Discovery Institute's Blog, page 33

British Invasion: ID Scholars to Gather at Cambridge University for "Beyond Materialism" Conference

While looking forward to the Royal Society meeting in London that promises to examine "New trends in evolutionary biology," November 7-9, we've cautioned not to boost your hopes through the roof. But feel free to let expectations soar as top international scholars advocating the theory of intelligent design gather just days later, November 12, for some supplementary programming, "Beyond Materialism: Biology for the 21st Century."

The venue for the conference is Cambridge University's Hughes...

Ann Gauger on an Unlikely Challenge to Intelligent Design -- Cancer

On a new episode of ID the Future, biologist Ann Gauger talks with Sarah Chaffee about a remarkable new argument against intelligent design. It's the argument from cancer, advanced in a BioLogos Open Forum discussion by Washington University's Dr. S. Joshua Swamidass.

I have to hand it to Josh Swamidass. It takes some imagination and daring to offer this critique, which is so thoroughly counterintuitive. He's not, as you might guess, talking about cancer or other terrible illnesses as eviden...

In Houston and Dallas, Nearly a Thousand Meet Michael Behe and Preview Revolutionary

This weekend, audiences in Houston and Dallas were treated to sneak peek screenings of the new ID documentary, Revolutionary: Michael Behe and The Mystery of Molecular Machines, ahead of the video's official launch next week, on Tuesday, October 18.

I got to attend the third of these three events, a screening at Denton Bible Church a few miles northwest of Dallas. The film focuses on the work of Michael Behe and other advocates of intelligent design. Behe was there for the Q&A afterwards an...

Researchers Say Geckos, an Icon of Intelligent Design, Prove Evolution Over ID

Three scientists writing in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society think they've come up with a proof against intelligent design. They report a form of adhesion used by the dwarf gecko species Gonatodes humeralis that is relatively simple, described here at Science Daily:

The setae of G. humeralis are short and simple compared to those of pad-bearing geckos, such as tokay geckos. The setae are located adjacent to friction-enhancing "spinules" -- small projections, which play no role i...

Eel Migration Comes to Light

In his new book Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis, Discovery Institute biologist Michael Denton gives example after example of living things -- microbes, animals, and plants -- whose traits could not have arisen by a Darwinian process. He describes one of the most bizarre of all, a fish whose life cycle and migration has challenged biologists for over a century: the European freshwater eel. Inhabiting most of the rivers of Europe and the British Isles, the eel undergoes radical metamorphos...

From the "Nothing Special" Files -- Apes and Their Theory of Mind

This is just in from the laboratories of Nothing Special that I wrote about here the other day. Reports Karen Kaplan in the Los Angeles Times, "[H]umans' thinking abilities aren't quite as special as we'd like to think" (emphasis added). She knows that because of a new study in Science, "Great apes anticipate that other individuals will act according to false beliefs."

Of all the creatures in the animal kingdom, only humans were given credit for being able to ascertain the unstated thoughts,...

Doug Axe, Up Close and Personal

Winding up our series of brief video conversations with Dr. Douglas Axe, here the author of Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed talks about himself.

Axe is a protein chemist and primary advocate of the theory of intelligent design. But you've probably wondered what he does for fun. Or does he have fun? Something you didn't know about him? Watch and find out.

Biologist Ann Gauger: No Laboratory Confirmation of Intelligent Design? Think Again.

Here's an illuminating interview with biologist Ann Gauger about intelligent design in the lab. The rap, of course, is that ID only stands on the sidelines of science, bellyaching about Darwinism's never-ending series of triumphs. Talking with Sarah Chaffee on an episode of ID the Future, Dr. Gauger briefly outlines the research program at Biologic Institute, including work in the lab and in silico.

Download the episode by clicking here:

I'm not sure I'd heard the neat analogy Gauger offer...

How About a Nobel Prize for the Intelligent Designer?

There's a simple logic about the Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded this week, noted already here by David Klinghoffer: human attempts at engineering molecules to perform work are feeble imitations of what living cells have done perfectly since life first appeared on earth.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Science awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Jean-Pierre Sauvage (University of Strasbourg, France), Sir J. Fraser Stoddart (Northwestern University, Illinois), and Bernard L. Feringa (Univ...

God and Evolution: An Anti-Colonial View

Evolutionary advocacy is colonialist, by which I mean it seeks dominion not only in a limited and appropriate sphere -- scientific theory about origins -- but pushes out into others: education, psychology, religion, and more. Whatever the field, status anxiety furnishes a useful tool in expanding Darwin's empire. With folks who know little about the relevant science, winning praise for intellectual sophistication, while avoiding social opprobrium, can be a powerful motivator.

Colonizing reli...