In the month of June we have: Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution (Hardcover) by Karl Giberson, released June 10, 2008. Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul (Hardcover) by Ken Miller, released June 12, 2008. Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World by Reverend Michael Dowd (pictured above), released June 19, 2008.
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…
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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The NCSE is up to its usual spin of the issues at their ExpelledExposed website. One of their targets is Caroline Crocker. Crocker and others respond in this video: ID Rockumentary
The same day I first watched “Expelled” in theaters, I also watched the movie “21”. The movie “21” is based on the true story of MIT students who made a fortune in Las Vegas casinos through the use of mathematics.
The real story behind the movie began with an associate of Claude Shannon by the name of Dr. Edward O. Thorp of MIT. In the Early 60’s, Thorp published a landmark mathematical treatise on how to beat casinos. His research was so successful that Las Vegas casinos shut down many of their card tables for an entire year until they could devise counter measures to impede Thorp’s mathematics.
Thorp is arguably the greatest gambler of all time. He extended his gambling science to the stock market and made a fortune. His net worth is in the fractional to low billions. He is credited with some independent discoveries which were the foundation to the Black-Scholes-Merton equation relating heat transfer thermodynamics to stock option pricing. The equation won the Nobel prize and was the subject of the documentary: The Trillion Dollar Bet.
Thorp would probably be even richer today if Rudy Gulliani had not falsely implicated him in the racketeering scandal involving Michael Milken. Thorp, by the way, keeps a dartboard with Gulliani’s picture on it… 🙂
The relevance of Thorp’s math to Darwinism is that Thorp was a pioneer of risk management (which he used to create the world’s first hedge fund). In managing a hedge fund or managing the wagers in casinos, one is confronted with the mathematically defined problem of Gambler’s Ruin. The science of risk management allows a risk manager or a skilled gambler to defend against the perils gamblers ruin. Unfortunately for Darwinism, natural selection has little defense against the perils of gambler’s ruin.
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Judge Jones (the former liquor control board director famous for his involvement with Frog Beer) ruled in 2005 that it was unconstitutional for teachers in the Dover school district to question Darwinism. Jones viewed himself as the person who would settle the question of Darwinism for all time an eternity. He even went on the talk show circuit boasting of his brilliant cut-and-paste of ACLU opinions.
Thankfully Jones does not speak for all of the United States, and his cut-and-paste ruling apparently has not been able to stifle the first amendment rights of students in other states.
Casey Luskin reports in Florida House and Louisiana Senate Pass Evolution Academic Freedom Bills.
Read More ›Academic Freedom bills have now passed both the Florida House of Representatives and the Louisiana State Senate. The bills protect the rights of teachers to teach controversial scientific theories objectively, where scientific criticisms of scientific theories (including evolution) can be raised as well as the scientific strengths. The Darwinists in those states do not like this. First Florida Darwinists called academic freedom “smelly crap.” Then Louisiana Darwinists called academic freedom protections a “creationist attack” that is “Just Dumb.” Most recently Florida Darwinists used the “enlightened British will laugh at us argument” to oppose academic freedom. All I can say is, you heard it here first: “For the Darwinists who oppose the bill, this battle is about falsely appealing to people’s emotions and fears in order to suppress the teaching of scientific information that challenges evolution.”
A star of Expelled, biologist Caroline Crocker, will be making an appearance at:
McLean Bible Church
8925 Leesburg Pike
Vienna, Virginia
12:30 PM
Sunday, April 27, 2008
I hope to meet some of you at Dr. Crocker’s talk!
Caroline Crocker is the Executive Director of the IDEA Center, an organization devoted to supporting pro-ID students and faculty at universities, high schools, and various other locations.
In 1999, there was only one IDEA club. By 2006, there were 30 IDEA clubs throughout the world and a central headquarters in San Diego known as the IDEA Center.
With the appointment of Caroline Crocker as Executive Director in 2008 and her appearance in the movie Expelled, the IDEA Center is now poised to recognize as many as 1000 IDEA clubs!!!
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I’m opening a thread for those who would like to report their impressions of seeing the movie Expelled as well the numbers of viewers and their reactions to the movie.
Here is my report:
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Consider the following claims:
Darwinism requires that the Fundamental Theorem [of Natural Selection] does not apply most of the time.
Walter ReMine
Biotic Message
and
a relative lack of natural selection may be the prerequisite for major evolutionary advance
Mae Wan Ho
Beyond neo-Darwinism
and
Concerning this theory [Darwinian evolution], I believe that we might question (or at least note) the following:
….
(10) The internal contradiction in its major theoretical cornerstone — Fisher’s fundamental theoremStanley Salthe
Analysis and critique of the concept of Natural Selection
and
many genomic features could not have emerged without a near-complete disengagement of the power of natural selection
Michael Lynch
opening, The Origins of Genome Architecture
Distinguished evolutionary biologist Michael Lynch recently published a much anticipated book, The Origins of Genome Architecture. Curiously, in this magnificent 494-page book, only an obligatory mention of the name of Charles Darwin was made. Darwin was mentioned passingly on 3 pages in the chapter entitled “GenomFart”.
It was also in this book Lynch demonstrated his great irritation with the advocates of Natural Selection (like Richard Dawkins). So great was his irritation that he gave the hard core Darwinists the ultimate insult, he likened them to ID proponents!
the uncritical acceptance of natural selection as an explanatory force for all aspects of biodiversity (without any direct evidence) is not much different than invoking an intelligent designer
Michael Lynch
The Origins of Genome Architecture, p 368
Why the disdain for Natural Selection? It follows beautifully from Fisher’s Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection.
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Has anyone provided a proof of God’s inexistence?
Not even close.Has quantum cosmology explained the emergence of the universe or why it is here?
Not even close.Have the sciences explained why our universe seems to be fine-tuned to allow for the existence of life?
Not even close.Are physicists and biologists willing to believe in anything so long as it is not religious thought?
Close enough.
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Militant atheism is on the rise. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens have dominated best seller lists with books denigrating religious belief as dangerous foolishness. And these authors are merely the leading edge of a far larger movement – one that now includes much of the scientific community. “If science stands opposed to religion, it is not because of anything contained in either the premises or the conclusions of the great scientific theories,” Berlinski writes in The Devil’s Delusion. “Confident assertions by scientists that… they have demonstrated that God does not exist have nothing to do with science, and even less to do with God’s existence.” A secular Jew and agnostic, Berlinski nonetheless delivers a biting defense Read More ›
I’m pleased to announce the IDEA Center’s new Executive Director has just rolled out her own website:
I met with Dr. Crocker recently at a screening of the movie Expelled. She will be featured prominently in the movie!
The Darwinists have framed the ID debate as being about what should and should not be taught in the public school science classroom. I speculate that the debate over the public school classroom is another example of Bulverism.
As I pointed out here, the real issue is whether life is designed. If so, most every other question pales in comparison. And also lost in the Darwinist Bulverism is whether individuals in universities will have the chance to answer the question of design for themselves, and whether these individuals will have the freedom to tell others what they discover.
The whole time I was a part of the GMU IDEA club, our club officially refrained from taking a position on what should or should not be taught in science classes both in the public schools and universities. Not that the issue was unimportant, but the issue was not to be the focus of IDEA at GMU. In fact, I personally have lobbied that for the time being, instead of the science classroom, ID and creation science could be discussed and studied elsewhere. [See: My correspondence with Eugenie Scott on ID in the universities.]
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“For every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD”
Dr. Caroline Crocker Named First Executive Director of the IDEA Center
Dr. Caroline Crocker Named First Executive Director of the IDEA Center – January 15, 2008
Dr. Caroline Crocker, a biologist featured in the upcoming documentary film Expelled, has been hired as the Executive Director of the IDEA Center. A trained biologist who loves working with students, she received her Ph.D. in immunopharmacology from Southampton University, U.K., and an M.Sc. in medical microbiology from Birmingham University, U.K.Dr. Crocker taught various biology courses for five years at George Mason University (GMU) and Northern Virginia Community College. While at GMU, she won three grants, including one from the Center for Teaching Excellence, and she received commendations for high student ratings and wrote a cell biology workbook. Nonetheless, after she mentioned intelligent design in a class at George Mason in 2004, she was subsequently banned from lecturing. Her story is told as part of the upcoming documentary film about persecuted pro-ID scientists, Expelled, featuring Ben Stein.
“Having personally witnessed the hostility in the academy towards intelligent design, I am excited about helping students in IDEA Clubs to investigate intelligent design in an intellectually honest manner,” said Dr. Crocker.
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[Comp Sci. /Eng, Informatics] I felt compelled to offer a tribute….. A great pioneer of Intelligent Evolutionary Design and non-Darwinian evolutionary computing passed away September 20, 2007. See this Washington Post Article: Ryszard Michalski; Shaped How Machines Learn. Michalzki created the notion of Intelligent Evolutionary Design and advanced the hypothesis of non-Darwinian evolutionary computing. From Foundations of Intelligent Systems: 12th International Symposium In contrast to Darwinian evolution, an intellectual evolution is guided by an “intelligent mind,”…. Every Easter at George Mason, Campus Crusade would flood the campus bulletin boards with a list of professors offering to share their wisdom and knowledge with students. Ryszard S. Michalski’s name was always on the list.
I mentioned My retreat from public view, but I have a few loose ends to tie up.