I know that my own children, who are of middle and high school ages, have a rather, shall we say, incomplete understanding of the theory of intelligent design. Why would that be, considering that their dad is immersed in the subject? Well, in part because the science is challenging and the books for the most part are not written with kids, even smart kids, in mind. Nor are many of the lectures and videos you can listen to or watch. Parents have brought this fact to our attention. So at last year’s Westminster Conference, in Philadelphia, we experimented with a separate youth track. It was such a wonderful success that we are doing the same thing at this month’s Dallas Conference on Science & Faith, January 25 in Denton, TX. Teleology Without Tears It will be led by …
Editor’s note: The staff of Evolution News wish you a Happy New Year! We are counting down our top ten stories of 2019. If you haven’t done so yet, please take a moment now to contribute to our work in bringing you news and analysis about evolution, intelligent design, and more every day of the year. There is no other voice, no other source of information, like ours. Thank you for your friendship and your support! The following article was originally published here on May 6, 2019. Recent months have witnessed a debate between Michael Behe and his supporters, on one hand, and Behe’s critics on the other, over arguments in his book Darwin Devolves about mutations in polar bear genes. The discussion has now come to end. Having heard what critics have to say and having …
Editor’s note: At the year’s end, please take a moment now to support the work of the Center for Science & Culture! As we advance the case for intelligent design, in science and in the culture, everything we do depends on you. The Seattle-based staff of Discovery Institute and the Center for Science & Culture just celebrated our Christmas luncheon where we had a chance to reflect on the breakthroughs we saw in 2019. I cannot help but feel as if we are at a moment in history similar to the day the Berlin Wall fell. That day represented the collapse of the barrier separating East and West Germany. In the same way, the philosophical wall separating scientific inquiry from empirical reality is starting to crumble. Increasingly, scientists are realizing, or gaining the …
One of my favorite things about the holiday season is having more time to read than I do usually. I mean, read actual books. There’s an inviting coziness about this time of year, perfect for shutting the computer down, putting the accursed iPhone away, and retreating to the beauty of printed pages. It’s a golden opportunity to make intellectual discoveries, afforded to us more by books than any other way. It’s for this reason that books make the perfect gifts. No doubt you’ve done all your Christmas shopping by now… Or have you? Whether the answer is yes or no, let me recommend that you add to your own enjoyment of the season, and that of your friends and family, with books. You know, coded information represented in a linear, alphabetic form, one of the hallmarks of …
On a new episode of ID the Future, Lehigh University biochemist Michael Behe discusses the closing sections of his new book, Darwin Devolves: The New Science about DNA that Challenges Evolution. He compares evolutionary biology in Darwin’s time and today to the world of astronomy before and after the telescope was invented. Download the podcast or listen to it here. The cell was a black box to Darwin and his contemporaries. Today we can explore that black box like never before, much better even than even two decades ago, allowing us to observe what evolution can actually do at the molecular level. According to Behe, the answer is, not much. Evolution can create niche advantages by breaking certain things, but it doesn’t build fundamentally new structures or new machines. …
Some biologists might shudder at the thought of eliminating Darwinism from their scientific work. A “Darwin-ectomy” sounds more painful than a tonsillectomy or appendectomy. To hard-core evolutionists, it might sound like a cephalectomy (removal of the head)! If Darwinism is as essential to biology as Richard Dawkins or Jerry Coyne argues, then removing evolutionary words and concepts should make research incomprehensible. If, on the other hand, Darwinism is more of a “narrative gloss” applied to the conclusions after the scientific work is done, as the late Philip Skell observed, then biology would survive the operation just fine. It might even be healthier, slimmed down after disposing of unnecessary philosophical baggage. Here are some recent scientific papers in the …
Yesterday, Sarah Chaffee pointed out a remarkable article in the top science journal Nature, “Stop the science training that demands ‘don’t ask’.” It was remarkable because of the candor in its admission that conventional science education indeed demands that we “not ask” certain things. Often, science instruction substitutes atheistic assumptions for critical analysis, particularly when attention turns to questions that could be considered of ultimate importance. Most of us, in our education, were trained in that stifling way of thinking. We have to struggle mightily to think outside its constraints. And in that effort, we need help. Coaching, you might say. “How to Ask” What you need is a daylong immersion experience, re-training you in how to ask, and how to …
Imagine an alternative reality, somewhere out there in the fabled multiverse. In this reality, everything is the same as in our familiar universe except that, in academia, the argument about intelligent design is openly entertained rather than broadly suppressed. In this reality, Michael Behe is still a controversial biochemist at Lehigh University. Not everyone likes his views on ID, but his ideas are freely debated without recourse to shaming or intimidation and, intriguingly, his colleagues at Lehigh permit, indeed encourage, him to teach a special seminar on design versus Darwinian theory. The course is titled something like, “Controversies in Biology: Investigating Evolution and Intelligent Design.” Of course in our familiar universe, Dr. Behe is not allowed to teach …
Hearty congratulations to Discovery Institute authors Michael Behe and Marcos Eberlin for new praise they’ve received for their recent books! Dr. Behe’s Darwin Devolves: The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution was recognized by World Magazine as Science Book of the Year: Darwin Devolves is our Science Book of the Year because it shows that the evolutionary process can build or create nothing at the genetic level, but it can make a creature look different. World editor-in-chief Marvin Olasky elaborates: Michael Behe, a 67-year-old biochemistry professor who has taught at Lehigh University since 1985, has helped to create nine children and two major theories. His first book, Darwin’s Black Box, focused on “irreducible complexity,” the idea that major …
On a new episode of ID the Future, Darwin Devolves author and Lehigh University biochemist Michael Behe sits down with host Rob Crowther to discuss Behe’s recent speaking trip to Brazil, and where he sees the Darwinism/design debate heading in the next few years. Download the podcast or listen to it here. Oh, and check out these excellent travel snaps, courtesy of our friends Marcos Eberlin and the folks at Discovery Institute’s branch at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo. In their conversation, Behe enthuses about Brazilian food and hospitality, and says the students at the schools where he spoke were refreshingly open to considering the evidence for intelligent design. It was typical of what he finds elsewhere, he says. There is a generational …
