Discovery Institute's Blog, page 208

Reader's Guilty Confession: I Have Re-Shelved Stephen Meyer's Books at Barnes & Noble "Quite a Few Times"

In two previous posts (here and here) I've discussed the situation at B&N, where corporate policy apparently mandates shelving books by Meyer under "Christian Inspiration," while putting Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion under Science. I've since had confirming reports from B&N customers as far afield as Durham, North Carolina; Pittsford, New York; and Silverdale, Washington.

Is there a 12-step program for compulsive re-shelving of pro-intelligent design books at your local Barnes & Noble? T...

War on Humans: Assisted Suicide Isn't "Death with Dignity"

As the media and assisted suicide advocates continue to exploit the Brittany Maynard tragedy to push for legalization, I have been pondering howvery harmful such advocacy is to people struggling with serious and terminal health conditions.

It also isn't about "dignity." Rather, many who want assisted suicide are deeply worried about what could be called aesthetics. I ponder this question over at my First Things column.

From "Death with Aesthetics":

When we look more deeply at arguments in favo...

On the Barnes & Noble Shelving Fiasco, Readers Offer Further Insight, Amusement

UPDATE: I'd love to hear other readers' stories on this theme. Contact me using the EMAIL US button at the top of the page.

Regarding the marketing strategy at Barnes & Noble for Stephen Meyer's latest, thoughtful reader Mike reports:

I just read David Klinghoffer's article about a person's experience with Darwin's Doubt at Barnes & Noble. I experienced the same thing at the Barnes & Noble in Lakewood, Washington, when the book first came out. They told me it was a corporate decision. I sent...

In Search of Exoplanets: Defining Habitable Space Bodies

Editor's Note: As a series at ENV, we are pleased to present "Exoplanets." Daniel Bakken is anengineer who teachesastronomy at the college level, and an entrepreneur in compound semiconductor crystal growth. In a series of articles he critically examines recent claims about exoplanets beyond our solar system, asking whether our own planet Earth is a rarity, or common, in the cosmos.

It is often speculated that life could arise on moons, dwarf planets, or other space bodies as well as planets....

A Reader Shares a Telling Experience About Shopping at Barnes & Noble for Darwin's Doubt

Thoughtful reader Eric Larsen passes along the following:

I wanted to share with Stephen Meyer the experience that I had at the Manhattan Beach, California, Barnes & Noble this afternoon.

Perusing the Christian book section, I noticed copies of Dr. Meyer's book Darwin's Doubt on the bottom shelf, near the floor. (Several months ago I actually purchased a copy of the book here.) Reading the back cover of Darwin's Doubt, I noticed that the publisher had categorized it as a book about SCIENCE/...

Does Life "Suck"? Watch Privileged Species with Dr. Michael Denton, Now Out on DVD, and Find Out

The new documentary Privileged Species opens very dramatically with Bill "Science Guy" Nye addressing an American Humanist Association conference. To laughter and applause, Mr. Nye riffs on how being human means being no more than a mere "speck" in the universe.

I'm insignificant. ... I am just another speck of sand. And the Earth really in the cosmic scheme of things is another speck. And the sun is an unremarkable star. Nothing special about the sun. The sun is another speck. And the galaxy...

Arrival of the Fittest: Natural Selection as an Incantation

In 1904, genetics pioneer Hugo de Vries quipped that "natural selection may explain the survival of the fittest, but it cannot explain the arrival of the fittest." In 2014, Andreas Wagner thinks it can. His new book, reviewed by Mark Pagel in Nature, is titled Arrival of the Fittest: Solving Evolution's Greatest Puzzle. What is that "greatest puzzle"? The ability to work miracles. That's right: Pagel begins his review:

You inhabit something of a miracle, in engineering terms. Your body consi...

World Magazine Examines BioLogos Efforts to Win Christians Over to a Darwinist Account of Human Origins

The hard-hitting Christian news magazine World has a cover package out now on efforts by the BioLogos Foundation to win over Christian believers to an of embrace Darwinian evolution, in particular on the question of human origins. Coming from a journalistic outlet with a sizable impact in the world of Evangelical Christians and beyond, this issue of World is worth reading.

Founded by Francis Collins, BioLogos has a strong relationship with the Templeton Foundation, a partnership of which I thi...

Michael Denton Rocks the Museum of Flight as Privileged Species Premieres in Seattle to a Packed House

Imagine you find an elaborately cut key, carry it with you for years, then stick it in a random door lock -- and it opens!

Or imagine you and ten thousand or more of your best friends approach a door with a biometric fingerprint lock controlling access to what lies on the other side. The lock rejects all your friends. But it recognizes your fingerprint, yours alone, and lets you in.

The analogies are imperfect, but something like that was going on in the evolution of human beings on Earth. As...

More on Chimps Searching for Treats Under Cups

Serendipity: moments after writing about the results of research comparing the ability of chimps and human children to search for a treat concealed under a cup in a row of cups, I opened Nicholas Wade's very interesting book Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors.

He writes about the domestication of the dog from wolves, in East Asia, and the evolutionary question mark that leaves behind. In the 20th century, Russian scientists domesticated silver foxes but it took "40...