Discovery Institute's Blog, page 146

Denying ENCODE Data Won't Change the Emerging Facts of Biology

Editor's note: This is Part 2 of a 4-part series on ENCODE that Casey Luskin has been publishing this year in Salvo Magazine. Parts 1, 2, and 3 have already been published. Part 4 will be published later this year. Part 1 can be found here at ENV.

As we've already seen, the ENCODE project found that 80 percent of the human genome is biochemically functional -- with 100 percent functionality in sight -- overturning the concept of junk DNA. Fearing the demise of a cherished argument, evolution...

Living Waters Premieres to Large Enthusiastic Crowd in San Antonio

Large illuminated posters lined the mall of San Antonio's famed River Walk this past Friday, advertising the premiere of Living Waters: Intelligent Design in the Oceans of the Earth, Illustra Media's third documentary in the Design of Life series. The new release highlights examples of spectacular design in sea creatures, with detailed looks at four particular species.

The popular River Walk location, crowded with visitors from around the world for a convention, caught the attention of many...

Helping Us to Launch ID Inquiry, Michael Behe Explains Irreducible Complexity

On a new episode of our popular podcast ID the Future, hear the first edition of a new segment of the program, ID Inquiry, in which ID scientists and scholars answer your questions about intelligent design and evolution. Ask your question by sending an email to to the editor of Evolution News & Views. And tune in to this first episode as biochemist Michael Behe talks with Sarah Chaffee and explains the concept of irreducible complexity and what it means for Darwinian evolution.

We get a lot...

Understanding Cardiovascular Function: How the Body Controls the Heart

Editor's note : Physicians have a special place among the thinkers who have elaborated the argument for intelligent design. Perhaps that's because, more than evolutionary biologists, they are familiar with the challenges of maintaining a functioning complex system, the human body. With that in mind, Evolution News & Views is delighted to present this series, "The Designed Body." Dr. Glicksman practices palliative medicine for a hospice organization.

Blood circulating throughout the body suppl...

"Intelligent" Machine Future Would Be Devoid of Meaning

Transhumanists, you gotta love them. Or pity their withered view of the importance of humanity.

The UK's Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, celebrates his belief that humanity's future will be carried on by intelligent machines. From "Cheer Up: The Post-Human Era Is Dawning":

The far future will bear traces of humanity, just as our own age retains influences of ancient civilisations. Humans and all they have thought might be a transient precursor to the deeper cogitations of another culture -- o...

In Las Vegas, Discussing Why Germany Took Social Darwinism All the Way

I got back on Friday from the Anthem Film Festival and FreedomFest in Las Vegas, which screened The Biology of the Second Reich. In case you missed the film, you can see it on YouTube (find it at the bottom of this post). The screening venue was the "Sin City Theater" at the Planet Hollywood Resort, where the film festival and FreedomFest were held. Given the topic of the documentary, perhaps the name of the theater was appropriate!

The room was packed out with around two hundred people, in...

Trash Be Gone: Why Are Biologists Lashing Out Against Empirically Verified Research Results?

Editor's note: This is Part 1 of a 4-part series on ENCODE that Casey Luskin has been publishing this year in Salvo Magazine. Parts 1, 2, and 3 have already been published there. Part 4 will be published later this year. The prelude can be found here.

Is the vast majority of the human genome useless junk or crucial for cellular function? Scientists are split over this question, with evolutionary biologists principally holding the former viewpoint, and molecular biologists the latter.

In our...

Watch: Three from William Lane Craig

While at Evolution News & Views we leave the field of apologetics to others, our colleague William Lane Craig nevertheless makes a persuasive case in three admirably brief videos. These three are worth watching, and sharing:

"The Kalam Cosmological Argument":

"The Fine Tuning of the Universe":

"The Moral Argument":

Dr. Craig is a Fellow of Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture and Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California.

Image by...

Listen: Ahead of the Premiere of Living Waters, Here's a Fascinating Discussion of Dolphin Echolocation

On August 7, Discovery Institute will host the Northwest premiere of the beautiful and important new Illustra documentary, Living Waters: Intelligent Design in the Oceans of the Earth, at McCaw Hall in Seattle. If you can't wait till then, here's a new episode of ID the Future that should help tide you over. Sarah Chaffee discusses dolphins' unique sonar systems, highlighted in Dr. Geoffrey Simmons's book, Billions of Missing Links: A Rational Look at the Mysteries Evolution Can't Explain.

...

Checkpoints and Repair Systems as Evidence for Design

John Coley at Northeastern University wants to help his biology students "avoid misconceptions about science." It's wrong to state, "Zebras developed stripes to avoid predators," he explains at PhysOrg.

[E]volution doesn't involve "forward thinking," or intention -- ancestral zebras didn't sprout stripes to blend in with their surroundings. Rather, given a population of zebra-like animals varying in stripedness, those with abundant verticals had a selective advantage over their plainer rela...