Month: November 2007
Design of Life
Nearly 20 years ago, a small non-profit in Texas, The Foundation for Thought and Ethics (FTE), published a short supplemental textbook called Of Pandas and People (Pandas). This event did not go unnoticed. The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) soon thereafter published numerous reviews condemning Pandas as a “creationist … ‘equal time’ tract” that presented “a pot pourri of half-truths, untruths, and nonsense.” Law review articles were published hoping to prove Pandas unconstitutional. In 2005, a federal judge banned Pandas outright from science classrooms in Dover, Pennsylvania — but only after denying FTE the right to appear before the court to defend the book. Most troubling, the judge largely ignored the published text of Pandas, instead scrutinizing long-forgotten pre-publication Read More ›
Essential Reading: Law, Darwinism, and Public Education
Law, Darwinism, and Public Education: The Establishment Clause and the Challenge of Intelligent DesignBy Francis J. BeckwithRowman & Littlefield, 2004, 185 pages.ISBN 0-7425-1430-7 Legal scholar Francis J. Beckwith recounts the legal history of court battles over the teaching of biological origins. Though many thought that the landmark Supreme Court case Edwards v. Aguillard would permanently settle these questions by ruling creationism unconstitutional, Beckwith observes that intelligent design poses a new challenge to legal scholars. Beckwith provides a thorough treatment of the subject.
Rebuttal to Paul Gross’ Review of The Edge of Evolution – Error #4: Misrepresenting the State of Thinking in Cosmology
[This four part series responding to Paul Gross can be seen in: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.] In his review of Michael Behe’s book The Edge of Evolution, Paul Gross wrongly claims that cosmic fine-tuning is rejected by mainstream physicists. Gross writes that “as proof of intelligent design [Behe] now hitches it to the strong anthropic principle: a universe fine-tuned for human life, and not by accident. … mainstream … cosmology remain[s] unimpressed.” First, cosmic design is a minimal component of Behe’s book, which primarily focuses on biological design. Second, there are a variety of respected physicists who believe that cosmic find-tuning is a valid inference from the data. Indeed, Gross seems to have forgotten that numerous Read More ›
We’re Movin’ On Up
This weekend Discovery Institute is moving its Seattle offices crosstown. For the locals in the know, we’ll be saying goodbye to the exciting corner of Third & Pike, and heading south closer to Pioneer Square (here’s a pic of the new digs). The new street address is 208 Columbia. More on the move here. Moving servers, phone systems, and everything else is a chore. So, if the blog goes down for a while, well you’ve been warned. And if you’re having trouble reaching us between now and Monday, have patience.
The Truth About The Dover Intelligent Design Trial — traipsingintoevolution.com
November 13th PBS’ NOVA program aired Judgment Day a special program on the Dover ID trial. For the truth about the Dover intelligent design trial go to www.traipsingintoevolution.com.