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Richard Dawkins is that rare specimen, a public intellectual, a knight of the mind who goes into battle against the ignorance and foolhardiness of the populace. Unlike the French, who worship their public intellectuals, giving them pet names such as les intellos, and airing them regularly on serious television and in print, the British like to shove academics into a musty corner, or laugh at them. This was not always the case: the Victorians, with their public lectures and royal societies, gloried in debate and celebrated the thrills of fresh knowledge. The nearest we get to this now is celebrating...

In the past, I have observed that the newsmedia and scientific establishment commonly promote the Darwinist bias against intelligent design (ID), where the media "carefully selects the sources of information it will broadcast to the public on this issue." (To see how various groups in the establishment serve as checkpoints to prevent scientific information that challenges neo-Darwinism from reaching the public, observe the diagram at left.) National Geographic (NG) is doing its job as a media checkpoint, promoting biased information to the public on ID.

A detailed account of the character assassination leveled by the Associated Press against an Ohio teacher.

[...] Adnan Oktar -- the 52-year-old Turk behind the pseudonym Harun Yahya -- caught the attention of scientists and teachers in Europe and North America by mass-mailing them his 768-page "Atlas of Creation". His lavishly illustrated book preaches a Muslim version of creationism [...] Well-illustrated and free of theological jargon, they preach that Islam is the one true faith and Darwinism, by undermining religious belief, has led to the discord, atheism, terrorism and extreme political ideologies plaguing the world. [...] JESUS RETURNS AS A MUSLIM [...] Oktar says the "Atlas of Creation" campaign and Harun Yahya publishing empire are part...

As many readers know, I recently wrote a column titled “Logical Proof of the Existence of a Divine Creator, Why Atheism is Not Logically Sound,” which explored the logical and philosophical case for the Divine. As I painstakingly pointed out in the column, all of the arguments hold true whether one believes in evolution or not. Nonetheless, many chose to attack the column from a scientific standpoint, not by bringing specific examples, but because of the lack thereof. While they entirely missed the meaning of the column, I would still like to address their issues.

A good question Sometimes my email contains a few good and sincere questions — and here's an example. This is probably the most common rock on which creationists founder: a profound misconception about what evolution says, and a natural human desire to see a guiding plan to the world. -- begin email quote I'm tormented. I appreciate the struggle many creationists are having about evolutionary science. I find myself tormented as I observe the world around me. What I seem to be focused on is how a plant or animal is self aware of it's need to evolve? How does...

The real problem with Darwinism in the public school classroom is that it is often taught in an atheist way. Textbooks by biologists like William Provine and Richard Dawkins routinely assert that evolution has done away with the need for God. The claim is that chance and natural selection have demonstrated that we can have design--or the appearance of design--without a designer. In this sense Darwinism becomes propaganda for atheism. Typically evangelical Christians seek to counter this atheism by trying to expose the flaws in the Darwinian account of evolution. This explains the appeal of "creation science" and the "intelligent...

Where Do the Dinosaurs Fit? Figuring out when the dinosaurs lived relative to man isn't really so difficult. by Mario Seiglie "I don't believe in the Bible because dinosaurs lived a long time before man ever did."Have you ever heard a statement like that? I certainly have—many times. In fact, this was one of the principal reasons Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution, eventually rejected the Bible. Many have followed suit. Most people believe you can't reconcile dinosaurs and the Bible—but they are wrong. This erroneous idea is based on the supposition that either you have to...

I am an agnostic when it comes to explaining the origin of life. I don’t believe yet in evolution, creationism or intelligent design. I can see flaws in all three. I just simply don’t know and frankly don’t think it matters whether we know or not. My main conflict with the evolutionists is that they wish to assert their theory as fact and to employ government power to ban discussion of creationism and intelligent design on the grounds that they are unscientific or, worse from their point of view, religious. I am against banning any idea, theory, speculation or body...

A reader: John, I think you and other conservative critics of Ben Stein's movie are overlooking a significant part of the damage this film is doing: it diverts attention away from the areas of the academy, such as English, Poli Sci, Sociology, gender studies, black studies, etc. that really have become real cesspools of leftist dogma and actually are dire need of reform. Conservatives who care about higher education ought to be scrutinizing the pseudo-scholars in these disciplines and leaving the real scholars in the natural sciences alone. Ben Stein is diverting resources away from where they could actually be...

... When talking about the creationists to people who don’t follow these controversies closely, I have found that the hardest thing to get across is the shifty, low-cunning aspect of the whole modern creationist enterprise. Individual creationists can be very nice people, though they get nicer the further away they are from the full-time core enterprise of modern creationism at the Discovery Institute. The enterprise as a whole, however, really doesn’t smell good. You notice this when you’re around it a lot. I shall give some more examples in a minute; but what accounts for all this dishonesty and misrepresentation?...

MIAMI, Fla. — The debate over evolution is evolving. Although federal courts have banned teaching "creation theory" or "intelligent design theory" in public schools, legislators in several states are seeking new ways to allow teachers to cast doubt on the theory of evolution. The Florida House of Representatives passed a bill this week that will require schools to teach "critical analysis" of evolution. On Tuesday Michigan introduced a similar "academic freedom" bill. Louisiana, Alabama and Missouri also have legislation under debate, although no state has adopted a law yet. Opponents say these bills that allow the questioning of evolution are...

What on earth has happened to Ben Stein? He and I go back a long way. No, I’ve never met the guy. Back in the 1970s, though, when The American Spectator was in its broadsheet format, I would always turn first to Ben Stein’s diary, which appeared in every issue. He was funny and clever and worldly in a way I liked a lot. The very few times I’ve caught him on-screen, he seems to have had a nice line in deadpan self-deprecation, also something I like. Though I’ve never met him, I know people who know him, and...

As the onslaught of new emails-comments from believers/disbelievers pours in over this Ben Stein movie, Expelled, I am amused, appalled and mystified at the whole thing, and the posture of those are so adamantly in favor of adding "In the beginning..." to the nation's science curricula. It's "not about religion," ID/Creationists/Monkey Trial adherents say. Yes, it is. Doesn't lying bother you? You want your religion imposed on America's kids in science classrooms. You want to "test" and "debunk" Evolution as a "belief system." And then you don't want YOUR belief system, which can't withstand tests under any of those criteria,...

The York Daily Record (known for its coverage of the Dover ID trial) interviews Barack Obama: Q: York County was recently in the news for a lawsuit involving the teaching of intelligent design. What's your attitude regarding the teaching of evolution in public schools? A: "I'm a Christian, and I believe in parents being able to provide children with religious instruction without interference from the state. But I also believe our schools are there to teach worldly knowledge and science. I believe in evolution, and I believe there's a difference between science and faith. That doesn't make faith any less...

Anyone reading this blog who isn’t aware of the dustup that occurred at the Mall of America somewhere in Minnesota this past Friday must not be a reader of the New York Times (or any of the teeming millions of ‘mom and pop’ atheist/Darwinist / boffin blogs that are all atwitter about it and still writing well into the night.) The controversy around Premise Media’s upcoming movie Ben Stein’s EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed became the hottest topic in the blogosphere. According to BlogPulse, a service of Nielsen Buzzmetrics, the issue held the number one slot throughout the day on Monday,...

THE scientist who led the team that cracked the human genome is to publish a book explaining why he now believes in the existence of God and is convinced that miracles are real. Francis Collins, the director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute, claims there is a rational basis for a creator and that scientific discoveries bring man “closer to God”. His book, The Language of God, to be published in September, will reopen the age-old debate about the relationship between science and faith. “One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been...

In the first experiment of its kind conducted in nature, a University of British Columbia evolutionary biologist has come up with strong evidence for one of Charles Darwin's cornerstone ideas -- adaptation to the environment accelerates the creation of new species.

Of all the factors that led to Mike Huckabee's demise in the 2008 presidential sweepstakes (insufficient funds, lack of foreign policy experience), there's one that has been largely overlooked: Huckabee's disbelief in the theory of evolution as it is generally understood – without the involvement of the Creator. Perhaps you're thinking: What's evolution got to do with being president? Very little, as Huckabee was quick to remind reporters on the campaign trail. But from the moment the former Baptist minister revealed his beliefs on evolutionary biology, political commentators and scientists lambasted him. Some even suggested those beliefs should disqualify him...

Two evolutionary biologists — P. Z. Myers of the University of Minnesota, Morris, and Richard Dawkins of Oxford — tried to go to the movies at the Mall of America in Minneapolis Thursday evening. Dr. Dawkins got in. Dr. Myers did not.

The $1.6 million Templeton Prize, the richest award made to an individual by a philanthropic organization, was given Wednesday to Michael Heller, 72, a Roman Catholic priest, cosmologist and philosopher who has spent his life asking, and perhaps more impressively answering, questions like “Does the universe need to have a cause?”... Much of Professor Heller’s career has been dedicated to reconciling the known scientific world with the unknowable dimensions of God. In doing so, he has argued against a “God of the gaps” strategy for relating science and religion, a view that uses God to explain what science cannot. Professor...

The equal opportunity laws that are supposedly in place in this country protect potential employees against discrimination based on race, sex, religion and even lifestyle choices. But, when it comes down to it, are these protections really in place? A few years ago, Nathaniel Abraham was fired from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. Abraham, an expert in toxicology and developmental biology, also happens to be a “Bible-believing Christian.” His religious beliefs never came up in the interview, and rightfully so. No one gets grilled over other lifestyle choices since many of those are protected. Theoretically, then, a person’s...

It's not Yasgur's Farm, but what happens at the Konrad Lorenz Institute in Altenberg, Austria this July promises to be far more transforming for the world than Woodstock. What it amounts to is a gathering of 16 biologists and philosophers of rock star stature – let's call them "the Altenberg 16" – who recognize that the theory of evolution which most practicing biologists accept and which is taught in classrooms today, is inadequate in explaining our existence. It's pre the discovery of DNA, lacks a theory for body form and does not accomodate "other" new phenomena. So the theory Charles...

Missing link feather fossils found in France By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 6:01pm GMT 20/02/2008 Primitive feathers that represent a key missing link in their evolution have been found, fossilised in 100-million-year-old amber from France. The fossils mark a step towards the shape of modern feathers As long as scientists have studied birds, they have puzzled over that most intricate of avian features - the feather. Because it is a marvellous feat of biological engineering, it has been siezed on by creationists trying to find evidence of designs that lie beyond the abilities of evolution. Scientists themselves have...

America is the greatest expression of the spirit of Freedom and Liberty found in Judeo-Christian theology that the world has ever seen. But we are not there yet, we are on the road to a true expression of the Kingdom of God on earth, and America, although clearly a leader of nations, is just one of the many Nations that have a Manifest Divine Destiny. God is into Nations, and He has a plan for nations, just as He has a plan for individuals. I recommend you peruse the COA Library in the links above, and download some of the...

Today, almost one hundred and fifty years after the publication of The Origin of Species, we are still arguing about Darwin. How is this possible? If Darwin's theory of natural selection is a scientific theory, as its defenders claim, then why hasn't it been able to establish itself securely in the public mind? Why, in short, is Darwin still the subject of continuing controversy and acrimonious debate? Contrast this on-going battle over Darwin with the fate of the other great scientific revolutions. The same Christian fundamentalists who argue that public school should teach creationism have no quarrel with the...

GREER, S.C. – Mike Huckabee was asked today about his view on teaching creationism in schools but he dismissed the question saying, “We’ve answered that so many times, I don’t even want to talk about it.” “Clearly a president would have leverage...” the reporter continued. “No it wouldn’t,” retorted Huckabee. “You think so?” the reporter asked. “Let me explain how education works. You probably don’t realize. Governors handle education. But governors don’t even get into the curriculum of the schools. I was a governor ten and a half years. Ask the people of Arkansas how many times I wrote curriculum...

The Rev. Michael Dowd gave up a permanent home to travel the country spreading his gospel in the hope of reconciling disparate beliefs. But the former pastor's gospel may shock many Christians. Dowd preaches "evolution theology," a view that promotes evolutionary science and God as the ultimate reality. In Dowd's mind, you can have Darwin and the divine. Dowd is so committed to spreading his message that he offers his book — "Thank God for Evolution! How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World" — as a free download on his Web site. The...

If ever there was a candidate who seemed tailor made for talk radio, it is Patrick J. Buchanan... Yet having won in New Hampshire, Mr. Buchanan has suddenly been rebuffed by the nation's most prominent talk-radio hosts ... "I'm amazed at how outspoken a lot of them are," said William Adams, publisher of Talk Daily, a newsletter that reports on the nation's most popular radio hosts... The most dramatic break has been between Mr. Buchanan and Rush Limbaugh ... Now, as radio's archconservative, he is refusing Mr. Buchanan a conservative's label. "Pat Buchanan is not a conservative," he announced on...

So last night (Sunday, 12/30/07) I get ready in front of the T.V. at 8 p.m. with my son to watch the very much hyped documentary on the History Channel titled "How The Earth Was Made". Since my son is a first-grader and very much into science, his main interests include Earth and the entire Solar System. The two-hour documentary was fantastic, but it raised a key question in my mind and it made me, shall I say, more of a believer in God as Our Creator (not that I ever stopped 'believing', but I'm an open-minded person who believes...

A FRUIT picking trip to NSW ended in the death of a Scottish backpacker over a row about creationism and evolution. English backpacker Alexander Christian York, 33, was today sentenced to a maximum of five years jail for the manslaughter of Scotsman Rudi Boa in January last year. Mr Boa, 28, died on January 27 after being stabbed by York at the Blowering Holiday Park, near Tumut. ... The Scottish couple and York, neighbours at the caravan park, were becoming friends and spent the night of January 27 drinking at the Star Hotel in Tumut. However, towards the end of...

The resignation of the [Texas] state's science curriculum director last month has signaled the beginning of what is shaping up to be a contentious and politically charged revision of the science curriculum, set to begin in earnest in January. [snip] Former science director Chris Comer says she resigned from the Texas Education Agency to avoid being fired after officials told her she had improperly endorsed evolution. She had forwarded an e-mail announcing a speech by a prominent scholar on evolution, which the state requires schools to teach. [snip] The [State Board of Education] must vote on any changes to the...

"The battle between science and creationism has reached the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where a former researcher is claiming he was fired because he doesn't believe in evolution. Nathaniel Abraham filed a lawsuit earlier this week in US District Court in Boston saying that the Cape Cod research center dismissed him in 2004 because of his Christian belief that the Bible presents a true account of human creation. Abraham, who is seeking $500,000 in compensation for a violation of his civil rights, says in the suit that he lost his job as a postdoctoral researcher in a biology lab...

The 12 steps to becoming an informed believer in evolution. Step 1 - I admit that I was wrong about creation and 'intelligent design'. Step 2 - Came to believe that our planet came from an event in space which caused our solar system to expand and develop over millions of years, an expansion which is ongoing. Step 3 - Made a decision to turn my belief in this event into opening up my mind to further new learning. Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless intellectual inventory of what I know about evolution and admitting my lack of...

On February 18, presidential candidate Pat Buchanan appeared on the ABC program, "This Week With David Brinkley." He was asked by newspaper columnist George Will, "On the subject of culture, do you favor the teaching of creationism in public schools?" Buchanan answered, "I believe that God created heaven and earth. I believe in the Bible, George. I believe that children should not be forced to believe the Bible, but I think that every child should know what's in the Old and New Testaments." This prompted liberal commentator Sam Donaldson to ask, in a tone of unconcealed condescension and ridicule, "Did...

In 1986 I read my first creationist article, written by a biologist. By the time I finished, I knew I could no longer justify my evolutionary thinking. Was it Scripture that convinced me? Actually, no. The author did not mention God or the Bible once. She simply pointed out, armed with modern scientific facts, that practically everything I had learned in medical school--especially in genetics--directly conflicted with Darwin's theory... The underlying genetic mechanism of evolution is random mutation, and specifically mutation that is beneficial to life. Biology textbooks in theory present positive and negative mutations to students as though these...

Liberal moderator Chris Matthews, in a "surely no one actually believes the first verse of the Bible" tone, asked, "I'm curious. Is there anybody on the stage that does not believe in evolution?" While the news reported three, after a round of calls, the forth, Duncan Hunter (not Ron Paul), was among those who stood for Creation...

TOM FAHEY: Governor Huckabee, at a previous debate, you and two of your colleagues indicated that you do not believe in evolution. You’re an ordained minister. What do you believe? Is it the story of creation as it is reported in the Bible or described in the Bible? GOVERNOR HUCKABEE: It’s interesting that that question would even be asked of somebody running for president. I’m not planning on writing the curriculum for an eighth-grade science book. I’m asking for the opportunity to be president of the United States. But you’ve raised the question, so let me answer it. “In the...

AUSTIN, Tex., Nov. 29 (AP) — The state’s director of science curriculum said she resigned this month under pressure from officials who said she had given the appearance of criticizing the teaching of intelligent design. The Texas Education Agency put the director, Chris Comer, on 30 days’ paid administrative leave in late October, resulting in what Ms. Comer called a forced resignation. The move came shortly after she forwarded an e-mail message announcing a presentation by Barbara Forrest, an author of “Creationism’s Trojan Horse.” The book argues that creationist politics are behind the movement to get intelligent design theory taught...

The Creation Museum has met and exceeded its inaugural year attendance goal, less than six months after it opened its doors. Officials at Answers in Genesis, the apologetics ministry that opened the museum in May, anticipated 250,000 visitors the first year. However, the northern Kentucky-based museum met that goal last week. Melany Ethridge, a spokesperson for the museum, says the big crowds indicate that many are interested in the biblical explanation of creation. "The museum is drawing not only Christians who already believe in the biblical view of Creation, but it's drawing those who are just more curious to learn...

In January 1955, Homer Jacobson, a chemistry professor at Brooklyn College, published a paper called “Information, Reproduction and the Origin of Life” in American Scientist, the journal of Sigma Xi, the scientific honor society. In it, Dr. Jacobson speculated on the chemical qualities of earth in Hadean time, billions of years ago when the planet was beginning to cool down to the point where, as Dr. Jacobson put it, “one could imagine a few hardy compounds could survive.”... Nobody paid much attention to the paper at the time, he said in a telephone interview from his home in Tarrytown, N.Y....

Summary Creationism in any of its forms, such as “intelligent design”, is not based on facts, does not use any scientific reasoning and its contents are definitely inappropriate for science classes. However, some people call for creationist theories to be taught in European schools alongside or even in place of the theory of evolution. From a scientific view point, there is absolutely no doubt that evolution is a central theory for our understanding of life on Earth. The Assembly calls on education authorities in member states to promote scientific knowledge and the teaching of evolution and to oppose firmly any...

Conservative Leader John Tory: Evolution Must be Taught in Science Class; Creation only for Religion Classes Tory plan seen by some as first step to forcing all private schools to absorb Ontario government's full secular curriculum By John-Henry Westen and Elizabeth O'Brien TORONTO, September 6, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Conservative Leader John Tory's election promise to give public funding to faith-based schools began to unravel at the seams yesterday as he spoke about evolution in the classroom.  Asked by a radio interviewer if creation would be permitted to be taught in the classroom, Tory replied, "The Christian-based school would have to...

WACO, Texas (BP)--Baylor University officials ordered the shutdown of a personal website of one of a handful of the school's distinguished professors because of anonymous concerns that the site, hosted on the university’s server, supported Intelligent Design. Robert Marks, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Baylor, launched a website called the Evolutionary Informatics Lab in June to examine whether Darwinian processes like random mutation and natural selection can generate new information. Marks' conclusions, as explained on the website, placed limits on the scope of Darwinism and offered scientific support for Intelligent Design. In July, a podcast interview with...

“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come� (Matt. 24:14). Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis(AiG) sees the newly opened Creation Museum contributing to the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophetic words in Matthew 24:14: The remarkable international media buzz surrounding the opening of the Creation Museum on May 28 [2007] reminded me of the verse above from Matthew 24. In many ways, reporting by the secular and Christian media (from around the world) has certainly greatly contributed to seeing the gospel “preached in...

For the first time, scientists have drawn a detailed map of the evolutionary steps taken by a protein that links modern humans to a creature that swam in the oceans 450 million years ago. The study, published Thursday in the journal Science, provides further rebuttal to creationists by filling in the gaps that show how evolution occurred on a molecular level. Researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Oregon looked at a precursor to a modern protein called the glucocorticoid receptor. In humans, the protein lives in the adrenal glands and helps regulate the body's stress response. Through a...

Fed up with pseudoscience invading your bookshop? Simply engage in some guerrilla librarianship. Here's one you might like. New blog Biologists Helping Bookstores - spotted via Jason Kottke - features a crusading scientist called Ste who tries reorganising bookshop shelves to prevent pseudoscience featuring in the science categories. Take this recent entry, where the target was work by individuals like intelligent design "pioneer" Michael Behe: Four copies of The Edge of Evolution were discovered once more in the science section. I flip a copy and read the back. Here's the beginning of the first quote from the back cover: "Until...

Professional paleontologists from around the world are concerned about the misrepresentation of science at the newly opened Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. The Creation Museum has been marketed to the public as a "reasoned, logical defence" for young- earth creationism by Ken Ham, the President and CEO of Answers in Genesis, which runs the Creation Museum. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, a world-wide scientific and educational organization concerned with vertebrate paleontology, contends that the museum presents visitors with a view of earth history that has been scientifically disproven for over a century. The Creation Museum's fossil exhibitions, though artistically impressive,...

Professional paleontologists from around the world are concerned about the misrepresentation of science at the newly opened Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. The Creation Museum has been marketed to the public as a “reasoned, logical defence” for young-earth creationism by Ken Ham, the President and CEO of Answers in Genesis, which runs the Creation Museum. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, a world-wide scientific and educational organization concerned with vertebrate paleontology, contends that the museum presents visitors with a view of earth history that has been scientifically disproven for over a century...

In this paper, I will define creationism, talk about the relationship between creationism and science, discuss the way that Karl Popper inspired creationists such as Philip Johnson to see the debate between creationists and scientists that subscribe to evolutionary theory and biblical literalists as philosophical, how this conclusion, combined with reflections on creation science, should be applied to the constitutional debate, and discuss whether or not we can persuade creationists to believe that evolutionary theory is true. My metaphysical commitment to naturalism is unjustified and may be unjustifiable. I believe that we shouldn’t argue with creationists because we can’t convince...