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“Smithsonian Distances Itself From Controversial Film”

Smithsonian Distances Itself From Controversial Film
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/01/AR2005060101986.html

By Tommy Nguyen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 2, 2005; Page C01

The controversy over the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History’s decision to allow a documentary based on “intelligent design” — the theory that life is so meticulously complex that a divine intelligence must have designed it — to be played at one of its theaters ended in compromise yesterday: The film will be shown, but the screening fee required by the museum (in this case, $16,000) won’t be accepted and the museum will withdraw its customary co-sponsorship. Read More ›

JW Montgomery weighs in against Orr

If (as Orr claims) I.D. “looks less and less like the science it claimed to be and more and more like an extended exercise in polemics,” isn’t it strange that it has recently convinced the foremost secular philosopher in England (Antony Flew) to give up his atheism? Read More ›

ID in a Wiley Math Textbook

A good Darwinist will imagine 2 or 3 far-fetched intermediate useful stages, and consider the problem solved. I believe you would need to find thousands of intermediate stages before this example of irreducible complexity has been reduced to steps small enough to be bridged by single random mutations Read More ›

“Smithsonian to Screen a Movie That Makes a Case Against Evolution”

Smithsonian to Screen a Movie That Makes a Case Against Evolution By JOHN SCHWARTZ, as reported in the NYTimes Published: May 28, 2005 The Discovery Institute, a group in Seattle that supports an alternative theory, “intelligent design,” is announcing on its Web site that it and the director of the [Smithsonian] museum “are happy to announce the national premiere and private evening reception” on June 23 for the movie, “The Privileged Planet: The Search for Purpose in the Universe.” For full story go here.

Two Gifts for Richard Dawkins

the fossils of the “Cambrian Explosion” period, near the base of the geological column, include some of the most sophisticated eyes ever known to have existed — the compound eyes of trilobites have double calcite lenses, which defeat any slow evolutionary explanation, and, what is more, they have no precursor in the rocks Read More ›

Allen Orr’s Piece in the New Yorker

Allen Orr’s article against ID is now out in the New Yorker (go here). It’s as bad as I thought it would be. I’m on the road right now but will comment on it later in the week. Note that I remarked last week on this blog that a fact-checker from the New Yorker had contacted me about this article. It doesn’t appear that the time I spent with this fact-checker did much to improve this article.