Discovery Institute's Blog, page 107

The Day a Judge Tried to Kill Intelligent Design

Ten years ago today, an activist federal judge in Pennsylvania tried to kill intelligent design by court order. In Kitzmiller v. Dover, Judge John Jones declared that teaching about intelligent design was unconstitutional because intelligent design was religion rather than science.

The months following the Dover ruling were extremely difficult for those of us at Discovery Institute. Even though we had opposed the Dover school district policy, we were the ones who bore the brunt of the impact...

Ten Myths About Dover: #2: "Judge Jones Is a Brilliant, Neutral Legal Scholar Who Figured Out ID"

Editor's note: The Kitzmiller v. Dover decision has been the subject of much media attention and many misinterpretations from pro-Darwin lobby groups. With the tenth anniversary of Kitzmiller approaching on December 20 -- tomorrow! -- Evolution News offers a series of ten articles debunking common myths about the case. Look here for Myths 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

The Darwin lobby was overjoyed at the Kitzmiller v. Dover decision, which banned intelligent design in Dover classrooms. In t...

Ten Myths About Dover: #3, "Intelligent Design Has No Peer-Reviewed Research or Publications"

Editor's note: The Kitzmiller v. Dover decision has been the subject of much media attention and many misinterpretations from pro-Darwin lobby groups. With the tenth anniversary of Kitzmiller approaching on December 20, Evolution News offers a series of ten articles debunking common myths about the case. Look here for Myths 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

In the Kitzmiller v. Dover ruling, Judge Jones claimed that ID "has not generated peer-reviewed publications, nor has it been the subject of tes...

No ID Research? Let's Help Out This Iowa State Student

Responding to students who attack intelligent design is tricky. You want to explain to them that they're wrong but sympathy is also called for, since it's likely that they are less malicious than some in the professional world of academia and are, instead, merely misinformed. It was during my own college years that I took many courses in which I had the opportunity to study evolution, and I spent a lot of personal time investigating the debate over ID and Darwinian evolution. So I don't have...

Free Digital Book: Traipsing Into Evolution: Intelligent Design and the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Decision

Ten years ago, an activist federal judge in Pennsylvania tried to kill intelligent design by court order. Judge John Jones declared that teaching about intelligent design was unconstitutional because ID was religion rather than science. The anniversary of the Kitzmiller v. Dover decision is this Sunday, December 20.

Contrary to what Darwinists thought would happen, it wasn't over after Dover. Get your free digital copy of the book Traipsing Into Evolution: Intelligent Design and the Kitzmill...

Did Nick Matzke Misuse National Science Foundation Money Intended to Fund Science Research?

Former National Center for Science Education activist Nick Matzke has just published an utterly inane article in Science about academic freedom bills. In the article, he constructs a "phylogenetic tree" to show that various academic freedom bills are related to one another.

If the intention was to show that Discovery Institute has supported academic freedom legislation in various states, or that many of those bills have similar language, Matzke didn't need to construct a phylogenetic tree. H...

Assessing the "Logic" of Legalized Euthanasia

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Journalist Andrew Coyne has written some of the best critiques of legalized euthanasia of which I am aware. He has another A effort out in Canada's National Post, reacting to the recommendations of an ethics panel for implementing that country's Supreme Court order to allow euthanasia. From "The Absurd Logic of Assisted Suicide":

When dispatching a patient by lethal injection, would a doctor be obliged to sterilize the needle?

I think they almost certainly would. Old habits die hard, you sho...

Ten Myths About Dover: #4, "The Dover Ruling Refuted Intelligent Design"

Editor's note: The Kitzmiller v. Dover decision has been the subject of much media attention and many misinterpretations from pro-Darwin lobby groups. With the tenth anniversary of Kitzmiller approaching on December 20, Evolution News offers a series of ten articles debunking common myths about the case. Look here for Myths 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

On the opening day of the 2005 Dover trial, the plaintiffs' leadoff expert witness, noted anti-ID biologist Kenneth Miller, was asked, "Are you abl...

The "Stalin Point": A.C. Grayling Replies

Philosopher A.C. Grayling has replied to my recent post about his letter to the Aristotelian Society in which he demanded that they withdraw sponsorship of the Metaphysics of the Trinity conference at Oxford.

Mr. Grayling wrote:

Dear Mr. Egnor,

I write in connection with your article "An Open Letter to A. C. Grayling," to correct the errors it contains. I wrote to the Aristotelian Society, of which I was once the Hon. Secretary (that is, the administrator), to say that I did not think it ap...

Updating Darwin's Doubt: Another Phylum Appears at the Start of the Cambrian Explosion

Stephen Meyer indicates that the major pulse of the Cambrian explosion started 530 million years ago and lasted 5 million years (Darwin's Doubt, Fig. 3.8, p. 72). In his chart of phyla making their first appearance in the fossil record (Fig. 2.5, p. 32), Kinorhyncha is listed in the box among other phyla that "do not appear in the fossil record."

Well, as Casey Luskin reported yesterday, now he can move it up into the Cambrian slot. The first fossil of these creatures has now been documente...