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New W.E.Loennig Interview

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Here is an interview Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig did recently with Marco Respinti of the Centro Italiano Intelligent Design organization (https://www.ciid.science), in English with Italian subtitles.

A couple of quotes from the interview: after describing his PhD thesis work in the first 10 minutes he summarizes “The outcome was in full agreement with one of the more important basic predictions of intelligent design theory: mutations usually do not produce any real new information.” Then “So to accept intelligent design and to be critical of evolutionary arguments and put them to the test can be very fruitful for biology and science in general.”

Lönnig also discusses the well-funded attempts at, among other places, his own Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, to speed up evolution in plants using radiation and advanced artificial selection techniques (“mutation breeding”). Lönnig reports that only devolution occurred: the only progress observed before this effort was given up was that the genes that made some plants toxic were damaged, making these plants more useful as animal fodder. He cites experimental evidence that mutation and selection are (as also claimed by Behe) self-limiting.

Lönnig is certainly one of the most knowledgeable (and courageous) ID scientists in the world today. Here is a German TV interview with Lönnig (with English subtitles), and more background information. To those who say intelligent design advocates are only critical of Darwinism because they are just not sufficiently versed in genetics and evolutionary theory, I have a two-word (3?) reply: Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig.

Comments
Granville Sewell: Yes, thank you for correcting/clarifying this! A very inspiring discovery. Thanks for the link too!Richard Emerson
April 13, 2021
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Richardemerson: "...building upon Behe's work." Just for the record, he has been questioning Darwin and promoting ID since his PhD at Uni Bonn in the late 70's, 20 years before Darwin's Black Box. Imagine, questioning Darwin from within a European biology department as a grad student in the 70's...now that's courage!! Go to www.weloennig.de and you can see he has never shied away from confrontations with his many critics (as also discussed in the last few minutes of this interview).Granville Sewell
April 13, 2021
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Very interesting - and seems like solid research building upon Behe's work. Thanks for sharing this!richardemerson
April 13, 2021
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Lönnig is certainly one of the most knowledgeable (and courageous) ID scientists in the world today.
He is brilliant - indeed. One of the best in the world. His paper on the supposed evolution of giraffes is a masterpiece. In this interview, Dr. Lönnig builds on Michael Behe's concepts - validating them experimentally and taking them farther. The researches did what was reasonable and logical, according to Darwinian claims. They attempted to develop new plant varieties using the "power" of mutations, as supposedly happened with all of plant life emerged in the wild. Why not? Subject the plants to mutations and watch the marvelous results unfold. Researchers had an "euphoria" about the possibility of all the new species with remarkable capabilities that would burst forth from induced mutations. "In spite of enormous expenditures, mutation breeding widely proved to be a failure". No new species or survivable plant forms emerged. Mutations generally destroy the organisms. The research program was shut down. Dr. Lönnig doesn't offer empty arguments but the results of actual science. Empirical results falsify Darwinian claims. Along with a paper wherein he founded a new biological law (limits of variation) he analyzed photosynthesis in light of irreducible complexity - thus proving again, the scientific value of ID theory as it provided a framework for his research.Silver Asiatic
April 12, 2021
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