Discovery Institute's Blog, page 186

Problem 8: Differences Between Vertebrate Embryos Contradict the Predictions of Common Ancestry

Editor's note: This is Part 8 of a 10-part series based upon Casey Luskin's chapter, "The Top Ten Scientific Problems with Biological and Chemical Evolution," in the volume More than Myth, edited by Paul Brown and Robert Stackpole (Chartwell Press, 2014). Previous installments can be found here: Problem 1, Problem 2, Problem 3, Problem 4, Problem 5, Problem 6, Problem 7. When the series is complete, the full chapter will be posted online.

Another area where evolutionary biologists claim power...

For National Center for Science Education, Why Is It So Hard Just to State the Facts?

Earlier this week, my colleague Casey Luskin reported on the academic freedom bill being considered by the South Dakota legislature. Mr. Luskin had gone to South Dakota to testify in favor of the bill. Unfortunately, as readers of ENV will know, the bill did not pass out of committee.

Mr. Luskin, in his usual thorough and careful manner, reported that

Proponents of the bill who testified included Senator Jeff Monroe (the lead sponsor of the bill), Dr. William Harris (a PhD biochemist who hol...

The Lincoln-Darwin Myth Revisited

February 12 is the birthday of Abraham Lincoln as well as Charles Darwin, and last year at this time I wrote an article exploring Lincoln's support for evolution by intelligent design. A day later, I published a second article exposing a mythical account of Lincoln and Darwin being circulated by Wikipedia. Wikipedia erroneously claimed that Lincoln was greatly interested in Darwin's Origins of Species and was "deeply impressed" by Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

The dust-u...

National Catholic Register: "The Notion of Intelligent Design Is the Logical Complement of Scientific Research"

Darwin Day 2015 is a good day to be Catholic -- or I imagine it must be for our Catholic colleagues and readers. Earlier, Ann Gauger wrote about a piece in the official daily Vatican newspaper, L' Osservatore Romano, by Catholic priest and PhD biochemist Carlo Maria Polvani. Father Polvani offers a thoughtful critique of Darwinian theory (though Dr. Gauger disagreed with one of his illustrations) and demonstrated his familiarity with key scientists and scholars (Michael Behe, William Dembski...

On Evolution, Vatican Newspaper Gets It Mostly Right

Jerry Coyne has taken to task a Catholic priest namedCarlo Maria Polvani for writing to criticize the theory of evolution in the Vatican newspaper, L' Osservatore Romano. Coyne is doubly annoyed, first that a religious person would dare to criticize evolution, and second that he would get it wrong ("Vatican newspaper screws up the theory of evolution before criticizing it"). I believe Father Polvani got it mostly right.

The good father (who also happens to be a PhD biochemist) is clearly not...

"Hallelujah! Evolution!": Exposing the Myth that Darwinism Is All About the Science

For Darwin Day, John West writes over at The Stream about the common misunderstanding that Darwinian theory and Darwinists themselves are just even-handed interpreters of the scientific data. On the contrary, the current defense of orthodox evolutionary thinking is deeply entangled with metaphysical assumptions and agendas.

This comes out in comical ways, and weightier ones:

Darwin boostersoften insist they are inspired simply by a disinterested commitment to science, while their critics are...

Censor of the Year: Neil deGrasse Tyson Broadcast His Photoshopped Narrative of Science to Millions

Today is Darwin Day, celebrated by us as Academic Freedom Day. That means it's time to announce the winner of this year's Censor of the Year Award. As you already know from the headline, our recipient is Neil deGrasse Tyson.

COTY, as it's called for short, recognizes achievement in thwarting an open and informed discussion of science and scientific controversies. It is a serious thing -- since censorship is serious and often but not always casting fear on less powerful individuals whose idea...

From Sticky Barnacles to Battery-Powered Dogs, Biomimetics Offers More Powerful Testimony to Intelligent Design

Is this not heartbreaking? My little daughter is dejected because the sole on her favorite pair of boots keeps falling off and the glue we use to put it back on fails as soon as she steps out in the rain. Why? Because water ruins the adhesive.

It's a problem, and scientists are looking to barnacles for a solution. Not specifically for my daughter's shoe, but for more serious, notably biomedical purposes. Barnacles are proverbial for their ability to adhere to damp surfaces indefinitely while...

John West on Atheist Philosopher Thomas Nagel's "Simple but Profound Objection to Darwinism"

Tomorrow is Darwin Day, which we celebrate here as Academic Freedom Day, and you'll have to wait till then to learn the identity of our Censor of the Year. In the meantime enjoy this provocative excerpt from John West's updated and expanded book, out this week, Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science.

In an all new added chapter, West recounts among other recent developments the sensation that followed the publication of Thomas Nagel's...

Three More Living Languages Have Been Deciphered

Undirected matter in a cell would do what comes naturally: follow the laws of thermodynamics. As useful energy becomes less available, the cell would fall apart. Indeed, that's what happens to a dead cell. How do living cells fight the inexorable pull of entropy? The secret is not in the material, but in the instructions. Embedded instructions in the organism can tell matter to build machines that harvest energy and direct it toward functional work.

We know about the DNA-protein language and...