Discovery Institute's Blog, page 5

German Paleontologist G��nter Bechly Joins the Center for Science & Culture as a New Senior Fellow

For anyone approaching the subject with a fair and open mind, a dismissive attitude to intelligent design cannot survive a sustained encounter with the best science and scholarship from the ID community. This observation was put to the test by distinguished German paleo-entomologist and curator G��nter Bechly, who joins Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture as a new Senior Fellow.

He is a wonderful addition to our research community, and his story is instructive. Dr. Bechly spec...

Is There a Limit to the Number of a Designer's Creative Acts?

Recently, I was listening to Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1068, followed a couple of days later by watching the Tom Cruise movie Oblivion. What does one have to do with the other? Well, the latter includes in the soundtrack the song "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by the 1960s English rock group Procol Harum, and it occurred to me that "A Whiter Shade" may be based on Bach.

A little research revealed that the organ countermelody of "A Whiter Shade" is, indeed, based on BWV 1068. T...

In the Public Interest? ProPublica Misrepresents Intelligent Design and Discovery Institute Policy

In a recent article on Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos (confirmed yesterday), Annie Waldman at ProPublica delves into intelligent design -- and in the process misrepresents design theory and Discovery Institute.

She starts by describing intelligent design as a "more nuanced outgrowth of creationism," and then says that Discovery Institute's Briefing Packet for Educators advocates teaching ID under the guise of "critical thinking." That's wrong on both counts.

Intelligent design,...

With Darwin Day Approaching, It's Time for a Look Back at Evolution and American History

Darwin Day is coming up -- February 12, this Sunday, marking the birthday of Charles Darwin and celebrated by us as Academic Freedom Day. Yes, that means we'll be introducing you to a new Censor of the Year. Feel free to submit nominations, but frankly we've already got a leading contender. Visit us again on Sunday when we'll reveal the winner.

With the historical context in mind, in any event, the following is interesting and relevant. English professor and historian Randall Fuller has a ne...

In Mouse and Human Embryo Development, Critical Transition Points Beyond Neo-Darwinism

On a new episode of ID the Future, Sarah Chaffee talks with CSC Senior Fellow Ann Gauger about a recent paper in the journal Cell, and how it seems that the more we look, the more complexity and sophistication we find.

Download the episode by clicking here:

Dr. Gauger discusses a critical transition in mouse and human embryo development, a compound that aids this transition, and the origins of this compound. According to Gauger, this order may point beyond neo-Darwinian processes.

Photo: M...

Incremental Versus Radical Innovation: A Response to Josh Swamidass on Evolution and Cancer

Joshua Swamidass is an Assistant Professor of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine at Washington University, and a frequent critic of intelligent design. At the theistic evolutionary site BioLogos, he recently posted on the use of evolutionary theory in understanding cancer. He has written on this topic previously, and we have analyzed his arguments (see here, here, and here). I would like to take a step back and put his case in a larger context, the question of incremental versus radical innovat...

The Curious Romance of Darwinism and Creationism -- And Why Intelligent Design Must Be Silenced

One of the many smart observations in Tom Bethell's new book, Darwin's House of Cards, pertains to the curious relationship of Darwinism and Creationism -- and how that bears on efforts to suppress investigation of the theory of intelligent design.

Darwinists seem to long for the good old days when their only opposition was from Biblical creationism. This is reflected in efforts to conflate ID with creationism, or to make the former a kind of forbidden science, off limits to discussion. As...

Journalist Tom Bethell Puts to Rest the "I'm Not a Scientist" Dodge

My wife was complaining to me today that I don't podcast enough. Hah! Here's a new episode of ID the Future.

Download the episode by clicking here:

As I've done already at Evolution News, I review veteran reporter Tom Bethell's excellent new book, Darwin's House of Cards: A Journalist's Odyssey Through the Darwin Debates, which puts to rest the "I'm not a scientist" dodge for journalists, clergy, other professionals, and any thoughtful person at all who thinks he shouldn't have to weigh t...

Fact Check: No, the Texas Board of Education Has Not Authorized "Creationism" in Its Science Standards

The Texas State Board of Education met this past week to discuss the streamlining of its science standards, greeted by much news attention -- unfortunately, much of it wrong.

Contrary to misleading media claims, the standards as currently streamlined have nothing to do with injecting either intelligent design or creationism into Texas classrooms. Instead, they focus on teaching the existing curriculum in a way that promotes good science and critical thinking.

As the Fort Worth Star-Telegram...

An Opening for Academic Freedom in Texas, as Representative Swanson Files a Bill

The Texas State Board of Education and Department of Education are in the middle of their science standards streamlining process (Jonathan Witt wrote about that here). In that context, Representative Valoree Swanson has filed an academic freedom bill.

This legislation, if passed, would protect teachers who wish to discuss the "scientific strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories included in a course taught in accordance with the curriculum framework developed by the State Boa...