Discovery Institute's Blog, page 2

Roe, Roe, Roe: Never Before Seen, Check Out Fossilized Trilobite Eggs

Trilobites are the arch-iconic Cambrian animal, having burst onto the scene without known ancestors along with the other Cambrian phyla, equipped and ready to explore the world with those sophisticated compound eyes that "evolution" generously invented.

The mystery of how animals "burst onto the scene" in such a marvelous fashion is the question with which Stephen Meyer begins his investigation in Darwin's Doubt. As Dr. Meyer argues, sudden appearances and explosive events in the fossil reco...

Munchausen Syndrome: Perry Marshall Debates Stephen Meyer on the "Third Way" of Evolution

Justin Brierly of the radio program Unbelievable? out of the U.K. is a gem of an interviewer, regularly bringing together advocates of competing views on biological origins for startlingly rich, serious, and civil discussion.

He's done that again now with a program featuring our colleague Stephen Meyer and Perry Marshall, author of the book Evolution 2.0. Meyer and Marshall were both present for November's Royal Society meeting and they debate whether the Third Way of Evolution folks, who o...

New Film Is Genesis History? Presents a False Dichotomy: I Dissent from My Role in It

In 2014, producer Thomas Purifoy of the media company Compass Cinema contacted me about a film he was planning, to look at the scientific, philosophical, and theological case for an "historical Genesis" interpretation of Earth history. I thought the project sounded interesting, and agreed to suggest scientists Purifoy might interview, and to be interviewed myself. Today, nationwide, that film -- Is Genesis History? (hereafter, IGH) -- is being released in theaters.

As I explain below, I must...

Join Wells, Axe, and Gauger for the Second Annual Intelligent Design Education Day, March 15 in Seattle!

My teenage son and his best friend attended last year's inaugural Intelligent Design Education Day and endorsed it heartily. The whole thing was a great success, and so we are doing it again. Join us on Wednesday, March 15, in Seattle for a daylong field trip, intelligently designed for private school and home school educators and students (9th grade and up): the second annual Intelligent Design Education Day.

Really, this is a brilliant idea and was too long in coming. There's so much misin...

Speculative Evolution Story of the Day: Seven Planets Found Where "Life May Have Evolved"

NASA today announced the discovery of new exoplanets, totaling seven orbiting a dim red dwarf star, TRAPPIST-1, some 40 light years away. Note the headlines, which you could probably write yourself based on previous experience with these types of articles (emphasis added):

"Scientists find three new planets where life could have evolved" (Sky News)

"Nasa discovers new solar system where life may have evolved on three planets" (The Telegraph)

"Nasa's 'holy grail': Entire new solar system tha...

Scientific Authority Becomes Scientific Authoritarianism: See Tom Bethell in Iconoclast Now

We're looking forward to the March for Science this coming April 22, planned for Washington, DC, and with satellite marches across the country. If you've read about it, it promises to be a screechy and politicized protest against questioning orthodox scientific views or criticizing scientists.

Scientists, as you know, are now held by many to enjoy a status granting them permanent immunity from criticism (much like the media, judges, and intelligence officials). In this way, scientific author...

Associated Press Article Showcases Misleading Claims Against South Dakota's Academic Freedom Bill

The South Dakota academic freedom bill (SB 55) is taking to the national stage with an Associated Press article today that is replete with the usual distortions. We even saw it here in the Seattle Times.

The National Censor Center for Science Education weighs in with the expected scaremongering about "creationism." Do they never tire of this?

South Dakota is one of at least three states, along with Texas and Oklahoma, considering such a bill. Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee have enacte...

Disregarding Fake News from Darwin Promoters, South Dakota Scientist Applauds Academic Freedom Bill

Pierre, SD -- This year, South Dakota has an opportunity to encourage more scientific inquiry in the classroom. The state's legislature is considering an academic freedom bill, SB 55, introduced by Senator Jeff Monroe. As noted here last week, the bill seeks to thwart censorship, yet ironically is opposed by the National Coalition Against Censorship. The group has misrepresented its contents, comparing mainstream exploration of weaknesses in Darwinian theory with Holocaust denial.

The text o...

More Marvels in the Molecular Machine Menagerie

As a plausible explanation of life's complexity, Darwinian thinking emerged when cellular biology was a great blur. As what we know about cells and their contents has dramatically sharpened in detail and focus, orthodox evolutionary thinking correspondingly fades in its persuasiveness. That's a lesson of what we wrote yesterday on molecular machines ("Molecular Machine Menagerie Brightens"), but the latest news on that theme can't be encompassed by a single article, or two. Therefore we move...

Molecular Machine Menagerie Brightens

In 1998, former AAAS president Bruce Alberts contemplated what "the next generation of molecular biologists" needed to study. Evidence had been mounting that proteins don't just undergo chemical reactions, but actually perform physical work with moving parts. "Indeed," he said in the journal Cell, "the entire cell can be viewed as a factory that contains an elaborate network of interlocking assembly lines, each of which is composed of a set of large protein machines."

At the time, he acknow...