2007

Ted Davis, a historian of science who has often spoken against the ID guys, has weighed in heavily on the side of Guillermo Gonzalez in the recent tenure denial scandal: From where I sit, the impact of Dr. Avalos’[*] deeds is not hard to see: he poisoned the environment for Dr. Gonzalez, by undermining his academic reputation and isolating him at Iowa State*and all based on a book that is actually one of the best popular books about science in recent years. I am an expert on the history of religion and science in the United States (my current project on modern America has received significant support from the National Science Foundation), and in my opinion Dr. Gonzalez’ treatment of Read More ›

In a review of David Sloan Wilson’s book for popular audiences: Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives, Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist, gives an unwitting slam of Darwinism. The review was published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature.

Selling Evolution

we discover that 54% of adults in the United States prefer to believe that humans did not evolve from some earlier species. What makes this figure surprising is that it is up from 46% in 1994.

The number of non-Darwinists is rising! Pagel then asks this rhetorical question, “Where have the evolutionists gone wrong?”
Read More ›

The following poem entitled “First they came…” is inscribed at the Boston Holocaust Memorial. Those who believe Guillermo Gonzalez’ involvement with ID outside the Iowa State campus can be justly used in consideration of whether or not to grant him tenure would be well served to think about this. First they came… They came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they Read More ›

Recently, someone from Europe (who says he is “very sceptical of intelligent design theory”) drew my attention to a “horrible” article he found in the Google cache.* Read More ›

Well, John Berman’s ABC report “Hello, How Are You Doing?: Groundbreaking Research Has Scientists Talking with Apes” certainly sounded groundbreaking. The bonobos and orangutans at the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, are said to “talk”*, using a 350 symbol keyboard on which they have been trained since infancy. One ofthem, a 26-year-old Bonobo, Kanzi, is the star: He can map a series of English words to symbols on the keyboard. But then, it all fell apart during Berman’s “interview” with the ape: Read More ›

The latest edition of the german journal “Religion-Staat-Gesellschaft/Journal for the Study of Beliefs and Worldviews” (Jg.7 (2006), Nr.2) holds the focus on Intelligent Design & Evolution. ID-proponents and evolution-critics got a good chance to present and defend their viewpoints. Although the journal is dedicated to the study of worldviews and their roles in society there was also space to present scientific arguments and facts. The broad content includes a sociological analysis concerning the (largely negative) media coverage of ID in the german speaking area (Schmidt) and even a direct debate between ID-proponents (Lönnig/Meis) and critics (Gutmann/Warnecke). Papers Robert Schmidt, “Götter und Designer bleiben draußen” – Eine kritische Diskursanalyse der Medienberichterstattung zu Intelligent Design im deutschsprachigen Raum p135-184 Hans Peter Comes, Read More ›

Robert J. Marks II (see biosketch below) has just put his new Evolutionary Informatics Lab online: ecs.baylor.edu/faculty/marks/Research/EILab Here is how the lab is described on the website: Evolutionary informatics merges theories of evolution and information, thereby wedding the natural, engineering, and mathematical sciences. Evolutionary informatics studies how evolving systems incorporate, transform, and export information. Baylor University’s Evolutionary Informatics Laboratory explores the conceptual foundations, mathematical development, and empirical application of evolutionary informatics. The principal theme of the lab’s research is teasing apart the respective roles of internally generated and externally applied information in the performance of evolutionary systems. On the evolutionary informatics site are three papers jointly authored by Prof. Marks and me, with more are in the works. BIOSKETCH: Robert Read More ›

Details HERE How accurate were the predictions of Dr. Ivan A. Conway Moore, Ph.E., Thomas Huxley Professor of Pugilistic Ideology at Iowa State University? Read More Moore…

…we’ll deny tenure to anyone who wants to pursue the ideas, or develop them to the point where they can make predictions. If that sounds like a Catch-22, it is. Iowa State University Professor of Physics John Hauptman explains his No vote on Guillermo Gonzalez’s tenure decision as a simple matter: intelligent design isn’t science. Hauptman liked Gonzalez as a colleague: He is very creative, intelligent and knowledgeable, highly productive scientifically and an excellent teacher. Students in my Newspaper Physics class like to interview him. None of that counts, however, as Hauptman sees it. Rather what counts is the definition of “science.” Intelligent design, which Hauptman compares to the ancients attributing the growth of grain to the god Ceres, just Read More ›

Mark Chu-Carroll* goes after Behe’s new book here. Judge for yourself whether this deserves to be called a review (Chu-Carroll thinks it does). Nick Matzke endorses Chu-Carroll’s blog post against Behe here. Are there any anti-ID writings, no matter how ill-conceived or mean-spirited, that PT won’t endorse? It might be an interesting exercise to attempt a Sokal-style hoax to see what exactly PT is prepared to believe about ID. I herewith offer a prize, worth up to $200, to anyone who can pull this off and afterward reveal that it was all a hoax (the precise amount to be determined by how cleverly it is pulled off). —— *Chu-Carroll names his bog GOOD MATH, BAD MATH: FINDING THE FUN IN Read More ›

Great article by David Limbaugh which appeared in today’s Washington Times.

“Whether or not blind faith in man-made, catastrophic global warming has become a new religion, many of its adherents, ironically, embrace it with the same type of unquestioning zeal they sloppily attribute to and summarily condemn in Christians.” -David Limbaugh

Read More ›

Not one, but two book parties with the authors of the latest ID books! Tuesday, June 5th from 5:30 to 7 p.m.Darwin Strikes Back by Tom Woodward Wednesday, June 13th from 5:30 to 7 p.m.Edge of Evolution by Michael Behe The parties will be held at the Discovery Institute’s Washington DC office, located at 1015 Fifteenth Street, NW Suite 900. RSVP to Logan Gage at lgage@discovery.org, (202) 558-7085.

“I believe that if fossil birds are found very low down in the series, they will be seen to have a double or bifurcated wing. Here is a bold prophecy!” http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1452.2&viewtype=text&pageseq=226 Does any one know if his prophecy came true?

NASA’s Top Official Questions Global Warming NASA Administrator Michael Griffin Questions Need to Combat Warming “I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists,” Griffin told Inskeep. “I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with.” “To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth’s climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn’t change,” Griffin said. “I guess I would ask which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular Read More ›

What I Think About Evolution