Discovery Institute's Blog, page 171

Suspicious? Darwin Defenders Have Two Modes of Communication -- One for the Uninitiated, One for the Guild

This is the last thing I'm going to write about Kevin D. Williamson's responses to Stephen Meyer's post here, "What Should Politicians Say When Asked About Evolution?" I've expended time on this only because Kevin is a reporter for National Review, of which I'm an alumnus and of which I cherish many fond memories, and so I take an avuncular interest in his work. Kevin tweeted, among other thoughts, that the theory of intelligent design is "basically a fraud":

@d_klinghoffer @JonahNRO @Ramesh...

To Build a Worm: Where Undirected Evolution Runs into Severe Difficulties

In case anyone missed the punch line of my post yesterday, "Why St. Denis Should Be the Patron Saint of Evolutionary Theory," let me say it again as briefly as possible for the purpose of clarifying matters.

To build a worm like C. elegans from a single cell (the fertilized egg) requires a developmental pathway. In the case of C. elegans, that pathway has been observed in remarkable detail. Every cell in the adult has been traced, via cell division, back to the starting point in the egg.

Thu...

Here's What a Thoughtful Non-Scientist Sounds like Discussing Intelligent Design (with William Dembski)

Yesterday, ENV observed that contrary to what we always hear, it doesn't require a PhD in biology to hold an intelligent view on the controversy pitting ID versus Darwinian evolution. Now here's a great podcast by Twin Cities talk host John Gilmore, trained as an attorney, chatting in depth with Discovery Institute's William Dembski (pictured above). They discuss the challenge to Darwinism from information theory and the implications of that challenge, described in Dembski's latest book, Bei...

A Second Chance: Deadline Extended for Summer Seminars on ID

Sometimes you do get a second chance. Discovery Institute has decided to extend the deadline for its two summer seminars -- the CSC Seminar on Intelligent Design in the Natural Sciences and the C.S. Lewis Fellows Program on Science and Society -- through Monday, April 13. So if you are a student who wanted to apply to one of the seminars, but didn't have time... go ahead and apply! See here for more information.

What the Body Must Do to Take Control

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.

To survive, our body needs many different a...

To Have a View on the Darwin Debate, Do You Need a PhD in Evolutionary Science?

In a tweeted exchange with David Klinghoffer last week, National Review's Kevin Williamson wrote that having an opinion about Darwinian evolution requires advanced graduate study in the field: "'The needed study' = graduate-level work in evolutionary science."

Uh huh. That's an often-heard claim, and it sure gives an out to the journalist inclined, for whatever reason, to accept the prestige view, as presented in popular media accounts of the evolution debate, that Darwinian theory is scient...

Why St. Denis Should Be the Patron Saint of Evolutionary Theory

Pain is a great teacher, I tell audiences. Take it from me. If PZ Myers hadn't designated April 7 "Paul Nelson Day" a few years ago, to lampoon me for my failure to explain the concept of "ontogenetic depth," I would never have learned just how intractable the problem of animal macroevolution would turn out to be.

"Oh, come on, Paul -- you're exaggerating," says the skeptical reader.

Not really. Before PZ's critique, ontogenetic depth (OD) seemed pretty obvious to me. The metric could be cal...

The Heart of Human Exceptionalism Is Love

I've previously discussed the ethical ideas associated with Peter Singer, including infanticide, broad abortion, euthanasia, permission for bestiality, and doing medical experiments on the disabled. Yet he is looked upon as a respected ethicist, for example, in an article in the Wall Street Journal over the past weekend about his book urging that we give a third of our incomes to charity.

Now, let's look at an example of ethics from the perspective of human exceptionalism, and where it leads...

Super Crunch Time: Deadline for Summer Seminar Applications Is Tomorrow!

Kelley Unger said last week that it's crunch time for us, with the deadline for Summer Seminar applications approaching on April 7. Well that is tomorrow, so you could say it's now Super Crunch Time. We close the application process at midnight Tuesday night, Pacific Time.

Remember, the program runs on two parallel tracks, our Summer Seminar on Intelligent Design in the Natural Sciences and the C.S. Lewis Fellows Program on Science and Society, July 10-18 this year in Seattle. Find the appl...

The Little Bird that Could

Hundreds of miles out to sea in a storm, exhausted birds would sometimes land en masse on ships for refuge. Sailors must have wondered at the sight; where did these little birds come from? And what are they doing out here? Did the wind carry them away from the safety of the land? A team of scientists decided to find out.

The blackpoll warbler would fit nicely in the palm of your hand. It weighs about as much as an AA battery, Becky Oskin says in Live Science. Yet this small flyer, not much b...