Discovery Institute's Blog, page 472

In Science Dispute, Al Gore Offers a Strategy for "Winning the Conversation" with Skeptics

Former vice president Al Gore compared climate skeptics to apologists for old-time Bull Connor-style racism and urges that the appropriate response, in order to "win the conversation" on climate change, is to shame and shun them.

The Daily Caller notes:

The former vice president [in an interview] recalled how society succeeded in marginalizing racists and said climate change skeptics must be defeated in the same manner.

"Secondly, back to this phrase 'win the conversation,'" he continued...

My Genes Make Me Hate Work

Are you lazy? Well, little darlings, it may not be your fault. It is probably your parents' fault. That is the latest insight from genetic determinism -- Darwinian theory applied to practically everything.

The ABA Journal is very interested in this issue. Someone may get sued. Operating principle: What can be imagined can be litigated.

Until someone figures out how to put one's ancestors in the dock, however, the only solution for the laziness gene is a big federal program funded...

Among GOP Contenders, Evolution is an Issue

This is getting...interesting. Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman hit back at Rick Perry of Texas following Perry's comment about evolutionary theory having "some gaps in it." Mr. Huntsman tweeted, "To be clear I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy." Clearly he is strategically positioning himself to capture the entire constituency of liberal Republican Mormons. We've never met any, but there must be a few.

Vanity, Thy Name is Venema

Dennis Venema condemns intelligent design as being based on "ignorance and incredulity." And if Dr. Dennis Venema says so, then hadn't we all better listen up? After all, as a biologist, he has risen steadily through the ranks to achieve the mighty distinction of being arguably the top blogger at the "Science & the Sacred" blog, on the website of our theistic evolutionary friends at the BioLogos Foundation. Venema also teaches biology at Trinity Western University (TWU) up in British ...

The Origin of Life: An RNA World?

Previously on ENV, I published a review of a recent article that appeared in New Scientist concerning the RNA world scenario with regard to the origin of life. Nick Matzke at Panda's Thumb has since responded with a critique of my argument. This is my response to his remarks.

The Sutherland Research
Matzke writes,

...a week or two ago JonathanM made a post on [Uncommon Descent] that claimed various half-baked problems for the natural origin of life, one of which was that the assembly of RNA was...

"Irremediable Complexity"

An intriguing "hypothesis" paper entitled "How a neutral evolutionary ratchet can build cellular complexity"1, where the authors speculate about a possible solution to a possible problem, recently appeared in the journal IUBMB Life. It is an expanded version of a short essay called "Irremediable Complexity?"2 published last year in Science. The authors of the manuscripts include the prominent evolutionary biologist W. Ford Doolittle.

The gist of the paper is this. The authors think...

Over a Thousand Convene to Hear John Lennox Challenge Hawking's Atheism

Friday night, well over a thousand people gathered at University Presbyterian Church in Seattle to hear Dr. John Lennox, professor of mathematics at Oxford, challenge Stephen Hawking's atheistic claim that science has successfully ruled out God as unnecessary. Hawking, a world-renowned physicist who attended Cambridge ahead of Lennox, is one of the best-known champions of atheism, asserting that "the universe can and will create itself from nothing."

As CSC Associate Director John...

Intelligent Design as a "Science Stopper"? Here's the Real Story

It is almost a mantra among Darwin's most devoted followers: Intelligent Design is a "science stopper." High Priestess of the Darwinian faithful Eugenie Scott insists that "Intelligent design is a science stopper. It stops science in its tracks because you stop looking. And I don't think that's a very good lesson to teach students" (see her comments in PBS Religion & Ethics).

What is a much worse lesson, however, is to teach students that the philosophical underpinnings of an...

Climate Catastrophists "Jump the Shark"

A friend emails us that a story regarding how climate change could attract hostile space aliens to destroy the earth represents the moment when "we live to witness the climate catastrophists jump the shark." In a report, a scholar with NASA's Planetary Science Division raised the presumably somewhat remote possibility of catastrophic alien intervention in our planet's climatological affairs. The Guardian reports:

Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in...

Darwinists on RNA World: "No Comment"

Darwinists routinely complain about our policy on comments here: we allow them when we do, and don't when we don't. The impression is that they are just itching to have at our science writers. Yet we opened comments the other day on Jonathan M.'s thoughtful take-down of the RNA World hypothesis as a solution to the origins-of-life conundrum -- and no critics showed up for the party. Only friendlies did so. Come on, gentlemen! Jonathan's conclusion:

Michael Marshall's New Scientist