Discovery Institute's Blog, page 501

Richard Dawkins, Worthless Bully

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all."

--Through the Looking-Glass

Richard Dawkins has now commented on the Martin Gaskell discrimination case where a distinguished astronomer was turned down for a job at the University of Kentucky...

NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab Fires Cassini Mission Senior Computer Admin Who Filed Discrimination Lawsuit

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) just dumped a lot of fuel on the fire of David Coppedge's discrimination lawsuit by firing him on Monday. Coppedge's lawsuit against JPL alleges discrimination because he was prevented from talking about intelligent design (ID).

This could potentially expose JPL to a claim of wrongful termination and increase the merits of Coppedge's claim that JPL retaliated against him. According to Coppedge's attorney William Becker, JPL claims the firing...

New Book Shows How Evolution's Co-Discoverer Rejected Darwinism, Embraced Intelligent Design

Evolutionary theory's co-founder ultimately rejected Darwinism on scientific grounds in favor of an understanding similar to modern intelligent design (ID). In a new biography, Alfred Russel Wallace: A Rediscovered Life, University of Alabama science historian Michael Flannery tells how Wallace grew disenchanted with natural selection as a theory capable of explaining life's complexity. Wallace (1823-1913) concluded that many features of living organisms could best be explained as the...

A One Hundred Year-Old Challenge

Alfred Russel Wallace Issues Fighting Words to Materialists in 1910: "Nothing in evolution can account for the soul [or mind] of man. The difference between man and the other animals is unbridgeable." Steven Pinker to the Rescue?

Wallace made the above declaration in an interview with Harold Begbie of The Daily Chronicle, anticipating the release of his grand evolutionary synthesis, The World of Life: A Manifestation of Creative Power, Directive Mind and Ultimate Purpose, in December ...

Unsophisticated and Outdated Scientific Critiques of Intelligent Design in Synthese

We've discussed how articles critiquing intelligent design (ID) in the latest issue of Synthese could not rebut the theory without blatantly misrepresenting what ID says. There are a couple of papers in the issue, however, that discuss scientific matters.

In fact, I'd like to start on a positive note and say that the one article in this issue which I found to be highly civil in tone and thoughtful was Bruce Weber's. He provides a thorough and educational history of arguments...

Alfred Russel Wallace: A Life Rediscovered

Alfred Russel Wallace is getting his due with Michael Flannery's new book, Alfred Russel Wallace: A Rediscovered Life.

In the preview above, Dr. Flannery compares Wallace to a Victorian Indiana Jones and explains how he was the father of modern biogeography and the architect of intelligent evolution, which held that common descent was directed, intelligently designed, and purposeful.

Icons of Evolution 10th Anniversary: Ape to Man, The Ultimate Icon

New Biography Reveals Evolution's Co-Discoverer as Early Intelligent Design Advocate

In a sparkling, concise and controversial new biography of the co-discoverer of evolutionary theory, historian Michael A. Flannery tells a largely unknown story that has been embarrassing Darwinians in the know for almost a century and a half.

In Alfred Russel Wallace: A Rediscovered Life, published by Discovery Institute Press, Flannery shows how Wallace ultimately came to reject the sufficiency of his own theory of natural selection to explain what he called in the title of his...

Why Can't Intelligent Design Critics in Synthese Accurately Represent Their Opponents?

The most recent issue of Synthese contains a variety of condescending articles against intelligent design (ID). But a few articles do attempt to make actual critiques of ID. The problem is that they don't accurately represent the actual arguments of ID proponents. Can't these top-rate philosophers rebut ID without misrepresenting the arguments?

The article by Niall Shanks and Keith Green repeatedly misrepresent intelligent design as appealing to "divine agency." It's all based on a ...

Explore the New Features at Evolution News & Views

Since 2004 Evolution News & Views has been your front-row seat to the debate over intelligent design and evolution, breaking stories about scientific research, academic freedom cases, and educational policy issues while providing news analysis that cuts through the spin on science stories in the media.

Now ENV is bringing you the reporting and news analysis you trust with a new look -- and new tools you can use to share the information you find here and interact with our authors on s...