Discovery Institute's Blog, page 453

Majestic Ascent: Berlinski on Darwin on Trial

Richard Dawkins published The Blind Watchmaker in 1985. The appearance of design in nature, Dawkins argued, is an illusion. Complex biological structures may be entirely explained by random variations and natural selection. Why biology should be quite so vested in illusions, Dawkins did not say. The Blind Watchmaker captured the public's imagination, but in securing the public's allegiance, very little was left to chance. Those critics who believed that living systems appear designed ...

The Finely Tuned Genetic Code

Francis Crick regarded the genetic code found in nature as a "frozen accident." Yet more and more it is looking to be the case that this code is exquisitely finely tuned -- with features suggesting it is indeed one in a million. Therefore ought not purposive or intelligent design be regarded as a legitimate inference, as the best explanation for how the code came into existence?

We are all familiar with the genetic code by virtue of which an mRNA transcript is translated into the amino acid...

Virtual Biology: An Interview with Illustra Animator Joseph Condeelis

The documentary Metamorphosis, like previous Illustra masterpieces, contains visualizations of biological systems that cannot be photographed in real time. Joseph Condeelis of Light Productions is the genius behind many of the animated sequences.

Joseph, the accolades for Metamorphosis keep coming in, in part for the superb graphics. Tell us about your experience working with Illustra Media.

First it has to be said, in my profession, working with Producer-Director Lad Allen is like a...

Christian Post: Darwin on Trial Still Resonates 20 Years Later

Mark Hensch at The Christian Post writes that Phillip Johnson's 1991 book Darwin on Trial "made intelligent design into an anti-evolution battle cry" that is still stirring up debate today. He quotes Casey Luskin, research coordinator at Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture, who says that Darwinian theory has utterly failed to explain the origin of many complex features in organisms.

To strike a balance, he also quotes a 2006 statement on the teaching of evolution from the...

What I Saw at the Counter-Reformation: A Personal Reminiscence of Phil Johnson

I first heard about Phillip Johnson from a retired lawyer named Norman Macbeth. Two decades earlier Norman had written a marvelous book called Darwin Retried and it made a big impression on me. We became friends. He lived in Spring Valley, north of New York City and I stayed with him several times.

More than once we went to see a friend of his, Ron Brady, who taught philosophy at Ramapo College. He too was a Darwin doubter. Macbeth would take me along to meetings at the American...

Materialists Beware: The First Gene Defends a Strictly Scientific, Non-Materialist Conception of Biological Origins

Can a book that is essentially devoid of the term "intelligent design," doesn't talk about "specified complexity," and makes only scant mention of "irreducible complexity," offer an argument that is friendly to teleology in biology?

A new technical book, The First Gene, edited by Gene Emergence Project director David L. Abel, shows that the answer to that question is "yes." Materialists will not like this book because its arguments are 100% scientific, devoid of religious, political...

Why Phillip Johnson Matters: A Biography

Editor's Note: This biography of Phillip Johnson appears on the new website commemorating the 20th Anniversary of Darwin on Trial.

Photo by Greg Schneider

Phillip Johnson, law professor emeritus of UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, is widely recognized as the godfather of the contemporary intelligent design (ID) movement. As the author of several books and numerous articles explaining scientific, legal, and cultural dimension of the debate over ID and Darwinism, Johnson was one of the...

A New Edition of Alfred Russel Wallace Book Features Rare Essay

I thought readers would be interested to know that a newly revised edition of my book Alfred Russel Wallace's Theory of Intelligent Evolution: How Wallace's World of Life Challenged Darwinism is now available, featuring a rare and fascinating essay by the Rev. John Magens Mello.

Mello, a graduate of Oxford University, was rector of St. Thomas's near Chesterfield from 1863 until 1887 when he became the vicar of Mapperley, Derbyshire. Mello was fascinated by the co-discoverer of natural...

"Play the Man, Master Ridley"

Just before they were burned at the stake at Oxford in 1555, Hugh Latimer famously said to Nicholas Ridley, "Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out."

It would be nice to imagine that the auto de fe no longer occurs in university towns, but it does when someone dares challenge Darwinian evolution. And it does so on that topic more than any other -- including global warming. Two writers in the Wall Street...

The 20th Anniversary of Darwin on Trial

Phillip E. Johnson's Darwin on Trial may be justly hailed as the revolutionary work of a revolutionary soul, and a standard in American protest literature. Originally published in 1991, the book has sold more than 250,000 copies and has been translated into French, Polish, Chinese, and Korean. Although Johnson wrote for a lay readership, his arguments proved captivating for many young scientists and other scholars who gathered around Johnson and developed the theory of intelligent design.

As i...