What happens when an up-and-coming European bioscientist flips from Darwin disciple to Darwin defector? Sparks fly. Just ask biotechnologist Matti Leisola. It all started when a student loaned the Finnish scientist a book criticizing evolutionary theory. Leisola reacted angrily, and set out to defend evolution, but found his efforts raised more questions than they answered. He soon morphed into a full-on Darwin skeptic, Read More ›
A professor, biologist, and physiologist argues that modern Darwinism’s materialist and mechanistic biases have led to a scientific dead end, unable to define what life is — and only an openness to the qualities of “purpose and desire” will move the field forward. Scott Turner contends. “To be scientists, we force ourselves into a Hobson’s choice on the matter: accept Read More ›
More than thirty years after his landmark book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1985), biologist Michael Denton revisits his earlier thesis about the inability of Darwinian evolution to explain the history of life. He argues that there remains “an irresistible consilience of evidence for rejecting Darwinian cumulative selection as the major driving force of evolution.” From the origin of life Read More ›
The power of Darwinian evolution on the modern mind lies mainly in its contention that natural selection can account for the appearance of design without a designer. In this comprehensive overview of intelligent design (ID) in biology, mathematician William Dembski and biologist Jonathan Wells make a compelling case that design in biology is real, not an illusion.
Dembski and Wells offer clear, direct, and readable discussions drawn from current science research. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the status of the ID versus Darwin debate. This book is published under the imprint of FTE Books.
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Click here for a reproducible PDF of this article.PDF En Español Intelligent design — often called “ID” — is a scientific theory that holds that the emergence of some features of the universe and living things is best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection. ID theorists argue that design can be inferred Read More ›
The myth of junk DNA continues to unravel. Almost daily (sometimes twice daily) new peer-reviewed articles are appearing in the scientific literature pointing out the functions of previously believed to be “non-functioning” or junk DNA. CSC’s Research Coordinator Casey Luskin says: “When we look for function, we find it, and when we don’t look for function, someone else finds it.” Read his report at Evolution News & Views.
Intelligent design theory expects that we should find deeper and deeper layers of function in biology, which by the same token represents a big problem for Darwinian evolution. In the past we’ve noted papers finding function for synonymous codons (for example, see here and here) — but the functions reported in those papers generally pertained to controlling translation speed. Now a paper in the journal Cell has found a new potential function, namely that synonymous codons can control the rate at which mRNA transcripts degrade and are broken down within cells. Casey Luskin reports at Evolution News & Views.
When Charles Darwin finished The Origin of Species, he thought that he had explained every clue, but one. Though his theory could explain many facts, Darwin knew that there was a significant event in the history of life that his theory did not explain. During this event, the “Cambrian explosion,” many animals suddenly appeared in the fossil record without apparent ancestors Read More ›
The Discovering Intelligent Design Workbook is one part of a comprehensive curriculum that presents both the biological and cosmological evidence in support of the scientific theory of intelligent design. Developed for middle-school-age students to adults, the full curriculum also includes a textbook and a DVD with video clips keyed to the content of the textbook, as well as an online learning companion with quizzes and mini-lectures.
(Note: The textbook and DVD must be purchased separately; this item is the Workbook only.) The Workbook provides review questions, vocabulary questions, and essay questions to enhance the curriculum’s educational value for students. The Workbook also contains inquiry activities to give students hands-on opportunities to learn about intelligent design. These activities allow students to experimentally investigate questions like “Why does ice float?” or “What is the Doppler effect?,” to critically analyze media coverage of the debate over intelligent design, and to even build their own “universe creating machine.” Produced by Discovery Institute in conjunction with Illustra Media, this curriculum is intended for use by homeschools and private schools.
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