Law Review Article Supports Constitutionality of Teaching Intelligent Design

A recent law review article by self-described “liberal First Amendment theorist” Arnold H. Loewy argues that it is constitutional to teach intelligent design in public schools. Writing in First Amendment Law Review, Loewy points out that “[t]o allow all ideas about the origin of man that do not presuppose an intelligent designer, but forbid all theories that explore the possibilities of such a designer, expresses hostility, not neutrality, towards religion.” Similar to the position of Discovery Institute, Loewy does not believe that intelligent design should therefore be required in schools. But he does think that it should not be prohibited simply because many will perceive it has having “partial congruence with religion”: I believe that teaching intelligent design in public Read More ›

UncommonDescent and ResearchID.org Report: New York Times Falsely Claimed ID Theorists Failed to Respond to Call for Research Proposals

A 2005 New York Times article asserted that ID proponents failed to respond to a call for research proposals from the John Templeton Foundation, a group that funds research dealing with origins. The New York Times reported that Templeton’s Charles Harper claimed that he had requested research proposals from ID-proponents, proposals which “never came in.” A new report now calls the veracity of the New York Times‘s story into “grave doubt.” According to both ResearchID.org and UncommonDescent, Harper now claims that the New York Times completely invented this story.

Alchemy, Marxism, and the future of Darwinism

I recently found myself in a conversation with two college undergraduates, both of them seniors in the natural sciences (physics and biochemistry, respectively). At one point we were discussing alchemy, which they knew as a pre-modern attempt to transmute lead into gold. I asked them whether they could name any famous alchemists. They could not, though one of them dimly recalled hearing of “someone whose name began with A.” I then predicted that Darwinian evolution would eventually fade into the same obscurity that now shrouds alchemy. Although I knew from previous conversations that my young friends were skeptical of Darwinian theory, they expressed considerable surprise at my prediction, if only because Darwinism is presently held in such high esteem by Read More ›

Telic Thoughts on the False “ID and Creationism” Meme

Mike Gene has put together some excellent material at TelicThoughts where he explains why Nick Matzke is wrong to go around using his “ID=Creationism” talking point. It’s a seductive meme for Darwinists, but these arguments don’t impress Mike Gene, who looks at how ID is formulated and finds that it is not creationism. Be sure to read some of Mike Gene’s work: “The ID=Creationism Meme” or ID 101 or ID 102 for details.