David Klinghoffer

Senior Fellow and Editor, Evolution News

Archives

The Mystery of Life’s Origin

The Continuing Controversy
Walter Bradley
January 27, 2020
The origin of life from non-life remains one of the most enduring mysteries of modern science. The Mystery of Life’s Origin: The Continuing Controversy investigates how close scientists are to solving that mystery and explores what we are learning about the origin of life from current research in chemistry, physics, astrobiology, biochemistry, and more. The book includes an updated version of the Read More ›

#1 of Our Top Stories of 2019: Informed by Discovery Authors, Yale’s David Gelernter Rejects Darwinism

David Klinghoffer
January 1, 2020
This is important. Yale University computer scientist David Gelernter is a polymath, a brilliant writer, artist, and thinker. Famed both for his specific scientific expertise, and for his cultural, political, and historical reflections, he’s also now a confessed Darwin skeptic. More than a skeptic really. In a wonderful essay in the new issue of The Claremont Review of Books, “Giving Up Darwin,” he credits reading Stephen Meyer’s book Darwin’s Doubt as the primary cause of his rejecting neo-Darwinian evolution, a “brilliant and beautiful scientific theory” but one that’s now been overtaken by science.

Let There Be Light — New Book from Michael Denton

David Klinghoffer
October 2, 2018
In Children of Light, biologist Michael Denton shows how the universe was tailored from its inception for “light eaters” — creatures with high-acuity vision like ours, depending as we do on plant-based nutrition, entailing photosynthesis. This is intelligent design that sweeps the planet, covering not biology alone, but chemistry, geology, and physics.

Wikipedia: 2018 Censor of the Year

David Klinghoffer
February 12, 2018
February 12 is the birthday of Charles Darwin, aka Darwin Day, which we recognize each year as the occasion for naming a Censor of the Year, or COTY. As Darwin himself said, in a scientific context, “A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question.” But through Read More ›

Great Minds Launches — Michael Medved and Screenwriter Randall Wallace on Hollywood Bias

David Klinghoffer
January 24, 2018
And now for something completely different. Great Minds with Michael Medved, produced by Discovery Institute, launches today, and the first episode pays off on our promise that these podcasts will be something new, important, and exciting. Our host, a Discovery Institute Senior Fellow, is best known for his daily syndicated radio program with 4+ million listeners. Here, Michael spends twenty minutes Read More ›

For Darwin Advocates, Wistar Conference Remains a Pain in the Master Narrative

David Klinghoffer
April 3, 2016
The 1966 Wistar Institute conference remains, fifty years later, a pain in the master narrative of Darwin advocates. According to their favored story, doubts about the evolutionary mechanism are the exclusive domain of, first of all, those seeking to uphold a particular interpretation of Genesis and, second, the scientifically ignorant. Today marks the anniversary of the conference’s opening, April 25 Read More ›

Debating Darwin’s Doubt

A Scientific Controversy that Can No Longer Be Denied
David Klinghoffer
July 15, 2015
Stephen Meyer’s book Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design became a national bestseller, provoking a wide-ranging debate about the adequacy of Darwinian theory to explain life’s history. In Debating Darwin’s Doubt: A Scientific Controversy that Can No Longer Be Denied, leading scholars in the intelligent design community respond to critiques of Meyer’s book and show that the core challenge posed by Meyer remains unanswered.

The Unofficial Guide to Cosmos

Fact and Fiction in Neil Degrasse Tyson’s Landmark Science Series
David Klinghoffer
October 14, 2014
The 2014 reboot of Carl Sagan’s classic 13-part series Cosmos struck a chord with viewers, garnered 12 Emmy Award nominations, and is headed straight into schools as a science teacher’s instructional aid. It’s also an agenda-driven vehicle for scientific materialism, casting religion as arch foe of the search for truth about nature and pressing its message that human beings occupy Read More ›

For Darwin Day, Discovery Institute Names University of Chicago Biologist Jerry Coyne as “Censor of the Year”

David Klinghoffer
February 12, 2014
On this episode of ID the Future, David Klinghoffer announces Discovery Institute’s 2013 Censor of the Year award. Listen in as Klinghoffer explains why we’ve chosen to recognize University of Chicago biologist Jerry Coyne, out of several promising nominees, for his success in choking off free speech on intelligent design and evolution.

Live Broadcast of the Michael Medved Show’s Science & Culture Update: Pro-ID Scientists Discuss Academic Persecution

David Klinghoffer
January 6, 2014
On this episode of ID the Future, David Klinghoffer reports on our recent special live edition of the Michael Medved Show’s Science and Culture Update, broadcast live from the Discovery Institute office in Seattle. The focus of the hour was the persecution of scientists and scholars that challenge Darwinian evolution, with a discussion featuring Dr. Richard Sternberg, Dr. Doug Axe, and Dr. Stephen Meyer.

How to Talk with Darwinists

David Klinghoffer
April 10, 2013
On this episode of ID the Future, David Klinghoffer gives advice on how to have constructive conversations with those who are unfriendly towards intelligent design theory.

What Does It Mean to Be a “Friend of Darwin”?

David Klinghoffer
March 8, 2013
On this episode of ID the Future, David Klinghoffer talks about what it means to be a “Friend of Darwin.” In the case of Zack Kopplin, a 2012 recipient of the Friend of Darwin award, it means grossly misleading the public about science and education by equating skepticism of Darwinian evolution with biblical creationism.

In Colorado, Darwin Activists Fight Academic Freedom with Gross Misinformation

David Klinghoffer
January 28, 2013
On this episode of ID the Future, David Klinghoffer discusses Colorado’s House Bill 13-1089, which proposes a law, based on Discovery Institute academic freedom policy, that would protect scientific instruction in the classroom. Darwin activists such as the National Center for Scientific Education are aggressively pushing gross misinformation in an attempt to keep the bill from being passed into law.

“Background Checks” to Root Out Doubts About Darwin?

David Klinghoffer
May 22, 2012
On this episode of ID The Future, Discovery Institute Senior Fellow David Klinghoffer explores the latest developments involving Dr. Ben Carson and the protests surrounding his doubts over Darwinian evolution after being invited to speak at Emory University’s commencement this year. Klinghoffer reveals that administration at Emory are now considering an additional “background check” for future invited speakers, so as to root out anyone that may have differing opinions from the academic or scientific mainstream. This assault on academic freedom just keeps getting worse! Listen in as Klinghoffer explains. Read more about it at Evolution News & Views.

Sign the Petition Urging Emory University to Stand Up to Darwinist Bullies

David Klinghoffer
May 11, 2012
On this episode of ID the Future, host David Boze and Dr. David Klinghoffer discuss how Darwinist bullying at Emory University illustrates how the scientific consensus on Darwinian evolution is maintained through an atmosphere of intimidation, distortion, and oppression. Dr. Ben Carson, a widely acclaimed neurosurgeon, was invited to give the Commencement address and receive an honorary degree. Now he’s being targeted by Darwinists at the university for being a Darwin skeptic. Perhaps even more disturbing is the university’s failure to reaffirm Dr. Carson’s welcome and support his right to academic freedom.

The Darwin-Fueled Ideas of John Derbyshire and Robert Weissberg

David Klinghoffer
May 2, 2012
On this episode of ID The Future, Discovery Institute Senior Fellow David Klinghoffer discusses the recent move by National Review editor Rich Lowry to sever ties with two regular contributors, John Derbyshire and Robert Weissberg, after discovering their connections to racialist groups promoting race superiority, eugenics, and other decidedly un-American ideas. Klinghoffer illustrates how Darwinian evolution informs proponents of these ideas, and how important it is to identify and root out this kind of thinking before it has a chance to pollute respectable institutions and publications.

Conservatives as Heretics

David Klinghoffer
February 3, 2012
On this episode of IDTF, host David Boze interviews CSC senior fellow David Klilnghoffer about his piece in the American Spectator looking at why many in the media and politics are abusing the word science by converting it into a verbal bullying tool to force opposition to conform to political agendas. Klinghoffer also examined the similarities in the kinds of ideas that evoke a skeptical response among conservatives and Republicans and whether those similarities tell us something about the so-called war on science.

Signature of Controversy

Responses to Critics of Signature in the Cell
David Klinghoffer
March 1, 2011
Signature of Controversy is a response to the 2009 bestseller Signature in the Cell by Stephen C. Meyer, a book recognized as establishing one of the strongest pillars underlying the argument for intelligent design. To call Signature in the Cell important is an understatement. The critical response that followed the publication of Stephen Meyer’s book was fascinating, but the fact is that few — if any Read More ›

The Martin Gaskell Case: Not an Isolated Insident

David Klinghoffer
February 3, 2011
In his January Diary, John Derbyshire comes down on the side of the University of Kentucky for refusing to hire Martin Gaskell, a superbly qualified astronomer, for the sole reason that he expressed sympathy for intelligent design. The case of Professor Gaskell, who sued UK for religious discrimination, needs to be understood in the context of widespread anti-Christian discrimination in academic Read More ›