover graphic (below) shows half-human, half-chimp iconography, University of North Carolina, Charlotte anthropologist Jonathan Marks warns us against “exhibit[ing] the same old fallacies: … humanizing apes and ape-ifying humans” (What It Means to be 98% Chimpanzee, pg. xv [2002]). The cover-graphic commits both fallacies: The article also claims that it’s easy to see “how closely the great apes — gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans — resemble us,” but then observes in a contradictory fashion that “agriculture, language, art, music, technology and philosophy” are “achievements that make us profoundly different from chimpanzees.” Perhaps Michael Ruse was Read More ›

Over 3,600 Floridians were treated to a unique presentation of intelligent design as a scientific theory challenging the reigning Darwinian evolutionary paradigm last Friday night. The Sun Dome at USF in Tampa Bay was the locale for Darwin or Design, featuring three noted ID scientists: Dr. Michael Behe, Dr. Jonathan Wells and Dr. Ralph Seelke.

I keep getting asked about the scientific research projects underway that relate to Darwinism and intelligent design. So why aren’t we talking more about them publicly? For several good reasons:

The most important is that the Darwinist establishment would like nothing better than to “out” research programs before they are finished. The idea is to shut down damaging evidence as early as possible. Strangle the infant in the crib. Demand answers now to questions still being explored.

Robert Pollack reviews Francis Collins’s new book The Language of God in the latest issue of Science. In the process he conveniently makes it appear that virtually Collins’ entire case for the existence of God boils down to the moral law in the human heart. But Collins also makes design arguments based on the Big Bang and the fine tuning of the physical constants of nature for life, comparing the design explanation to purely materialistic explanations and building a case that a design inference is the best, the most reasonable option. Pollack mentions these design arguments in only the most vague and glancing terms, giving the impression that Collins offers them not as formal arguments but more on the level of “that’s how the universe feels to me.”

Tomorrow night in Florida it will be Darwin vs. Design. Three of the leading intelligent design scientists in the country will speak at a conference at University of South Florida Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida, hosted by Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity.Speakers will include: If you’ll be in the area, you will definitely want to attend. Admission is free for high school and college students and only $5 for all others. If you can’t attend in person, you can listen to the conference online Friday night, September 29th, 7pm EST at www.860wgul.com, thanks to the C.S. Lewis Society. Each of the scientists has recently been interviewed on the ID The Future podcast. Click on their names to listen to Read More ›

We have reported about last year’s scandalous denial of tenure to Discovery Institute Fellow and noted legal scholar Francis Beckwith. (See here, here, here and here) Now we are glad to report that in a second look at the situation with the appeal process, Baylor President John Lilley has granted Beckwith tenure. World Magazine blog reports the same here. It is welcome news that academic freedom prevailed and Beckwith received what he is due.

An exciting find was recently reported as scientists discovered what may be the most complete australopithecine fossil specimen ever found. It is reported to be a toddler. Unfortunately, the media is misrepresenting this fossil as if it closely mimics humans. Consider the diagram below which comes from the Seattle Times (“Scientists Find Fossil Child from 3.3 Million Years Ago,” Thursday Sept. 21, 2006, pg. A2): Does Australopithecus afarensis really look so similar to humans? This diagram is extremely misleading. Consider a diagram from an actual scientific paper which reveals the stark differences between Australopithecus (right) and the earliest members of our genus, Homo (left): (From http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/2000/Jan00/r011000b.html covering the Hawks et al. paper) The media is calling this baby fossil “a Read More ›

Dr. Francis Collins will, of course, be remembered as the man who mapped the human genome. In his latest book, a best-seller, the medical geneticist tackles some weighty subjects, namely the relationship between faith and science and the issue of evolution as the backdrop to his entire work. Logan Gage has a thoughtful review in the October issue of American Spectator, in which he says Collins “gives an excellent lay treatment of the argument for design in physics and cosmology,” but later “gets hung up on a common misperception about ID in biology.” Click here to read the entire review.