Intelligent Design: Official statement on false and misleading information published in the Wall Street Journal today.*

By Charles L. Harper, Jr., Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation.

*[Monday November 14th, 2005. Article by Daniel Golden:
At Some Colleges, Classes Questioning Evolution Take Hold.]

Today the WSJ ran a front page story mentioning the John Templeton Foundation in a way suggesting that the Foundation has been a concerted patron and sponsor of the so-called Intelligent Design (“ID”) position (such as is associated with the Seattle-based Discovery Institute and the writers Philip Johnson, William Dembski, Michael Behe and others). This is false information. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The John Templeton Foundation has provided tens of millions of dollars in support to research academics who are critical of the anti-evolution ID position. Any careful and factual analysis of actual events will find that the John Templeton Foundation has been in fact the chief sponsor of university courses, lectures and academic research which variously have argued against the anti-evolution “ID” position. It is scandalous for a distinguished paper to misinform the public in this way. Read More ›

Darwinian Struggle At Some Colleges, Classes Questioning Evolution Take Hold ‘Intelligent Design’ Doctrine Leaves Room for Creator; In Iowa, Science on Defense; A Professor Turns Heckler By DANIEL GOLDEN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL November 14, 2005; Page A1 http://online.wsj.com/article_email/article_print/SB113193754738896194-lMyQjAxMDE1MzExNDkxMzQ3Wj.html

Science friction: God’s defenders target 3000 schools
By Linda Doherty and Deborah Smith

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/11/13/1131816809073.html
November 14, 2005

Up to 3000 schools have been targeted in a DVD blitz aimed at challenging Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in favour of an “intelligent designer”.

The right to teach intelligent design in science classes is being tested in US courts and a fiery debate has erupted in Australia that has pitted scientists against advocates for the “alternative theory” to evolution.
Proponents of intelligent design say some forms of life are so complex they can be explained only by the action of an unspecified “intelligent designer”, who some say is God. Read More ›

Kansas Evolution Ruling Chases Jobs Away By Scott Ott . . . According to an unnamed spokesman for the corporate coalition, the businesses plan to relocate to communities in states “where faith in evolution helps to build strong families and produces workers who know the value of slow, undirected change over vast spans of time.” “The last thing our companies need is a wave of employees who use logic to question orthodoxy and demand proof for dogmatic assertions,” the spokesman said. “Kansas employers are saying, ‘Give me that old time evolution. It was good enough for our mothers and it’s good enough for me’.” http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=2059

After Richard Sternberg published Stephen Meyer’s pro-ID article in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, the NCSE and the Smithsonian (where Sternberg works) exchanged emails on how best to derail Sternberg’s career (see here and here and here for background). The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) investigated and confirmed that Sternberg had been shafted (go here). But the full set of emails that the OSC examined in reaching its conclusion has to date not been made public. I’m herewith offering $500 to the first person who sends me a single pdf file under 2.5Mbytes with all this correspondence (email the file to info AT designinference DOT com). To receive the money, this needs to be an uncommondescent.com exclusive Read More ›

Jeffrey Shallit’s deposition in the Dover case is now available online (go here). The deposition itself was attached to the Plaintiff’s argument against the Defense’s motion for summary judgment (go here). I solicit your reactions to Shallit’s deposition.

President’s Veterans Day Speech

By President George W. Bush

TOBYHANNA, PENNSYLVANIA — Thank you all for coming, please be seated. Thanks for the warm welcome. I’m glad to be back in Pennsylvania, and I’m proud to be the first sitting president to visit Monroe County — especially pleased to see so many military veterans with us today. Those who have risked their lives for our freedom have the respect and gratitude of our nation on Veterans Day and on every day. Read More ›

This question was posed in one of the earlier threads on this blog. According to the following article, “Scott describes herself as atheist but does not discount the importance of spirituality.” Scott never asked the San Francisco Chronicle to retract this designation of atheism.

EUGENIE SCOTT
Berkeley scientist leads fight to stop teaching of creationism
Monica Lam, Special to The Chronicle
Friday, February 7, 2003
©2003 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/02/07/EB75914.DTL

One morning in September, Eugenie Scott of Berkeley got a long-distance phone call from an alarmed parent in Cobb County, Ga. The board of education there was considering allowing creationism to be taught side-by-side with evolution as an alternative, scientific theory on human origins. Read More ›

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5007508

[From a colleague:] “Here’s a more complete summary of the Pope’s Wednesday audience. Note the clear emphasis on knowledge of God through reason prior to revelation: “Even before discovering the God who reveals himself in the history of a people, there is a cosmic revelation, open to all, offered to the whole of humanity by the Creator.” That view is both biblical and an important theme in the philosophies of Aristotle and Plato as synthesized by Thomas Aquinas. The Pope’s point becomes even clearer when he lays aside the prepared text and speaks extemporaneously to the assembled pilgrims — including Cardinal Schönborn, who was present.” Read More ›

Discovery Institute Welcomes Pope’s Embrace of “Intelligent Project”

Seattle – Discovery Institute president Bruce Chapman hailed an impromptu statement Wednesday by Pope Benedict XVI embracing the “intelligent project” that lies behind nature. “Fooled by atheism,” the Pope said, many people today “think, and try to demonstrate, that everything is without direction and order…”

Read More ›

[From a colleague:] The way a scientific theory gets empirically established is not by showing that the evidence requires that precise theory. That is an impossible task–there are always infinitely many theories that fit the data. Rather, it gets established through showing that the evidence discredits the main alternative theories but does not discredit this theory. Read More ›

Evolution suffers Kansas setback The US state of Kansas has approved science standards for public schools that cast doubt on evolution. The Board of Education’s vote, expected for months, approved the new language criticising evolution by 6-4. Proponents of the change argue they are trying to expose students to legitimate scientific questions about evolution. The Kansas decision came as voters in Pennsylvania replaced all eight school board members who approved a similar policy in some of the state’s schools. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4419796.stm

Pennsylvania Voters Oust School Board That Backed Intelligent Design 11-09-2005 12:39 AM By MARTHA RAFFAELE, Associated Press Writer DOVER, Pa. — Voters came down hard Tuesday on school board members who backed a statement on intelligent design being read in biology class, ousting eight Republicans and replacing them with Democrats who want the concept stripped from the science curriculum. http://phoenix.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8DOQFOO3

Intelligent design’s place at the table: Intelligent design is the scientific pursuit of understanding patterns in nature, its proponents say. By Julia C. Keller . . . . That the complexity of nature argues for a designer is not a revolutionary idea, said Ronald Numbers, a historian of science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Numbers added that for the general public, the concept of God’s design in nature is a no-brainer. “Ninety percent of Americans are theists. They’re able to draw on a huge reservoir in a popular belief of a designer God,” he said. . . . [http://www.stnews.org/guide-2140.htm]