February 2006

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Not-So-Quick But Nonetheless Dirty Review of the Kitzmiller Decision
By Casey Luskin

Introduction:
This is a response to the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board (hereafter “Kitzmiller) decision (see http://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/kitzmiller/kitzmiller_342.pdf to download the full opinion). This response is adapted from an e-mail I sent out to a bunch of friends in late December, 2005, just a few days after the Kitzmiller ruling was released. I’ve been asked by some friends who received the e-mail to post it on the internet in presentable fashion, and so I’m finally getting around to it in February, 2006.

The Kitzmiller ruling declared intelligent design is religion, not science, and unconstitutional to teach in public schools. This response here is by no means an exhaustive response to the problems with the Judge’s ruling. In fact, a more extensive discussion of many of these issues may be found in the Response to the ACLU ID FAQ which I wrote in February, 2005, about 7 months before the trial started. In some cases I simply provide links to other places which provide more complete discussions and refutations to the assertions made in the Kitzmiller decision. However, I hope this will help the reader see 4 things clearly: Read More ›

What does the theory of Natural Selection (the most well tested theory in science) predict about Avian Flu? Anything at all practical that isn’t obvious from simple observations of past flu behavior? Don’t hold your breath. The most well tested theory in science is also the most useless theory in science. ID predicts that no matter how many times the Avian Flu virus mutates it will remain a virus because for it to become more than a virus requires the addition of CSI and there is no mechanism capable of generating CSI in a flu virus. 😛

See also here and here.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/311/5764/1068b

Mesozoic mammals have been thought to have been small, nocturnal, and confined to a few niches on land until the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Most are recorded by isolated jaw fragments or teeth. Ji et al. (p. 1123; see the cover and the Perspective by Martin) now describe a Jurassic mammal from China that breaks this mold. The fossil is well preserved, and impressions of fur can be seen on its body and scales on a broad tail (similar to a beaver overall). The animal was fairly large, approaching not quite half a meter in length, and the shape of its limbs suggest that it was adapted for swimming and burrowing. The combination of both primitive and derived features in this early mammal, and the demonstration that mammals had occupied aquatic habitats by this time, expands the evolutionary innovations of early mammals.

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I was reading an interview with Craig Venter (CV) and imagine my surprise when I caught him making a glaring human physiology error: Ventor: “It’s very simple, because every cell in our body has DNA.” Oops. 😳 I thought everyone knew that mammalian red blood cells have no DNA… 😎

Dave Pierre, in blogging about the Los Angeles Times’ continual strawman bashing of ID, posts a great reading list at the bottom of the article. Questions About Intelligent Design What Intelligent Design Is—and Isn’t Primer: Intelligent Design Theory in a Nutshell The Science Behind Intelligent Design Theory Thanks Dave!

Wesley Elsberry, when confronted with the following quote from the letter of the federal Office of Special Counsel to Rick Sternberg: Our investigation shows that NCSE is a political advocacy organization dedicated to defeating any introduction of ID, creationism or religion into the American education system. In fact, members of NCSE worked closely with SI and NMNH members in outlining a strategy to have you investigated and discredited within the SI. accuses the OSC of telling whoppers. When PicoFarad asks why Wesley doesn’t simply publish the emails between NCSE and SI he comes back with I see that “PicoFarad” rejects the part of US jurisprudence that holds that parties are considered innocent until proven guilty. I’m not surprised. Uh, right. Read More ›

The most tested theory in science – Natural Selection – has new and improved evidence to support it says Pim Van Meurs on Panda’s Thumb. Excuse me, but haven’t the NeoDarwinian dogmatists been saying for years that Natural Selection is as well tested as the theory of gravity? Do we hear headlines like New Evidence Supports Theory of Gravity or New Evidence Shows Things Don’t Fall Up? ROFL Who are these clowns trying to fool? 🙂

It’s with sadness I announce that Henry Morris died Saturday evening (2.25.06). Henry Morris was a great man, and all critics of Darwinian evolution are in his debt for maintaining pressure on this pseudoscience when so much of the Western world capitulated to it. As I wrote last year at this time (go here) in reference to a conversation with Michael Ruse about Henry Morris’s significance: During our conversation, Ruse commented that for all his disagreements with the young earth creationists, and Henry Morris in particular, he did give them credit for, as he put it, “keeping this issue alive.” The “issue” here was the debate over biological evolution and, in particular, the possibility of design providing a viable alternative Read More ›

ID is not the same as Creationism, however, it would be naive to say the following article has no bearing on the future of ID. I’m personally disappointed to hear some creationist students mingling religious ideas into their scientific views, but on the whole, this report can’t be happy news for Richard Dawkins. :=) Academics fight rise of creationism at universities Most of the next generation of medical and science students could well be creationists, according to a biology teacher at a leading London sixth-form college. “The vast majority of my students now believe in creationism,” she said, “and these are thinking young people who are able and articulate and not at the dim end at all. …. Many …were Read More ›

Broward selects biology text with watered-down passages on evolution

A review by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found that on one edited page, Holt agreed to give Darwin less credit for shaping modern biology…..

Previous editions of the textbook said Darwin’s theory “is the essence of biology.”

In the Broward edition, students will read instead that Darwin’s theory “provides a consistent explanation for life’s diversity.”
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Dover Trial Preview to Witness Testimony By: Hosted by Marvin Waldburger Radio Station WNBLAT September 29, 2005 Copernicus Stages A Comeback By: David Berlinski Discovery Institute September 27, 2005

[From a colleague:] Leo Tolstoy’s last completed letter, dictated from his sick-bed at the Astapovo train station on November 1, 1910 (six days before his death), and addressed to his son Seryozha and daughter Tanya, included a warning that Seryozha should not allow himself to be seduced by Darwinism. Here is the relevant passage: “The views you have acquired about Darwinism, evolution and the struggle for existence won’t explain to you the meaning of your life and won’t give you guidance in your actions, and a life without an explanation of its meaning and importance, and without the unfailing guidance that stems from it is a pitiful existence.” —Tolstoy’s Letters: Volume II, 1880-1910, selected, edited, and translated by R.F. Christian. Read More ›

South Dakota just passed a law making abortion a felony except in case of medical emergency. It’s now just a matter for the governor to sign it which everyone expects him to do. The law is designed to force the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade. The present Supreme Court is unlikely to hold up Roe v. Wade which is based on a made up out of whole cloth (mythical) constitutional guarantee of privacy. It will become again a matter for states to decide for themselves. This is as it should be. A bunch of politicians or judges in Washington have no business defining the moral standards that the good and free people of South Dakota or any other state must live with. Legislated moral values not explicitely enumerated in the constitution are simply something the federal government has no business dictating to the states.

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Thank you Joelle Parks: Another critic of the bill [i.e., the Wisconin bill banning ID], Gary McCaleb, a senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said in an interview that his firm would thoroughly investigate the legislation. “Mandating a point of view and trying to enshrine your current science in law is, to me, just scientists begging for disaster,” Mr. McCaleb began, “It’s very problematic to have scientists trying to shut down the debate.” MORE