This article, published by The Guardian, quotes Bret Swanson of Discovery Institute: According to Bret Swanson of the Discovery Institute: “Without many tens of billions of dollars worth of new fibre optic networks, thousands of new business plans in communications, medicine, education, security, remote sensing, computing, the military and every mundane task that could soon move to the internet will Read More ›
In The Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt attempted to analyze how totalitarian regimes gain such pervasive power over every aspect of the lives of individuals. The creation of omnipresent fear, the use of terror, and the ascription of quasi-divine salvific powers to the leaders all play a part. But in a way, all of these depend on one strategic goal: the destruction Read More ›
This article, published by The Jewish Press, provides a review of Discovery Institute Senior Fellow George Gilder and his book The Israel Test: George Gilder’s latest book, The Israel Test (Vigilante Books), is so unabashedly pro-Jewish and pro-Israel that it would make many Jews blush. The rest of the article can be found here.
Los Angeles, CA — Discovery Institute has filed a lawsuit against the California Science Center (the “Center”) for unlawfully refusing to disclose public documents requested by Discovery Institute under the California Public Records Act. Discovery Institute filed the public documents request on October 9, 2009, following the Center’s October 6, 2009 cancellation of a contract with the American Freedom Alliance Read More ›
This article, published by WorldNetDaily, quotes Casey Luskin of Discovery Institute: “California Science Center’s claims are not true, and we know for a fact that e-mail communications exist, including communications with the Smithsonian Institution, that should have been disclosed in response to our public documents request, but weren’t, showing clear violation of California’s Public Records Act,” said Casey Luskin, program Read More ›
President Obama has finally made up his mind on Afghanistan — sort of. The clear decision and explanation that would either give meaning and rationale to our troops’ efforts or lay the foundation for a reasoned withdrawal has been put off, yet again. It is almost heresy in conservative circles to say that changing circumstances — and not just President Read More ›
Over the past fifty years, the purposes and practices of medicine have changed radically. Where medical ethics was once life-affirming, today’s treatments and medical procedures increasingly involve the legal taking of human life. The litany is familiar: More than one million pregnancies are extinguished each year in the United States, thousands late-term. Physician-assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, Washington, and, Read More ›
This article, published by the Washington Examiner, mentions and quotes Stephen Meyer, Jonathan Wells, and Douglas Axe of Discovery Institute: When former Cambridge biochemist Douglas Axe computed the chances that the four amino acids that form DNA could self-arrange themselves into just one functional protein, he found it was 1:10164 — or less than the odds of finding one marked Read More ›
Your article stated that “the government is ready to put evolution on the primary curriculum for the first time after years of lobbying by senior scientists” (Scientists win place for evolution in primary schools, 9 November).
Andrew Copson, director of education at the British Humanist Society, found this “particularly important”. The plans, you report, come “in the wake of a recent survey commissioned by the British Council which found that 54% of Britons agreed … that ‘evolutionary theories should be taught in science lessons in schools together with other possible perspectives, such as intelligent design and creationism’.”
As a former science teacher and schools inspector, I am disturbed that proposals for science education are based on near-complete ignorance of intelligent design. I also think the views of most British people in this matter should not be so readily set aside.
It is an all too common error to confuse intelligent design with religious belief. While creationism draws its conclusions primarily from religious sources, intelligent design argues from observations of the natural world. And it has a good pedigree. A universe intelligible by design principles was the conclusion of many of the great pioneers of modern science.
It is easily overlooked that the origin of life, the integrated complexity of biological systems and the vast information content of DNA have not been adequately explained by purely materialistic or neo-Darwinian processes. Indeed it is hard to see how they ever will.
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Many of us have had flu shots this fall, but what about an inoculation against the hate-America economics that many colleges teach? Money, Greed and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and not the Problem, by Jay Richards (Harper One, 2009), undercuts myths that students might otherwise accept as facts.
Among the myths Richards demolishes: The Nirvana Myth (contrasting capitalism with an unrealizable ideal rather than with its real alternatives), the Piety Myth (focusing on good intentions rather than results), and the Materialist and Zero-Sum Game Myths (believing that wealth is not created but simply transferred).
Richards, one of that rare breed with a theology doctorate but an understanding of economics, also points out the errors of the Greed Myth (believing that the essence of capitalism is greed), the Usury Myth (that charging interest on money is immoral), and the Freeze-Frame Myth (that what’s happening now regarding population, income, natural resources, or so on, will always happen).
After knocking down the concept of Christ against capitalism, Richards summarizes proven ways to alleviate poverty: Teach that the universe is meaningful, thrift is good, and the rule of law is essential. He discusses the importance of delaying gratification, establishing property rights, and building stable families. An appendix helpful to libertarians shows why “spontaneous order” in economics does not argue against Intelligent Design in biology.
Another new defense of free markets, Guy Sorman’s Economics Does Not Lie(Encounter, 2009), lacks Christian understanding but shows how economic freedom has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty: He notes that our goal now should be “to secure and protect the system that has served humanity so well, not to change it for the worse” because it is not perfect.
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