Discovery Institute's Blog, page 456

Evolution is a Movie Running Backward

Kenneth Ford, in Basic Physics (Blaisdell Publishing Co., 1968), writes:

Imagine a motion picture of any scene of ordinary life run backward. You might watch...a pair of mangled automobiles undergoing instantaneous repair as they back apart. Or a dead rabbit rising to scamper backward into the woods as a crushed bullet re-forms and flies backward into a rifle.... Or something as simple as a cup of coffee on a table gradually becoming warmer as it draws heat from its cooler surroundings. All...

Alfred Russel Wallace 98 Years Later

At approximately 9:30 a.m. on November 7, 1913, Alfred Russel Wallace passed away quietly at his home "Old Orchard," Broadstone, Dorset; so ended the life of England's last great Victorian naturalist. It was quite a life: co-discoverer of natural selection; naturalist/explorer in two hemispheres, first in South America and then on the other side of the world principally in Melanesia; author The Malay Archipelago (1869), perhaps the greatest scientific travel narrative in the English...

A New Film, Alleged, Tells the Real Story of the Scopes Trial

It would be hard to underestimate the power that one film, Inherit the Wind, has had in shaping -- and distorting -- the evolution debate. In a comment that would be hilarious if it weren't so pathetic, Judge John E. Jones of Kitzmiller v. Dover fame explained that in getting himself up to speed for the trial he watched ITW to get a sense of the "historical context." What if someone made a dramatic film that actually told the truth about the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925?

Someone just did.

As of ...

The Case of the Mysterious Hoatzin: Biogeography Fails Neo-Darwinism Again

In 2009, the National Center for Science Education's Eugenie Scott suggested that scientists should not admit when the evidence contradicts some evolutionary hypothesis, but should rather say that it "sheds new light on this part of evolution." Since then, I've kept an eye out for that and similar language.

For example, a recent article on Science Daily was titled "Across the Atlantic on Flotsam: New Fossil Findings Shed Light on the Origins of the Mysterious Bird Hoatzin." According ...

Clueless at the Clergy Letter Project

Michael Zimmerman of the pro-Darwin Clergy Letter Project revisits the old "Science and Religion: At War or Peace?" theme with an article at HuffPost asserting that peace is "breaking out" between the old combatants and anyway, rightly considered, there was never a war between Science and Religion in the first place. He then lays into Discovery Institute in a paragraph the likes of which -- well, we've read its likes many, many times before. He allows that, of course, there remain pockets of ...

Here's a Nice Review of God and Evolution

Here's a nice review of God and Evolution, which Discovery Institute's Jay Richards edited and including essays by other ENV contributors too, from a blog called Hardcore Christianity. Excerpt:

Although no one volume could cover every detail of the long-running, nuanced debate about the compatibility of theism and Darwinian evolution, the editor and authors of God and Evolution do a tremendous job of educating their readers on this historically, philosophically, and theologically complex...

Historian of Science Michael Keas Refutes the Argumentum ad Francis Collins

At the TrueU blog, Discovery Institute senior fellow Michael Keas has responded to a theistic evolutionary commenter named "Preston" who argued the following:

Sir, with all due respect you don't know a thing about the alleged failures of biology. You are a pastor, not a scientist. I have been in biochemistry for several decades and I can tell you that the scientists have not left room for a shred of doubt that evolution happened (common ancestry, including humans). The reason Christian...

BioLogos Blog Author Helps Darwin's Universal Acid Burn God Right Out of Religion

In Darwin's Dangerous Idea, new atheist philosopher Daniel Dennett famously describes Darwinism as a "universal acid" that "eats through just about every traditional concept" -- including religion. BioLogos has now approvingly posted an article by evolutionary psychologist Matt Rossano disclaiming the idea that "evolution" poses any threat to belief in God. The article concludes:

The more we understand evolution, the less it seems like neither the bogeyman creationists fear nor the universal...

The Two Types of Atheists

Apparently my comments yesterday on the taxonomy of atheists weren't clear. A thoughtful reader writes:

If I'm understanding you, you believe there are just two types of people who don't believe in God -- ignoramuses and people like [Jerry] Coyne, who is "a peasant and a clod."

I ask, respectfully, if you can accept that there might be a third class of non-believer, someone who has fallen away after a sincere, intelligent examination of the evidence? I don't expect a reply and don't wish to...

Bringing Metamorphosis to the Screen: An Interview with Jerry Harned

Jerry Harned is the Editor for Illustra Media. Illustra's latest achievement is the beautiful documentary film Metamorphosis: the Beauty and Design of Butterflies. ENV asked him about the work that goes into a top-flight production like this.

[image error] Jerry, Lad Allen is your Writer-Director and Producer. How long have you worked with him?

Since 1984. We have completed about one film a year since then. (See interview with Lad Allen.)

Each one a stunner, too. How has your profession changed over the...