Intelligent Design

DMS, with an as yet undetermined appendage writes: Might I suggest that “someone” (perhaps a group effort) work up a brief flyer to hand out to people going to see Expelled. It should be non-snarky, non-confrontational, with some simple points and web addresses to go to for more information Great idea! I think they should shave their heads, wear togas, and chant ziiiiiiii-enzzzzzz ziiiiii-enzzzzz ziiiiii-enzzzzz. People will wonder if the Hare Krishnas are making a comeback and be naturally curious. Now boys and girls at Ms. ERV’s website please, no applause for this awesome marketing strategy. Just send me money to show your appreciation. Y’all have paypal, right? Of course you do.

Bolinski, with an undetermined appendage writes: So go ahead and release your movie. Just keep track of how many tickets you sell. Read Bolinski’s rant at Richard Dawkins’ website. It’s pretty funny. My guess is either Bolinski got some advice from a real intellectual property attorney and/or got quietly told to back down by Harvard who doesn’t want its name dragged through the mud. I hope Doctor Bolinsky now knows that to protect styles, processes, and algorithms important to his company he must seek design and utility patents. Copyrights simply don’t protect those things.

I just received this announcement (I’ll be presenting at this seminar as well): On this episode of ID the Future, Anika Smith reports on Discovery Institute’s newly expanded summer seminars on intelligent design. In 2007, the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture launched its Summer Seminar on intelligent design — an intensive mentoring program for college students to gain exposure to the science of intelligent design first hand from researchers and scientists. The 2008 summer seminars on intelligent design will cultivate new leaders in the intelligent design movement among the next generation. Applications to the summer seminars will be accepted until April 30, 2008. For more information, or to apply, click here.

The top page of what’s become so large a response at SciAm that it requires an index: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed–Scientific American’s Take Don’t miss John Rennie’s (Editor-in-Chief/Soldier-for-Darwin of SciAm) 5 single spaced pages of Expelled diatribe here: Ben Stein’s Expelled: No Integrity Displayed I note that in what must be thousands of words Rennie wrote about Expelled, where he was trying to play down persecution of the expelled (he mentions Rick Sternberg, Caroline Crocker, and no others), Rennie seems to have conveniently forgotten to mention Guillermo Gonzalez. I find this interesting because Gonzalez’ work in extra-solar planetary discovery was the cover story of the October 2001 issue of Scientific American. I suppose the irony there is something even John Read More ›

“Humans are almost unimaginably complex, but have scarcely more genes than a fruitfly or a worm. The human genome comprises about 99% ‘junk DNA’ — genetic code that is not used to make the protein building blocks of life. Junk DNA accumulates in organisms’ genomes simply because it is good at accumulating.Genes that do code for proteins may recruit some or all of this junk DNA to regulate when, where and how much they are expressed. Something has to instruct genes to team up to produce complex structures such as hearts and kidneys. Regulation is how we can have over 98.5% similarity to chimpanzees in the sequences of our coding genes, yet differ so utterly from them. The huge quantity Read More ›

A new find has shocked scientists who didn’t imagine the earliest critter could be so complex. “This was a complete shocker,” said study team member Casey Dunn of Brown University in Rhode Island. “So shocking that we initially thought something had gone very wrong.”   “Our data reinforce several previously identified clades that split deeply in the animal tree, unambiguously resolving multiple long-standing issues. We find strong support for the placement of ctenophores (comb jellies) as the earliest diverging extant multicellular animals. A single origin of spiral cleavage (with subsequent losses) is inferred from well-supported nodes. A diminishing number of lineages remain recalcitrant to placement on the tree. The spiral cleavage programme, a complex and highly stereotyped mode of early Read More ›

There was some discussion here in the past year or so of whether retroviruses could indeed infect a germ cell and hence leave deactivated heritable fingerprints in descendents. Mike Behe mentions these retroviral markers as convincing evidence (to him) of common descent, at least in the primate lineage including humans and chimps. This experiment pretty much settles the question. The testis and epididymis are productively infected by SIV and SHIV in juvenile macaques during the post-acute stage of infection Miranda Shehu-Xhilaga*1,2, Stephen Kent3, Jane Batten3, Sarah Ellis5, Joel Van der Meulen1,2, Moira O’Bryan4, Paul U Cameron1,2, Sharon R Lewin1,2 and Mark P Hedger4 Published: 31 January 2007 Retrovirology 2007, 4:7 doi:10.1186/1742-4690-4-7 Abstract Background: Little is known about the progression and Read More ›

A most interesting op-ed appeared in the Waco Tribune (April 6, 2008) by Argye Hillis, a retired biostatistician. Hillis is quite obviously proud of Baylor’s embrace of “the ‘E’ word” (evolution), and of the way in which the institution  skillfully circumvented lay concern. For example,

The late Dr. Cornelia Smith reveled in remembering “the time in the 1920s when the merchants of Waco marched four abreast from downtown Waco in support of Lula Pace.”

Dr. Smith, whose memory is still revered by the older Baylor faculty, carefully avoided labeling Dr. Pace’s teaching as evolution, just as she avoided the “E” word in the more than 40 years that Dr. Smith led the Baylor biology department herself.

In general, Hillis offers the usual boilerplate in favour of a dying materialist idea, accompanied by reassurances that the Baylorites who embrace it are devout Christians. (That glow you are seeing is faith, folks, not phosphorescence.) Read More ›

In an earlier post, I introduced the concept of “denormalization.”

In this second post, I want to talk about PZ Myers. He and his supporters are also candidates for denormalization.

To recap, thuggery or scams that have persisted for a long time and are endorsed at the highest levels of the establishment come to seem “normal.” So the “problem” is not the behavior of thugs and scammers but the attempted responses of those they attack.

The responses sound raucous or incoherent against the tranquil background of accepted misgovernment.

However, in a free society, misgovernment persists because most people do not know what is going on and do not know what they can do to change things. Denormalization means getting the message out to a broad public: Look, this is happening. Do you think it’s fair? If not, here is what you can do about it.

That’s what the Expelled film is doing in the ID vs. unguided evolution (Darwinism) controversy. It shows both the evidence for intelligent design of life and the unconscionable lengths to which the Darwin fans are willing to go, to keep both students and the broad public from knowing why their ideas about the nature of life are probably  wrong.

Myers came to public notice recently when line producer Mark Mathis ejected him from a recent Expelled screening. I suppose he felt ill-used, given that a number of other atheists who were attending a conference in the area (including Richard Dawkins) were admitted. Mathis retorts, Read More ›

HT to Reasonable Kansans

Patrick Mcrae, Staff Writer for The BRITES, gives his top picks to keep you sharp in your pursuit of effective and uncompromising pugilistic Darwinian ideology. More HERE.

If I had heard the word “denormalizing” from a sociology prof, instead of from Ezra Levant, the courageous Canadian lawyer who is working to bring down Canada’s unspeakable “human rights commissions”, I would just groan.

But, “denormalizing” is a useful term for the Expelled film’s potential impact in the United States.

Consider, for example, the following recent events:

– When Rick Sternberg published a peer-reviewed paper in his Smithsonian journal that suggested support for intelligent design, a concerted effort was made to ruin his career. he was told not to come to the press conference disavowing the article because, he told Michael Powell of the Washington Post, “they could not guarantee me that they could keep order” among the distinguished Darwinist scientists (September 2005). Read More ›

I’ll be participating in this three-day seminar on Darwinism and design at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in the heart of São Paulo. Mackenzie is one of the oldest and most distinguished private universities in Brazil, and they’ve invited Brazilians scientists, such as evolutionary geneticist Dr. Aldo Mellender de Araújo, to participate in the event. Looking forward to some Brazilian sunshine, after an interminable Chicago winter…

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 theorem

Stanley 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.
Read More ›

Humiliated by a demeaning rap video, their treatment after crashing prescreenings of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, and the growing popularity of the Wistar Polka, a pod of Brights was sighted protesting outside of the Stardom Multiplex Theater in Dallas, Texas where a prescreening of Expelled was showing. Details with complete choreography to the tune of “Darwin Does Dallas” is at TheBRITES.org.