Posted on 06/22/2006 1:28:41 PM PDT by Tim Long
600 dissenters sign on challenging claims about support for theory
More than 600 scientists holding doctoral degrees have gone on the record expressing skepticism about Darwin's theory of evolution and calling for critical examination of the evidence cited in its support.
All are signatories to the Scientific Dissent From Darwinism statement, which reads: "We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged."
The statement, which includes endorsement by members of the prestigious U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Russian Academy of Sciences, was first published by the Seattle-based Discovery Institute in 2001 to challenge statements about Darwinian evolution made in promoting PBS's "Evolution" series.
The PBS promotion claimed "virtually every scientist in the world believes the theory to be true."
The list of 610 signatories includes scientists from National Academies of Science in Russia, Czech Republic, Hungary, India (Hindustan), Nigeria, Poland, Russia and the United States. Many of the signers are professors or researchers at major universities and international research institutions such as Cambridge University, British Museum of Natural History, Moscow State University, Masaryk University in Czech Republic, Hong Kong University, University of Turku in Finland, Autonomous University of Guadalajara in Mexico, University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, Institut de Paleontologie Humaine in France, Chitose Institute of Science & Technology in Japan, Ben-Gurion University in Israel, MIT, The Smithsonian and Princeton.
"Dissent from Darwinism has gone global," said Discovery Institute President Bruce Chapman. "Darwinists used to claim that virtually every scientist in the world held that Darwinian evolution was true, but we quickly started finding U.S. scientists that disproved that statement. Now we're finding that there are hundreds, and probably thousands, of scientists all over the world that don't subscribe to Darwin's theory."
The Discovery Institute is the leading promoter of the theory of Intelligent Design, which has been at the center of challenges in federal court over the teaching of evolution in public school classes. Advocates say it draws on recent discoveries in physics, biochemistry and related disciplines that indicate some features of the natural world are best explained as the product of an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection.
"I signed the Scientific Dissent From Darwinism statement because I am absolutely convinced of the lack of true scientific evidence in favor of Darwinian dogma," said Raul Leguizamon, M.D., pathologist and professor of medicine at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara, Mexico.
"Nobody in the biological sciences, medicine included, needs Darwinism at all," he added. "Darwinism is certainly needed, however, in order to pose as a philosopher, since it is primarily a worldview. And an awful one, as Bernard Shaw used to say."
Did you pay the postage or send them C.O.D?
Did you also observe the angels holding the plane aloft?
It's not all work. I've also gone over mach 1.0 at 100' AGL. I've watched a tanker wave gossamer wings as we fell away on a practice emergency disconnect. etc.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate." -- Blade Runner
2Ti 1:12 For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
Absolutely. ;^) It's pretty quiet up there.
Well, good stuff. That is obviously something to behold.
(The >mach 1.0 at 100' AGL -- hope that was over uninhabited land, or water. You could get a lot of broken windows doing that!)
Tropical jungle, and mostly uninhabited. Huts don't have glass windows. We didn't fly directly over them, but they sure knew we were around.
Did you use GPS?
LOL
No. Those were the days when timing was done using sundials and positioning was determined using someone call Janice Doppler ;^).
call = called.
idiot.
That is really a funny (but sad) picture.
Factually incomplete. It does not show the saddles.
Yes, I suppose it would be sad if you fail to understand science, I-M.
It's sad that people actually fall for that crap. It is even sadder that people fall for the huckster selling that crap.
How true!
Here's an idea. Why don't you read Godless and refute what she states about the theory of evolution? I'd love to see you destroy her "scientific research".
It was a joke. Lighten up, Francis.
You may find the question "already ridiculous" but to simply claim that the signers are anti-science because they agree with its statement still begs said question by running afoul of the "No true Scotsman fallacy".
I didn't claims that the signers are anti-science. Your statement is, thus, an example of the "Strawman fallacy." (It is the Discovery Institute and those that wish to replace science in the classroom with fairy stories, creation myths or, to risk repetition, ID.)
It's one thing to say that ID isn't really science, and it is another to say that no true scientists endorse it. It's that latter claim that I think can't be made without committing the NTS fallacy.
I never said anything about the scientists who signed it, but about the DI, who are defrauding the public, and its tactic of lying about the supposed existance of a genuine controversy in the biological community about the validity of evolution.
Of the signatories, some are Moonies who were asked by "Father" Sun Yong Moon to pursue education and careers in biology to give the sort of legitimacy to his primative Genesisist beliefs that the DI is pushing. Some, if not most, are scientists who were duped into signing it, given the innocuousness of the statement, coupled with the signatory's ignorance of the DI and its tactics and goals. Finally, there are a bunch of scientists in non-biological fields who are born again Christians who, I believe, signed as an act of religious faith or obligation.
As for Stephen Jay Gould, I'm a little surprised you would describe him as "great". According to John Maynard Smith,...
Maynard Smith's entitled to his opinion of Gould, I'm entitled to my opinion of Maynard Smith. And anyone who wouldn't describe Gould as "great," even if they have academic differences with him, simply isn't paying attention.
Gould is well known for having written the Mismeasure of Man, a screed attacking the Bell Curve and its authors as pseudo-scientists rather than dealing with its facts and arguments...
LMAO! Referring to any of Gould's writing as a "screed" is utterly ridiculous. Gould may write many things, but "screeds" are not among them.
We're also entitled to disagree. I don't feel threatened by that. I'm sorry if you do.
What Ann Coulter does is by no means "Scientific Research." I'm sure that she would be the first to admit that.
Funny, but I didn't realize you were the rule maker of what qualifies as scientific research and what doesn't. What Coulter lays out perfectly are published FACTS about the theory of evolution and in the process, destroys Darwin. But don't take my word for it. Read Godless to see for yourself, then argue your points.
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