Discovery Institute's Blog, page 124

Ben Carson on Creationism, Evolution, and Intelligent Design

Whether Dr. Ben Carson has adequate experience and background knowledge to be President of the United States is a fair question, but there's certainly a lot to like about him as a man. He displays an admirable fearlessness in stating in his views. That combined with his calm, soft-spoken manner and undoubted intelligence makes him an appealing personality to many voters.

We're not in the business of expressing preferences for one aspirant to higher office over another, but evaluating candida...

"Design of Life" Evidence Continues Pouring Forth: Butterflies

With the introduction of Illustra's Design of Life Collection, fans of the films can now get all three nature documentaries in a discount package to share. The films, of course, could never hope to completely cover the subjects of butterflies, birds, and marine life in a single hour each, but they provide enough evidence to challenge scientific materialism and make a convincing case for design in three separate realms of life. See the trailer here:

One hopes the life stories will stimulate...

Neuroscience Busts Transhumanist Immortality Fantasy

Transhumanism is a materialist religion. That's not an oxymoron. Few transhumanists believe in anything beyond mere materiality, so they look upon SCIENCE! as religionists do to God -- as a future bestower of eternal life.

For me, the trouble with transhumanism is the movement's eugenic Utopianism, and anti-human exceptionalism values. But I have never thought that the movement's prophesied "Singularity" would, like the "Rapture" embraced by certain brands of Christianity, rescue us from dea...

The Evolution Controversy Comes to Indian Schools

Let no one think that debates about Darwin are limited to Western countries. Recently, I came across an article in an Indian newspaper, the Deccan Herald, reporting on calls for the removal of evolution from school textbooks in India's southwestern state of Karnataka:

Branding Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution as unscientific, the Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association (Kusma) is in the works to move the Union and State governments to remove it from school textbooks.

"Very shor...

The Information Argument for Intelligent Design -- Now with "No Tears" Formula

Over at The Stream, our friends Jay Richards and Jonathan Witt kindly gave me the opportunity to write about the new documentary brief, The Information Enigma, which summarizes the "information argument" for ID. See "Intelligent Design Without Tears: A New Video Makes the Controversial Theory More Accessible than Ever."

Acknowledging that the technical details behind the case for ID can be intimidating for the uninitiated -- which is why we made the video! -- I begin:

Intelligent design, ha...

Stasis: Life Goes On but Evolution Does Not Happen

Darwin explained clearly and eloquently the pattern we should find in the fossil record if his theory was correct, let alone the juggernaut that his present day supporters insist:

It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good; silently and insensibly working, wherever and whenever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic bei...

Whether in Canada or Elsewhere, MDs Should Declare Total Non-Cooperation with Euthanasia

The cowardly Canadian Medical Association went "neutral' on euthanasia before it was forced nationwide by that country's Supreme Court. An encouraging 63 percent of doctors say they won't participate. So euthanasia zealots -- many in the medical establishment -- are moving toward coercion. And 79 percent of voting delegates oppose conscience exemptions for their morally or religiously opposed colleagues.

Now, the CMA's mealy-mouths are calling for "cooling off periods" before doctors kill. F...

Listen: Casey Luskin and Nate Herbst on Homo naledi

On a new episode of ID the Future, Nate Herbst of The God Solution interviews Casey Luskin on the recent Homo naledi find.

Luskin discusses questions as to where Homo naledi fits into the fossil record, whether or not it buried its dead, and most intriguingly, is Homo naledi a human ancestor?

Image credit: Lee Roger Berger research team (http://elifesciences.org/content/4/e0...) [CC BY 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Latest Cambrian Explosion "Explanation" Qualifies as Propaganda

Many of us remember Pravda and Izvestia, the official propaganda organs of the former USSR. Having silenced the free press long ago, these "newspapers" were free to dole out the party line without opposition, giving the impression to unwary readers that there was no opposition. Well, another major science journal has followed this strategy. Fortunately, social media provides a "black market" for samizdat publishing.

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, Current Biology offers a special issue on...

Will Provine Was No "Nilhilist"; Gail Provine Graciously Sets the Record Straight

We covered the passing of our evolutionary interlocutor Will Provine, an honest and loving atheist, at some length (see here, here, here, here, and here). One sweet thing that came out of this was hearing from Professor Provine's widow, Gail Provine.

She emailed to express her approval of what we wrote, which not only gave me the opportunity to personally wish her comfort but, frankly, also made my day, despite the sad occasion. Some of us had the merit of meeting and knowing her late husba...