2008

How our Marxist faculties got that way By Edward Bernard Glick June 17, 2008 American Thinker Edward Bernard Glick is a professor emeritus of political science at Temple University and the author of “Soldiers, Scholars, and Society: The Social Impact of the American Military.” It’s August 1968. Anti-Vietnam War demonstrators have just wrecked the Democratic national convention in Chicago and ruined Hubert Humphrey’s chances to become President. So what did these Marxist demonstrators and their cohorts elsewhere do next? They stayed in college. They sought out the easiest professors and the easiest courses. And they stayed in the top half of their class. This effectively deferred them from the military draft, a draft that discriminated against young men who didn’t Read More ›

I have been invited to an advance screening of Expelled in Canada (the widely denounced #5 political documentary about the attempts to silence the intelligent design guys) on Thursday, June 26, at 7:00pm at The Varsity Theatre – 55 Bloor St. West in Toronto.

The film opens the following Friday June 27 (or Saturday June 28) at the Cineplex Odeon.

(People who know me may recall that I have sent numerous pointed communications to the Expelled team because they would not send me a DVD. But at Write! Canada [where I received a standing ovation – see “Intellectual freedom: Survival is design not chance”] I ran into, of all people, the screenwriter Kevin Miller. A fellow Canadian, he assured me that he couldn’t get a DVD either. Just shows you. The Expelled team better serve really good hors d’oeuvres at the advance screener. )

But now I wonder who will picket or try to crash? You know, I would love to sweep into the show, fanned by energetically waving picket signs. It beats paparazzi cold and makes up for not having a snow white ermine or designer gown.

Picket? Try to crash? There was a big hoo-haw over the screening at the Mall of the Americas when “raving atheist” biologist PZ Myers got ejected by line producer Mark Mathis.) Perhaps I will recognize some prominent Toronto figures strutting importantly on the sidewalk. I shall make a note to ask if the catering staff might be permitted to offer them animal crackers, OJ, and milk.

Picketers please note: There is a wide sidewalk, and plenty of coffee shops near the Varsity. The restrooms in the Cumberland Terrace are usually pretty clean too.

Also, be reassured, picketers! The government-funded Nanny Monster is always right, and she says that neither the universe nor life forms show evidence of design, despite the evidence. And in our random universe, the biggest Monster should rule, and that is She. Read More ›

I remember my two meetings with Van Cliburn with great fondness. He was, and still is, an extraordinary musical and pianistic talent who, at the tender age of 23 in 1958, warmed the Cold War. Most of you probably don’t remember this. Visit the following links for a little history: here, here, and here. As many UD readers know, I am both a classical pianist and a software engineer. As a result my involvement in two endeavors, artistic and analytical, design in both nature and human experience screams with such force that I cannot deny it. The Tschaikovski piano concerto was not the result of random errors filtered by natural selection; it was the result of human creativity — a Read More ›

Darwin Defeated in the Bayou: Louisiana Encourages ‘Critical Thinking’ Richard Monastersky | Chronicle of Higher Education | June 12, 2008 The title of this article is self-explanatory (teaching Darwin critically seems now to be becoming the big thing at the state level). Here are some of the reactions: “It’s Louisiana. If they can abuse it, twist it, or turn it upside down from the original intention…they will.” “Raise the kids as stupid as there parents and there parents and what do you get, religion.” “The idea that one can distinguish between ID and astrology is ludicrous.” “Critical thinking should only be applied to approved beliefs.” “Didn’t God invent astrology? I don’t have proof but I have faith therefore I think Read More ›

According to this reviewer:

“The Happening” is the biggest ID movie of the year:

M. Night Shyamalan’s critically-panned flick The Happening is Hollywood’s first blockbuster to promote the anti-evolutionary theory of intelligent design. Maybe you thought Ben Stein’s ill-fated documentary Expelled was the only movie to argue in favor of the neo-Christian idea that an “intelligent designer” created the universe. Think again. With its references to “unexplained acts of nature” and a science teacher main character who calls evolution “just a theory,” The Happening is basically a giant propaganda machine for intelligent design. Maybe science journalists are jizzing all over its allegedly realistic plants-attack-humans plot, but we talked to Shyamalan and we know the truth.

Avowed Christian Shyamalan told us that The Happening is really about religious faith, and explained that he chose Mark Wahlberg to play science teacher Elliot Moore because of the actor’s intense belief in Jesus.

I said here, the Darwinists have no idea what will is yet to be unleashed on them in the culture war. They’ve only been sparring with the scouting parties so far.

If this reviewer is accurate about the movie being pro-ID, it’s indicative of a rising anti-Darwin sentiment in our culture in important places like Hollywood…

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Tim Russert died today. He gave journalism a good name. Combining gentleness and toughness, he asked the right questions and persisted till he got straight answers. He was a Mensch. During the Iowa caucuses, my wife asked to take a photo of him with our daughter. He interrupted a phone call to oblige (see his right hand below). My daughter cried today at his passing. He will be missed.

Leaves have been found to regulate temperature to “around 21.4° Celsius plus or minus 2.2 degrees,” during photosynthesis. That appears to me to be a design to increase or optimize photosynthesis.

ID Hypothesis: Trees, and other biotic systems regulate leaf temperature to increase or optimize photosynthesis. There will be temperature and/or humidity sensors and transpiration regulation systems to achieve this temperature control.
Corollary: Net primary productivity would be substantially lower without such temperature regulation.
Global Warming Impact: This finding may invalidate tree ring temperature proxies in extrapolating to past temperatures to evaluate climate change.
———————————————
Goldilocks tree leaves
by Susan Milius, June 11th, 2008,

Sweating in the heat or huddling in the cold keeps temperatures favorable
JUST RIGHTTree leaves can do plenty to keep their temperatures just right for photosynthesis. Read More ›

Theistic evolutionists hold that Darwinian evolution is God’s way of bringing about the diversity of life on earth. They used to be content to criticize ID on scientific grounds. But that’s no longer enough. They are now charging ID with undermining the very fabric of civilization and even the Christian religion itself. Ken Miller’s most recent book, just out, makes this point in the title — Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul. From the title, you’d think that Darwin is the Messiah and that until his ideas about evolution gained acceptance, our souls were in jeopardy. Miller has called himself an Orthodox Christian and an Orthodox Darwinian (cf. the 2001 PBS Evolution Series). But one has Read More ›

Muller received the Nobel Prize for “for the discovery that mutations can be induced by x-rays”. He studied the effects of mutation on populations, and indirectly spawned ideas which were elaborated in the book Genetic Entropy by Cornell geneticist John Sanford.

The theory of genetic entropy has the potential to overturn Darwinism on empirical grounds alone. Darwinism argues for inevitable progress, genetic entropy argues the opposite.

The thesis of genetic entropy can be explored by considering the amount of mutation in the human genome at present. Muller offers his thoughts:

it would in the end be far easier and more sensible to manufacture a complete man de novo, out of appropriately chosen raw materials, than to try to fashion into human form those pitiful relics which remained…

it is evident that the natural rate of mutation of man is so high, and his natural rate of reproduction so low, that not a great deal of margin is left for selection…

it becomes perfectly evident that the present number of children per couple cannot be great enough to allow selection to keep pace with a mutation rate of 0.1..if, to make matters worse, u should be anything like as high as 0.5…, our present reproductive practices would be utterly out of line with human requirements.

Hermann Muller quoted by John Sanford
Appendix 1, Genetic Entropy

“u” is the mutation rate. As John Sanford observes, Darwinian selection cannot keep pace with reality. Deterioration of the genome seems to be in evidence, and the efficacy of Darwinian mechanisms has been essentially falsified with respect to the human genome. Here is an excerpt of Sanford commenting on Muller’s work:

Muller calculated that the human fertility rate of that time (1950) could not deal with a mutation rate of 0.1. Since that time, we have learned that the mutation rate is a least 1,000-fold higher than he thought. Furthermore, fertility rates have declined sharply since then.

John Sanford

Walter ReMine was kind enough to point me to a more modern day version of Muller’s concerns: Why have we not died 100 times over? by Kondrashov (also from Cornell).
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We often hear from Darwinists that “the theory of evolution is as well tested as the theory of gravity”. Strangely though, we never hear physicists saying that the theory of gravity is as well tested as the theory of evolution. 😆 Anyhow, I was just reading yet another Darwinian Narrative on the genetic similarities and differences between man and chimp but how we don’t really know which differences are the important ones. In point of fact, we don’t really know if the DNA differences are even significant. The only thing we really know is that a chimp is a chimp because its mother was a chimp. Beyond that, it’s nothing but guesswork. Then I thought about how this compares to Read More ›

Observing the ongoing collapse of civil liberties in Canada, Bill asked me,

As I recall, Judge Jones in his ruling used the word “disparage” in relation to Darwin and his theory, attempting to put pressure on those who might want to disparage Darwin in the public school context. How soon before it is illegal to disparage Darwin in the U.S.?

Re “disparage” as a cue word, Bill was thinking, of course, of a recent punishment handed out by the Alberta “human rights” commission – one of fourteen shadow tribunals – to a Christian pastor, who had spoken out against the gay lifestyle (more below).

The rapid advance of fascism with a “human” face in Canada only became common knowledge in the United States recently, when popular columnist Mark Steyn was dragged before the BC tribunal.

To bring you up to date swiftly on Canada’s tribunals, I will simply quote Rich Lowry’s “Mark Steyn: Enemy of the State” summary this morning:

The country is dotted with human-rights commissions. At first, they typically heard discrimination suits against businesses. But since that didn’t create much work, the commissions branched out into policing “hate” speech. Initially, they targeted neo-Nazis; then religious figures for their condemnations of homosexuality; and now Maclean’s and Steyn.

The new rallying cry is, “If I hate what you say, I’ll accuse you of hate.” The Canadian Islamic Council got the Human Rights Tribunal in British Columbia and the national Canadian Human Rights Commission (where proceedings are still pending) to agree to hear its complaint. It had to like its odds.

The national commission has never found anyone innocent in 31 years. It is set up for classic Alice-in-Wonderland “verdict first, trial later” justice. Canada’s Human Rights Act defines hate speech as speech “likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt.” The language is so capacious and vague that to be accused is tantamount to being found guilty.

And the remedies can be bizarre, as in this Alberta decision, “the most revolting order I have ever seen in Canada”, according to civil rights lawyer Ezra Levant. Read More ›

Michael Behe responds on his Amazon.com blog to Richard Lenski’s latest piece in PNAS regarding the evolution of 40,000 generations of E. coli (go here). [[Patrick and I posted on this simultaneously; please post all comments regarding Behe/Lenski on his thread, which is the the one immediately preceding this one.]]

Multiple mutations needed for E. coli

An interesting paper has just appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “Historical contingency and the evolution of a key innovation in an experimental population of Escherichia coli”. (1) It is the “inaugural article” of Richard Lenski, who was recently elected to the National Academy. Lenski, of course, is well known for conducting the longest, most detailed “lab evolution” experiment in history, growing the bacterium E. coli continuously for about twenty years in his Michigan State lab. For the fast-growing bug, that’s over 40,000 generations!
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Here’s an excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle about Obama. Adjectives like “fawning,” “effusive,” and “unhinged” don’t quite capture this article, which is titled “Is Obama an Enlightened Being?” “Messianic” is more like it. Interestingly, the highest praise that this article heaps on Obama is that he will “help us evolve.” Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly Read More ›