Discovery Institute's Blog, page 3

Darwin v. Agassiz: More from the New Darwin's Doubt Audiobook

On an episode of ID the Future, we offer another sample from the new audio version of Stephen Meyer's bestselling Darwin's Doubt. Yesterday's podcast covered the first half of Chapter 1. Now the rest of the chapter. (The audiobook is on CD and Audible.)

Download the episode by clicking here:

Here Meyer takes a closer look at Darwin's early intellectual opponent, Louis Agassiz. Why did the great Harvard paleontologist reject Darwin's theory? Was he really, as some argue, a hidebound traditi...

Listen to an Excerpt from the New Darwin's Doubt Audiobook

On an episode of ID the Future, hear a segment from the new audiobook version of Stephen Meyer's New York Times bestseller Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design. (It's on CD and Audible.)

Download the episode by clicking here:

What was the one clue Charles Darwin admitted he couldn't explain? And who was his chief antagonist in the matter? Listen in and find out.

South Dakota Science Education Controversy Gets Surreal as Anti-Censorship Group Demands Censorship

We have patiently explained why the current academic freedom bill in South Dakota, SB 55, cannot possibly be construed in any reasonable manner as seeking to inject teaching intelligent design into public schools. As noted yesterday, that didn't stop a prominent lobbying group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, from working the phrase, "intelligent design," six times into a statement directed against the bill.

One of those instances was in a photo caption of an instructor...

Activist Group Spreads Falsehoods About South Dakota Science Education Bill

Pierre, SD -- Dogmatic activists are trying to derail a proposed science education bill in South Dakota. The language of the bill is aimed at supporting critical thinking by allowing students to learn how scientists debate scientific issues, according to John West, Associate Director of Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture.

South Dakota legislators are currently considering SB 55, "An Act to protect the teaching of certain scientific information." Since the bill was introduced...

To Match the Genius of Centipedes, Bats, and Peacocks, Scientists Play a Game of Catch-Up

Pure science seeks understanding of "the nature of nature" and its operations. Applied science takes the insights from pure research and makes it work for human interests. What if you had a single word that incorporates both? Here's a contender for such a word: Biomimetics. The application side is clear, because engineers and inventors try to imitate nature's designs. But the pure-research side becomes active in the process, because you have to understand something before you can imitate it....

A Look Inside the Media Sausage Factory: Alternative Facts from ProPublica

Do respected media outlets like, say, The New Yorker or ProPublica merit the respect they get, from other media outlets or from media consumers? The answer depends on whether you think they are what they claim to be, high-minded purveyors of fair, thoughtful reporting? Or are they activists using the guise of fair reporting to advance an agenda that they won't admit, perhaps not even to themselves?

I ask because we get fed into the machinery of these organs, and it makes a difference when so...

Authority Replaces Evidence: Hear the Introduction to Darwin's House of Cards

On a new episode of ID the Future, hear the Introduction to Tom Bethell's Darwin's House of Cards, read by our own Andrew McDiarmid. Bethell tells of how his own skepticism about the logic of natural selection emerged, and describes an interview with Karl Popper.

Download the episode by clicking here:

His theme -- how authority replaces evidence -- is very timely. In a range of areas, from the media and academia, we're asked to believe things based on who says them, not on the cogency of t...

Scientists Want to Genetically Engineer Humans

I first got involved deeply in the debates over biotechnology during the great embryonic stem cell controversy. During that time, I watched in stunned and appalled amazement as scientists lied to legislators and hyped the imminent likelihood of CURES! CURES! CURES! in order to win a political fight and gain federal research grants.

With that experience, I concluded that many in the biotech sector have what amounts to an arrogant "we decide" attitude as to what should and should not be done i...

Eye Evolution: The Waiting Is the Hardest Part

Without calling it a series, I've written several articles recently that followed a logical path. In the first, I described the distinction between incremental innovation and radical innovation. I also outlined the commonalities and differences between intelligent design and theistic evolution (TE) as approaches to biology. In a follow-up, I applied the concepts from the first article to the proposed evolution of the vertebrate eye, demonstrating that it could not have occurred without intel...

How to Fight Back Against "Alternative Facts" on ID: Join Us for the Summer Seminars!

I've been engaged in an email exchange with an editor at a respected publication, trying to get some "alternative facts" about intelligent design and our science education policy corrected. His reporter blew it and so far he won't concede. Without revealing any names, because I really hope to get something fixed, I'm struck again by how resistant the media are to understanding what ID is and what its proponents advocate.

I may be wasting my time with this particular editor. [Update: I just h...