There is a great deal of newsworthy items this week in regards to the debate over evolution and intelligent design. Here are links to a few.

Over at the Whitepath.com, muslim science writer Mustafa Akyol takes on — and bests, in my opinion — the NCSE’s Nick Matzke.

Check out the ID The Future podcast about academic freedom and the Baylor Tenure Scandal.

There’s been much talk about the Pope’s conclave on evolution last weekend. At Darwinia.com, Nemo points out: “The status of science is at risk from the confusions of Darwinists. If they need to be reminded of this by evangelicals, so much the worse for scientists, who should never have let this situation develop from their own obsessive dogmatism.”

Denyse O’Leary at Post-Darwinist blogs on the recent claims that obesity is a result of evolution. “Apparently, we are assured, the obesity pandemic is to be blamed on the twin sacred bulls of “evolution” and the “environment”, not on sedentary lifestyles, self-indulgence, or an aging population. And, you guessed it, research funds are urgently needed to combat the growing mountains of pudge.”

And at Uncommon Descent, Dave Scott challenges a forthcoming article by Nick Matzke et. al. on a supposed evolutionary pathway for the bacterial flagellum. Readers might also want to read Stephen Meyer and Scott Minnich’s related paper on the “co-option” argument, “Genetic Analysis of Coordinate Flagellar and Type III Regulatory Circuits in Pathogenic Bacteria,” as presented to the Second International Conference on Design & Nature, Rhodes Greece.