Free Republic

What is Life/Non-life in Nature? by Jean F. Drew Everywhere we see the “behavior” of life/non-life (death) in nature; but that doesn’t tell us what life/non-life IS. Darwin’s theory of evolution doesn’t help with this question. It presupposes the existence of life axiomatically, and then proceeds to speak of the origin and evolution of species. Its fundamental assumption is that biological evolution is a wholly naturalistic, material process governed by the laws of physics and chemistry, with random variation and natural selection as the principal drivers of the system. Central to the Darwinist view is that life forms — species...

[...] Adnan Oktar -- the 52-year-old Turk behind the pseudonym Harun Yahya -- caught the attention of scientists and teachers in Europe and North America by mass-mailing them his 768-page "Atlas of Creation". His lavishly illustrated book preaches a Muslim version of creationism [...] Well-illustrated and free of theological jargon, they preach that Islam is the one true faith and Darwinism, by undermining religious belief, has led to the discord, atheism, terrorism and extreme political ideologies plaguing the world. [...] JESUS RETURNS AS A MUSLIM [...] Oktar says the "Atlas of Creation" campaign and Harun Yahya publishing empire are part...

The folks at Scientific American are steamed at Ben Stein: (see links): Ben Stein's Expelled: No Integrity Displayed (http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=ben-steins-expelled-review-john-rennie) Six Things in Expelled That Ben Stein Doesn't Want You to Know...(http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=six-things-ben-stein-doesnt-want-you-to-know) Stein's controversial movie Expelled links Charles Darwin to Adolf Hitler, the ultimate scientific hero to the ultimate manifestation of human evil. "A shameful antievolution film tries to blame Darwin for the Holocaust," shouts John Rennie's headline. Rennie then declares that its "heavy-handed linkage of modern biology to the Holocaust demands a response for the sake of simple human decency." The problem is, that the link is quite real. In...

“The ‘atheist nation’ of China mourns for their dead and undertakes a huge humanitarian effort which proves their system of shame and honor is vastly superior to the Christian system of dogmatic and silly superstitions. Christians absolutely hate it when other people show more concern for their fellow humans than the Christians do. Christians only pretend to love their fellow humans and do so only because they think they have to, not because they actually want to. Once again atheism trumps Christianity as a much more viable and sane worldview. This is why Christianity is a dead religion that...

I’ve written several columns about my skepticism regarding Darwinism. Each time I do I receive snooty comments attesting to my stupidity and my ignorance. The Darwinists never seem to want to discuss any of the points I have tried to make, just to ridicule the very thought that there may be some kind of guiding intelligence behind the structures, the amounts of information, the complexities, the fine balance and the mysteries of life and our universe. If anything is subject to ridicule, it is the answer that the world’s leading proponent and defender of Darwinian dogma, Richard Dawkins, gave to...

May 5, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Ben Stein has suffered extensive media criticism for drawing the connection between Darwin, Hitler, and the modern eugenics movements in a powerful 10-minute section of his film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed".In an MSNBC.com review, Arthur Caplan calls the connection Stein draws between Darwin's theory and the Holocaust "despicable".  Neo-Darwinians on the whole have unleashed a barrage of insults at Stein and his work. They have also, however, completely failed to address the intimidating body of evidence Stein presents to support his claims.  While Stein has explicitly asserted that not every neo-Darwinist is a eugenicist, an examination of the historic...

Expelled seems to me to be the right-wing analog of Fahrenheit 9/11...An effort to take a preexisting belief about the illegitimate use of power, find some facts to fit to it, and do the rest of the work with insinuation and innuendo... ...But the obvious question for ID proponents is never asked: OK, this great science is being suppressed, so please show me the data, lab notebooks, scientific work papers, unpublished manuscripts, and so on that contain all of these amazing discoveries that nobody will confront. But we never see it... ...One argument the movie makes, without any support that...

The Upright Ape: A New Origin of the Species, Aaron Filler, 2007.Editorial review:Did apes evolve from humans? Sudden abrupt changes in which entirely new types of organisms come into existence almost instantaneously do not fit the model of Modern Evolutionary Theory and the Darwinian model. In this remarkable 288 page book written by Harvard trained evolutionary biologist Aaron Filler, MD, Ph.D.--a student of Stephen Jay Gould and Ernst Mayr--we learn how modern biological evidence finally proves that sudden non-Darwinian evolution has played a major role in a number of major events in the history of life including the origin of...

It was from an obsessive Darwin-defender that I learned of the Anti-Defamation League's attack on the theatrical documentary Expelled, for "misappropriat[ing] the Holocaust." This guy is constantly emailing me. He warned that the ADL had just "issued a terse press release today condemning the equation of ‘Darwinism' with Nazism in Expelled. How can you call yourself a religious Jew and still believe in such Fundamentalist Protestant Christian nonsense like Intelligent Design?" I thanked my email correspondent for a good laugh. The idea that, having defended Expelled's thesis concerning Hitler's intellectual debt to Charles Darwin, I would now feel chastised and...

Mocked and belittled Interview: Ben Stein’s new documentary may give macro-evolutionary theory a deserved hard time, and he plans to have fun with it along the way | Megan Basham Bebeto Matthews/AP Though audiences probably know Ben Stein best as the economics teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the actor had a distinguished career preceding the classic '80s movie—just not in the entertainment industry. Long before ad-libbing the world's most famously boring free-market lecture, Stein was a Yale-trained trial lawyer, a professor at Pepperdine University, an economist, and a speechwriter for presidents Nixon and Ford. Even today, along with his...

With the premiere of Ben Stein’s new movie, Expelled, many people are pondering the long-term impact of Darwinism on society. We touched base with two experts on the subject. Arguing that Darwinism has had a largely positive impact on society is Michael Ruse (MR), the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. Arguing that Darwinism has had a largely negative impact on society is Richard Weikart (RW), Professor of History at California State University, Stanislaus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Set this up for the layman. What is Darwinism? Is it science? Is it a social theory? A philosophy? MR:...

Evolution vs. Creationism: A Marxist Look at the Debate by Mark Ostapiak The latest episode in the long struggle between the ideas of evolution and creationism was marked by a Dec. 14 federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State on behalf of 11 parents in Dover, PA. They insist that the local school board's decision to introduce "intelligent design" theory "in public school science classrooms violates their religious liberty by promoting particular religious beliefs to their children under the guise of science education." Another lawsuit, introduced before the Atlanta...

One can ask this question also in different terms. For instance, which books have had the greatest impact on current thinking? Inevitably, the Bible would have to be mentioned in the first place. Up to 1989, when the bankruptcy of Marxism was declared, Karl Marx’s Das Kapital would clearly have been in second place, and it is still the dominating influence in many parts of the world. However, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) must surely be mentioned in the next place. I hope to be able to show that this position is justified not only because Darwin more...

Ben Stein's new film EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed, is a documentary that appears to be about Intelligent Design and the shortcomings of Darwinism. The film is not just an exploration of the limitations of The Origin of Species, but a journey to uncover the mindset that Darwinism engendered among those with an agenda to replace traditional understandings of God with pure materialism. But far from offering a weighty discourse on theories of monism, Stein delivers a pop culture MTV-style Road Film that has already reignited the Culture Wars, with a just-issued cease and desist letter from a group at Harvard....

Darwinism is a specific evolutionary theory that excludes everything but material processes in the design of all life forms. No Intelligent Design allowed. "What's driving it is Darwinism is a foundational principle – scientific validation of secularism, atheism, liberalism – and that it strikes at the core of who they are," said Mathis. "Secondarily, these scientists are the high priests of the biggest question ever asked. They have all the authority, knowledge, power, funding," continued Mathis. "This is ground they own exclusively. They look down their elitist noses at the unwashed ignorant religious masses and scoff. That's why they respond...

In the first experiment of its kind conducted in nature, a University of British Columbia evolutionary biologist has come up with strong evidence for one of Charles Darwin's cornerstone ideas -- adaptation to the environment accelerates the creation of new species.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007 Congressman Hunter Statement on Evolution: The Declaration of Independence begins with these simple words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” Self-evident. Patently obvious. Completely clear. It is self-evident that “all men are created equal.” Not equal by government edict or by an act of a king or monarch. We are not equal by virtue of any particular article of the Constitution – we are created equal. The Declaration continues…. “and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” This is a vital component of what makes us a free society. We are...

... Next year the Texas State Board of Education will be writing the science curriculum standards for Texas public schoolchildren, and Huckabee may bring enough conservative fundamentalist voters to the polls on March 4 to swing the balance of power on the board to the supporters of creationism... It is his efforts in Fort Worth that concern advocates like Miller; there SBOE District 11 member Pat Hardy, a former schoolteacher, curriculum adviser and moderate Republican, is facing a challenge from fellow Republican Barney Maddox, a urologist and ardent supporter of creationism. With no Democratic candidate on the ballot, Tuesday's winner...

"An age of science is necessarily an age of material­ism," wrote Hugh Elliot early in the last century. "Ours is a scientific age, and it may be said with truth that we are all materialists now."[1]One does not have to look far to discover the con­tinued accuracy of Elliot's assessment. Scientific materialism--the claim that everything in the uni­verse can be fully explained by science as the prod­ucts of unintelligent matter and energy--has become the operating assumption for much of American politics and culture. We are repeatedly told today that our behaviors, our emotions, even our moral and religious longings...

'Darwin's Plantation' Breaks New Ground in Study of Subject Contact: Melany Ethridge, 972-267-1111 PETERSBURG, Kentucky, Jan. 15 /Christian Newswire/ -- Author Ken Ham and theologian Dr. A. Charles Ware take a groundbreaking look at one of the human race's greatest problems – racism – in "Darwin's Plantation: Evolution's Racist Roots." Along the way, they also tackle the questions of the origin of all the people groups, skin "color," and interracial marriage, Ham is the president of Answers in Genesis and the new Creation Museum, ministries that uphold the authority of the Bible from the very first verse. Ware is the...

Last week, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen wrote a column titled "Secular Europe's Merits," in which he explained why he prefers the secularism of Europe to the religiosity of America. To his credit (other New York Times columnists do not generally agree to debate anything they write -- Paul Krugman, for example, has refused to discuss his new book on liberalism with me), Cohen agreed to come on my show, and proved to be a charming guest. A distinguished foreign correspondent for Reuters and the International Herald Tribune, Cohen nevertheless betrayed what I believe is endemic to those who...

On February 18, presidential candidate Pat Buchanan appeared on the ABC program, "This Week With David Brinkley." He was asked by newspaper columnist George Will, "On the subject of culture, do you favor the teaching of creationism in public schools?" Buchanan answered, "I believe that God created heaven and earth. I believe in the Bible, George. I believe that children should not be forced to believe the Bible, but I think that every child should know what's in the Old and New Testaments." This prompted liberal commentator Sam Donaldson to ask, in a tone of unconcealed condescension and ridicule, "Did...

In 1986 I read my first creationist article, written by a biologist. By the time I finished, I knew I could no longer justify my evolutionary thinking. Was it Scripture that convinced me? Actually, no. The author did not mention God or the Bible once. She simply pointed out, armed with modern scientific facts, that practically everything I had learned in medical school--especially in genetics--directly conflicted with Darwin's theory... The underlying genetic mechanism of evolution is random mutation, and specifically mutation that is beneficial to life. Biology textbooks in theory present positive and negative mutations to students as though these...

Liberal moderator Chris Matthews, in a "surely no one actually believes the first verse of the Bible" tone, asked, "I'm curious. Is there anybody on the stage that does not believe in evolution?" While the news reported three, after a round of calls, the forth, Duncan Hunter (not Ron Paul), was among those who stood for Creation...

TOM FAHEY: Governor Huckabee, at a previous debate, you and two of your colleagues indicated that you do not believe in evolution. You’re an ordained minister. What do you believe? Is it the story of creation as it is reported in the Bible or described in the Bible? GOVERNOR HUCKABEE: It’s interesting that that question would even be asked of somebody running for president. I’m not planning on writing the curriculum for an eighth-grade science book. I’m asking for the opportunity to be president of the United States. But you’ve raised the question, so let me answer it. “In the...

Onward Christian Straw Men by: Malcolm A. Kline, December 04, 2007 The myth of marauding Christian street gangs has really taken hold among academic elites who pride themselves on demythologizing myths. When I recently wrote about the concerted effort in academic circles to banish doubters of Darwin’s theory of evolution from faculties everywhere, a poster on Free Republic offered this reminiscence:

There is a lot of buzz that is gathering over the upcoming Ben Stein documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The goal of the documentary is to expose the scientific community and universities around the world for discriminating against any scientist who wishes to explore the possibility of, "intelligent design," as an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution. For those of you that do not remember back to the old school days, I will take a moment to remind you about what Darwin taught. In 1859, Charles Darwin published his work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,...

"All that progressives ask or desire is permission to interpret the Constitution according to the Darwinian principle." Woodrow Wilson

Ben Stein exposes the frightening agenda of the Darwinian Machine in new movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, coming February, 2008 By Michael Ireland Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (ANS) -- Ben Stein, the highly recognizable television personality, actor and former White House presidential speech writer, is on a journey to answer one of the biggest questions ever asked: "Were we designed or are we simply the end result of an ancient mud puddle struck by lightning?" EXPELLED movie poster. Stein, who is also a lawyer, an economist, an author and social commentator, is stunned by what he...

Dr. Michael Shermer and Dr. Paul Nelson -- Evolution vs. Intelligent Design - A Debate Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, the Director of the Skeptics Society, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, the host of the Skeptics Distinguished Science Lecture Series at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and the co-host and producer of the 13-hour Family Channel television series, Exploring the Unknown. He is the author of Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown, about how the mind works and how thinking goes wrong. His book The Science of Good and Evil: Why...

In 1996, Pennsylvania's own Michael J. Behe launched a frontal attack upon Darwinian evolution with the publication of Darwin's Black Box. Behe, a mild-mannered molecular biologist at Lehigh University, argued politely but vigorously that the standard Darwinian explanation (random mutations plus natural selection) simply couldn't explain the evolution of a number of significant structures and processes observed in living things. Intricate processes like human blood clotting, and intricate structures like the bacterial flagellum (which is built uncannily like an outboard motor) were "irreducibly complex" arrangements that couldn't have arisen by a series of chance steps. They therefore must have been...

Mr Lundbergh is absolutely accurate in his critique of the false pseudo-scientific religion of Darwinism. The hysterical/irrational reaction of its adherents is similar in many ways to the reaction to Pope Benedict's brilliant Regensburg lecture. Such people do not like to have their certainties questioned. For anyone with an open mind, neither historical evidence nor scientific experimentation lend any credibility to this "theory". It remains just that, a preposterous theory, not a matter of fact. It's very much a case of ideology masquerading as science, a crutch for closed minds, an ideology for the deluded. There's nothing concrete or tangible...

24 Observations on the Intelligent Design versus Macro Evolution debate I kicked off quite a firestorm with my recent post on Marketing Darwin. The blogger Orac picked it up, shredded it to pieces, which led to dozens of comments at my blog and his. Smelling fresh blood, Professor PZ Meyers takes me to task, and more comments ensue. Basically, I get trashed really badly. Thank goodness I am secure in my old age! :) I find it all interesting. Many of the commenters raise some really good points, and I agree with some of them. Many though seem to deliberately...

When my youngest daughter was about three years old, I pulled a cheap trick on her, teaching her that whenever I asked “Who's the man?”, she should reply “Darwin!” She does this quite well now. It is hard to imagine any living biologist not thinking that Darwin IS the man, and I am certainly no different. But I have a different hero, and for a slightly different set of reasons. The man is Noam Chomsky. Like Darwin, Chomsky raised a set of questions that literally turned around a discipline, and opened the door to several new disciplines. In Chomsky's case,...

The study also found that these similarities were absent from fruit fly and nematode genomes, contradicting the widely held belief that organisms become more complex through evolution. The findings suggest that the ancestral animal genome was quite complex, and fly and worm genomes lost some of that intricacy as they evolved. It’s surprising to find such a “high level of genomic complexity in a supposedly primitive animal such as the sea anemone,” Koonin told The Scientist. It implies that the ancestral animal “was already extremely highly complex, at least in terms of its genomic organization and regulatory and signal transduction...

Simon Sebag Montefiore has already distinguished himself as a Russian scholar with his biography of Prince Potemkin and his Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, a study of the years of power following the Russian Revolution. This book, a “prequel” to the earlier one, traces the childhood, youth and early manhood of the dictator until the Revolution began in October 1917. It bears the hallmarks of the author’s style; written with gusto and reading like a novel, its narrative pace is underpinned by a massive amount of local research in several countries, which includes an interview with his “most...

The controversial $27 million Creation Museum located just outside Cincinnati has made a fairly strong start, boasting 40,000 visitors since its opening on Memorial Day. Patrons enter the Special Effects Theater for a film presentation at the $27 million Creation Museum, which depicts a literal six-day account of creation. In its first month, 40,000 people made their way to the museum. Counting the 9,000 visitors that pre-visited the museum, which depicts a literal six-day interpretation of creation from the Bible, the founding ministry Answers in Genesis (AiG) is well on its yearly goal of 250,000 guests, already meeting one-fifth of...

Once upon a time, Mary-Claire King and the late Allan Wilson published a paper — that became a widely-cited classic — about the genetic similarity of chimps and humans. “Evolution at Two Levels in Humans and Chimpanzees,” Science 188 (1975):107-116 was, alas, cited far more for proving the genetic near-identity of chimps and humans than for its much more interesting, deeper and more disturbing message...

The God Delusion Debate - May 20, 2007 "The God Delusion" Debate Wednesday, October 3, 2007 The Alys Stephens Center Birmingham, Alabama Remaining true to our goal of engaging secular culture on critical issues in a thoughtful, respectful manner, Fixed Point Foundation will sponsor a debate on what is arguably the most critical question of our time: the existence of God. The decision one makes regarding this question has implications that reverberate throughout eternity to be sure, but it also affects temporal existence from government policy to the individual. Historically, man’s belief in the transcendent has served as a restraint...

Darwin’s House: A Religious Shrine? 06/28/2007 Britain withdrew Darwin’s home, Downe House (outside London), from consideration as a UN World Heritage Site, and Nature seemed downright disappointed.1 An article quoted Darwin scholar James Moore saying, “Muslims go to Mecca, Christians go to Jerusalem, Darwinians go to Downe.” This seems to equate Darwinians with believers in a religion, but Nature quoted this proudly. What would be the statement of faith of a Darwinian religion? The article quoted Randal Keynes, great-great-grandson of Darwin and the one who originally submitted the nomination of Downe House to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee for consideration. Keynes...

Thirty-six years into the war on cancer, scientists have not only failed to come up with a cure, but most of the newer drugs suffer from the same problems as those available in the pre-war days: serious toxicity, limited effectiveness and eventual resistance. This is no surprise to University of California, Berkeley, genetics researcher Peter Duesberg, professor of molecular and cell biology. According to his novel yet controversial "chromosomal" theory of cancer, which is receiving increased attention among cancer researchers, each cancer is unique, and there is no magic bullet. "The mutation theory of cancer says that a limited number...

Darwinism at AEI By: Tom Bethell American Spectator July 1, 2007 Early in May, the American Enterprise Institute held a debate about Darwinism, a faith embedded in many debates, whether scientific, religious or political. The recent irruption of atheism can be traced to the Darwinian creed, for the well publicized testimonials of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens all have recourse to Darwinism at various points. It purports to explain how we got here without any need for God or gods. Darwinism is best seen as 19th century philosophy—materialism—dressed up as science, and directed against a theological argument for...

A New Definition of Feminism By Mike S. Adams Monday, June 4, 2007 Recently, a bright, young, conservative woman told me I had gone too far in my criticism of feminism. She even said my harsh criticism of feminism “almost made her want to be a feminist.” In addition to being dead wrong she may be in danger of becoming a liberal. The “you almost make me want to be a feminist” statement reminds me of one I heard from a young liberal woman after a speech I gave in Spokane, Washington. The livid lib was upset because I referred...

Pick up any biology textbooks, books, articles. And you will see the pervasive use of the word "design" - biological designs in cells, tissues, structures, bio-systems, organisms, etc. So, Darwin theorized that this design is due to blind natural forces. The alternative theory of course must be that this design is not due to blind natural forces, but is real design, i.e. intelligence-caused design. (I) Darwinist Theory: Design is due to blind natural forces (II) ID Theory: Design is intelligence-caused design Is Darwinist theory falsifiable? If Darwinist theory is falsified, then of course ID theory is affirmed. Similarly, if ID...

Pro-Darwin Biology Professor Laments Academia's "Intolerance" and Supports Teaching Intelligent Design Charles Darwin famously said, "A fair result can be obtained only by fully balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question." According to a recent article by J. Scott Turner, a pro-Darwin biology professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York, modern Neo-Darwinists are failing to heed Darwin's advice. (We blogged about a similar article by Turner in The Chronicle of Higher Education in January, 2007.) Turner is up front with his skepticism of intelligent design (ID), which will hopefully allow...

Tiny, jumping bits of DNA are looking less like genomic junk and more like significant players in mammalian evolution, according to a new analysis...

21 June 2007 Zuck is out of luck, marsupial findings vindicate Behe, Denton, Hoyle scordova I attempted mathematics….but I got on very slowly. The work was repugnant to me, chiefly from my not being able to see any meaning in the early steps in algebra….I do not believe that I should ever have succeeded beyond a very low grade. Charles Darwin, writing of his ineptitude and dislike of math The inability of Darwin and his followers to make the math of their ideas work continues to haunt them. Another mathematical problem for Darwinism comes in the form of the failing...

This opinion piece by David K. DeWolf ran in the Boston Globe, yesterday. IT'S THE QUESTION that won't go away. Twice during the Republican presidential debates and once at a forum for Democratic candidates, candidates were asked about evolution. For example, in the California debate all the candidates were asked to respond to the question of whether they believed in evolution. In the New Hampshire debate, follow-up questions were asked of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Kansas Senator Sam Brownback. At the Sojourners Forum debate, John Edwards was asked, "Do you believe in evolution or do you believe in...

1. Evaluating New Ideas One of my favorite books when I was in college was Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Before reading it I’d always assumed that the acquisition of human knowledge was a linear process. Person A discovers X. Everyone around him marvels at the discovery, and uses it as a foundation to take us to the next level of discovery. It’s how gunpowder is turned into a Chinese rocket, a Chinese rocket into an ICBM, and an ICBM into a Saturn V rocket to put a man on the moon. It’s a great way to visualize...

The theory marks a dramatic twist in evolutionary thinking that suggests some of our earliest ancestors may have begun walking on two legs up to 24m years ago, rather than shortly after the human lineage split from chimpanzees around 6m years ago. It suggests early humans adapted rapidly to open landscapes by honing the basic walking skills they developed to move around the forest canopy.