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Another victory for science, another defeat for neo-Darwinism

In case you all have been having too much fun at UncommonDescent, don’t forget www.idthefuture.com. It has been having some stellar contributions of late.

Davidson and Erwin: Neo Darwinism Doesn’t Work for the Cambrian Explosion

Davidson smiled, somewhat ruefully, and said, “Well, I’m not sure, but I know that standard single-base-pair mutations won’t do it” — meaning, as he later explained to me, the textbook neo-Darwinism every college biology student learns. He was more blunt with the science writer Fred Heeren, who was covering the now-notorious conference we were attending. “Neo-Darwinism is dead,” he said in an interview. Read More ›

40% of freshman in UCSD’s sixth college reject Darwinism

Designed to create controversy
(thanks to Casey Luskin for alerting me to the article. Casey was co-founder of the IDEA Center which had it’s beginnings at UCSD.)

At UCSD, which is known for its strength in science and engineering, faculty members are realizing they need to pay more attention to the controversy. Two years ago, a UCSD survey found that 40 percent of incoming freshmen to the university’s Sixth College – geared toward educating students for a high-tech 21st century – do not believe in evolution, said the college’s provost, Gabriele Wienhausen.

The university now requires students who major in biology to complete a course in biological evolution, Kohn said. The policy became effective with freshmen who enrolled last fall. Professors had discussed the change for years, he said, but the Sixth College poll made it more urgent.

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Guillermo Gonzalez, Robert Hazen and my beer bet

Robert Hazen delivered a talk at Guillermo Gonzalez school entitled: Why Intelligent Design is Not Science. Guillermo gives a thoughtful response in the Ames Tribune here.

Hazen has participated in 2 IDEA events at GMU including one where Jonathan Wells spoke. He’s very respectful in his treatment of IDists, and has said he is open to being proven wrong. He spoke at our IDEA meeting in October 2005 before CBS News camera crews and 90 people (but the news report has never aired). In attendance were my former professor James Trefil (who debated Dembski 2 weeks later) and famous OOL researcher Harold Morowitz.

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[off topic] Intelligent Design in the National Football League

In the spirit of adding a little levity to this blog, I discovered “Intelligent Design” in the title of a sports column. This is an indication that the once obscure phrase “Intelligent Design” is now becoming a part of American culture. Intelligent Design At Work This also gives me an opportunity to thank William Dembski and DaveScot for allowing me to be a contributor.