Free Republic

The time has come to be blunt. The problem with Intelligent Design is not that it is false; not that the arguments in its favor reduce to smoke and mirrors; and not that it's defenders are disingenuous or even duplicitous. The problem with Intelligent Design is that it is dumb. I would contend that ID is dumb biology; even if it is on to something, what it is on to has no connection and does no meaningful work in biology (or physics). However, and more significantly, ID is dumb philosophy. First, and despite the claims of its defenders, ID is...

ANYONE who supposes that evolution doesn't happen, or doesn't matter, should spare a thought for H5N1, the virus causing avian flu. If we're unlucky, this virus will give us a nasty demonstration of evolution in action...At the moment, the virus cannot pass easily from one person to another. But there are a couple of ways it could evolve to do so. The virus might infect someone already sick with a strain of human flu, and the two viruses could have sex, thus creating a new virus that contains some genes from each. Such viral hanky-panky is thought to have led...

Darwinist Kenneth Miller Concedes Dr. Behe's brand of design is NOT young-earthism as Darwinist fundamentalists always try to paint design as. Also, he conceded that the error in the design book Of Pandas and People that he pointed out yesterday was corrected in later editions. He also tried to paint design as disguised creationism, which it is not. So basically we're getting the same old Darwinist fundamentalist talking points from the stand. The defense is refuting those points, but already I'm seeing one-sided articles in the media acting like the defense isn't even in the building. Ah yes, journalism at...

Hi! I'm new here and this is my first post here so I'm starting "slow". My topic is "intellegent design" as it relates to evolution. A topic which has appeared in the news recently in the wake of the President's commented that it should be taught in public schools. I have posted on this topic in the Hannity boards and have found some of misunderstanding there (at least on the part of a number of forumites) as to what intelligent design is and what its scientific merits are. The short, short version is that intelligent design is not scientific (in...

A recent editorial in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was aptly named “Unintelligent” (June 27th) because I have rarely seen such blatant errors made. It’s as if the writers made no attempt whatsoever to study the issue at hand. They also make some of the most outlandish claims concerning the evolution-design debate I have seen. The article claims “most” Christians are at peace with evolution, including the “billion-strong” Catholics. Really? Did they survey all of them? This must be from the fallacious claim that the last Pope supposedly endorsed evolution. No, he said evolution deserves to be studied as the theory it...

The Kansas Board of Education is thinking about implementing science curricula that would teach the controversy over neo-Darwinism. The ultra-Darwinists insist that there is no scientific controversy, that opponents of Darwin's theory of common descent by natural selection are Christian fundamentalists conspiring to establish a global theocracy. Piercing this smokescreen of ad hominem rhetoric comes the wry voice of Jewish agnostic David Berlinski. In today's Wichita Eagle he writes: The suggestion that Darwin's theory of evolution is like theories in the serious sciences -- quantum electrodynamics, say -- is grotesque. Quantum electrodynamics is accurate to 13 unyielding decimal places. Darwin's...

Mr. Olszak’s column suggests that religious people who oppose science are behind the current debate in the Dover school district. He’s right, but not about which group is in opposition. The evangelists of naturalism are trying to keep reasonable science out of the classroom. These aren’t the people with “courage” exploring the “tough questions” that Olszak writes about. These are the people trying to avoid all tough questions about evolution. While many believe in God, those leading the fight against intelligent design are some of academia’s most ardent atheists. So let’s not pretend their cause is about science. They want...

BreakPoint with Charles Colson Commentary #050118 - 01/18/2005 Sticker Wars A Case of the Blind Leading the Rest of Us Last week a federal judge, egged on by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ordered a Georgia school district to remove stickers from biology textbooks. Why? Because, according to the judge, a simple statement written on the stickers—that evolution is a theory, not a fact—was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. He held evolution as fact! This is just the latest example of a plague of intellectual blindness among our secular elites. In Georgia's Cobb County, school officials added the stickers...

The theory of biological evolution is not a modern idea as is often supposed. Organic evolution was first taught by the Greeks at least as early as the 7th century BC. Greek philosophers probably borrowed and adapted their evolutionary ideas from the Hindus, who believed that souls transformed from one animal to another until they reached a perfection state called nirvana. Charles Darwin allegedly made no contributions to the development of the theory of evolution by natural selection, but simply helped to popularize it. Evolutionists today argue that evolution is a modern idea (i.e. a product of scientific research), in...

BreakPoint with Charles Colson Commentary #041124 - 11/24/2004 'The Privileged Planet' Our Special Place in the Universe Do you ever find yourself saying, "I wish so-and-so were still around?" Well, I wish the astronomer Carl Sagan were still around. He died in 1996, but had he lived, he would have found an extraordinary book, The Privileged Planet, by astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez and philosopher Jay Richards, deeply challenging—maybe even disturbing. Here's why: In his frequent appearances on the Tonight Show, and in his public television series Cosmos, Sagan was presented as the visionary sage of science. He spoke cheerfully of being...

The Plot to Kill Evolution [Article Review: Evolution vs. Intelligent Design] Wired Magazine has joined the crusade against reasonable science. Their October 2004 issue emblazoned “The Plot to Kill Evolution” across the cover. The article, “The Crusade Against Evolution” was largely a one-sided look at the so-called “evolution vs. creation” debate. The author seemed to try, but largely failed, to contain his pro-evolution bias. At least they talked to some intelligent design (ID) supporters and allowed one proponent to write his own piece, providing some balance. The article quotes physicist, and ardent atheist, Lawrence Krauss as saying “By no definition...

The things we have declared different we have declared lesser,” declared Christopher Impey, an astronomer at the University of Arizona and “sworn agnostic,” to a reporter from the Tucson Citizen. He had just won a three-year, $275,000 grant from the Templeton Foundation to host a lecture series titled “Astrobiology and the Sacred: Implications of Life Beyond Earth,” and seemed to think that the finding of life on other planets, even microbial life, would upset the religious. Secular HopeThe article proceeded with his thoughts on the matter, but that is not what interested me about it. At the very end, he...

The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0310241448/terraspacedock Lee Strobel, former skeptic and author of "The Case for Christ" and "The Case of Faith" now writes one of the most accessible books on science apologetics. He interviews a variety of experts in various scientific fields from biology to astronomy. Very useful and informative. **** Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1576833445/terraspacedock For years naturalistic theories have monopolized academia as the only possible scientific explanation for the origin of life. But there's something most people don't know--the facts just don't support...

One of the writers I quote most frequently is the great Christian apologist C. S. Lewis. Lewis’s book Mere Christianity helped bring me to Christ, and his writings have done the same for countless thousands of others. Most of Lewis’s readers come away from his books impressed by his deep faith, his brilliant mind, and the clarity and logic of his arguments. Yet according to philosopher Victor Reppert, one of Lewis’s most successful arguments was one that many people thought a failure during his own lifetime. In his new book, C. S. Lewis’s Dangerous Idea: In Defense of the Argument...

COMMUNISM IN AMERICA: Ann Coulter recently spoke about Joseph McCarthy and called him an American patriot and prophet who was way ahead of his time. Mr. McCarthy recognized Communist infiltration into our society and political system and the danger this posed to the future of the U.S. He was demonized and discredited. Why? Because he was exposing Communism in America. To those who believe that the threat of Communism disovled with the breakup of the United Soviet Socialist Republic, that is what they want you to believe. Communism is alive and well IN AMERICA TODAY. Our universities have been taken...

COMMUNISM IN AMERICA: Ann Coulter recently spoke about Joseph McCarthy and called him an American patriot and phrophet who was way ahead of his time. Few people paid any attention to her comments while many screamed foul but I give her credit because Mr. McCarthy recognized Communist infiltration into our society and political system and the danger this posed to the future of the U.S. He was demonized and discredited. Why? Because he was exposing Communism in America. To those who believe that the threat of Communism disovled with the breakup of the United Soviet Socialist Republic, that is what...

THE SOCIALIST AGENDA PART ICOMMUNISM IN AMERIKA:How has it come to this? Have Californians had enough of this nonsense? Have Americans? I am prepared to do whatever it takes to stop this insanity. Folks, this has been going on for sometime now. Remember CA Prop 187? Your vote hasn't counted since at least 1994. Ann Coulter has spoken out about Joseph McCarthy (an American patriot and prophet) and few people paid any attention to her comments but I give her credit because my own research traces the roots of the Left Wing Socialist (Communist) movement back to the McCarthy era....

Why Young-earth Creationism is Patently Absurd http://www.geocities.com/darrickdean/absurd.html

Hello, First time posting to this forum. I been checking this forum for a while now and all posts seem to deal only with xtianity, judaism (rarely), and islam (occasionally). I realize that those are the majority religions in the U.S.A. but there's got to be other non-monotheists who visit this forum. Any pantheists out there? Amoung pantheists I'm an oddity (I've found only one other libertarian minded pantheist, but he's still way left of where I'm at). Just so it's clear where I'm coming from, on the 'World's Smallest Political Test' I score 100 on Economic Liberty and 85...

Answering the Big Questions of Life Sue Bohlin Sue Bohlin is an associate speaker with Probe Ministries. She attended the University of Illinois, and has been a Bible teacher and conference speaker for over 25 years. She serves as a Mentoring Mom for MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers), and on the board of Living Hope Ministries, a Christ-centered outreach to those wanting to leave homosexuality. She is also a professional calligrapher and the webservant for Probe Ministries; but most importantly, she is the wife of Dr. Ray Bohlin and the mother of their two college-age sons. One of the most important...