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Intelligent Design and Creationism Just Aren’t the Same

Recent news accounts about controversies over evolution in Ohio and Georgia have contained references to the scientific theory of “intelligent design.” Some advocates of Darwinian evolution try to conflate “intelligent design” (ID) with “creationism,” sometimes using the term “intelligent design creationism.”1 In fact, intelligent design is quite different from “creationism,” as even some of its critics have acknowledged. University of Read More ›

Has Darwin Met His Match?

In the December 2002 issue of Commentary, Discovery Institute Senior Fellow, David Berlinski, offered this thoughtful, respectful, mid-course evaluation of intelligent design. David has established some important intellectual milestones that have been passed, as well as setting goal lines yet to be met. For another mid-course evaluation see William Dembski’s Becoming a Disciplined Science For letters & responses to this Read More ›

Assisted Suicide Stereotype Is Target of Wesley Smith’s “Forced Exit”

Forced Exit: The Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder (Revised) By Wesley J. SmithSpence Publishing, 2003 Discovery Institute is proud to announce that Spence Publishing has released a revised and updated version of a popular book by Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith. Smith, a lawyer and author who regularly writes about assisted suicide and other bioethical issues, describes Read More ›

CNN accused of slanting report on selection of science textbooks

Archived at: http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=16307 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–When the Discovery Institute’s Raymond Bohlin testified before the Texas State Board of Education regarding the subject of evolution in textbook selection July 9, he simply wanted to emphasize the importance of including evolution’s weaknesses in textbooks. But CNN reported that his testimony and others were further examples of Christian conservatives pushing their pro-creation agenda. Read More ›

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Evidence for Design in Physics and Biology

1. Introduction In the preceding essay, mathematician and probability theorist William Dembski notes that human beings often detect the prior activity of rational agents in the effects they leave behind.1 Archaeologists assume, for example, that rational agents produced the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone; insurance fraud investigators detect certain “cheating patterns” that suggest intentional manipulation of circumstances rather than “natural” …

The Third Mode of Explanation

In our workaday lives we find it important to distinguish between three modes of explanation: necessity, change, and design. More generally, given an event, object, or structure, we want to know: Did it have to happen? Did it happen by accident? Did an intelligent agent cause it to happen? Read More ›

Australia’s Dr. Death: Spreading the Assisted-Suicide Gospel

There is an old folk wisdom: “You are known by the company you keep.” As is true of most folk wisdom, the saying has much to recommend it. To use an extreme example, if you hung out with and financially supported a known terrorist, most people would reasonably think that you were a terrorist too. Which brings to mind the Read More ›