PBS Offers Intelligent Design Documentary

CREATION - Evolution Headlines ^ | 04/28/2003 | Illustra Media/CREATION - Evolution Headlines

[Remedy]

According to Illustra Media, the Public Broadcasting System uploaded the film Unlocking the Mystery of Life to its satellite this past Sunday. For the next three years, it will be available for member stations to download and broadcast. In addition, PBS is offering the film on their Shop PBS website under Science/Biology videos (page 4).

The film, released a little over a year ago, has been called a definitive presentation of the Intelligent Design movement. With interviews and evidences from eight PhD scientists, it presents strictly scientific (not religious) arguments that challenge Darwinian evolution, and show instead that intelligent design is a superior explanation for the complexity of life, particularly of DNA and molecular machines. The film has been well received not only across America but in Russia and other countries. Many public school teachers are using the material in science classrooms without fear of controversies over creationism or religion in the science classroom, because the material is scientific, not religious, in all its arguments and evidences, and presents reputable scientists who are well qualified in their fields: Dean Kenyon, Michael Behe, Jonathan Wells, Steven Meyer, William Dembski, Scott Minnich, Jed Macosko, and Paul Nelson, with a couple of brief appearances by Phillip E. Johnson, the "founder" of the Intelligent Design movement.

Check with your local PBS Station to find out when they plan to air it. If it is not on their schedule, call or write and encourage them to show the film. Why should television partly supported by public tax funds present only a one-sided view on this subject, so foundational to all people believe and think? We applaud PBS's move, but it is only partial penance for the Evolution series and decades of biased reporting on evolution.

This is a wonderful film, beautifully edited and shot on many locations, including the Galápagos Islands, and scored to original music by Mark Lewis. People are not only buying it for themselves, but buying extra copies to show to friends and co-workers. Unlocking the Mystery of Life available here on our Products page in VHS and DVD formats. The film is about an hour long and includes vivid computer graphics of DNA in action. The DVD version includes an extra half-hour of bonus features, including answers to 14 frequently-asked questions about intelligent design, answered by the scientists who appear in the film.

This is a must-see video. Get it, and get it around.

---

Intelligent Design Gets a Powerful New Media Boost 03/09/2002
Exclusive Over 600 guests gave a standing ovation Saturday March 9 at the premiere of a new film by Illustra Media, Unlocking the Mystery of Life. This 67-minute documentary is in many ways a definitive portrayal of the Intelligent Design movement that is sweeping the country. Intelligent Design is a non-religious, non-sectarian, strictly scientific view of origins with both negative and positive arguments: negative, that Darwinism is insufficient to explain the complexity of life, and positive, that intelligent design, or information, is a fundamental entity that must be taken into consideration in explanations of the origin of complex, specified structures like DNA. The film features interviews with a Who's Who of the Intelligent Design movement: Phillip Johnson, Michael Behe, Jonathan Wells, Paul Nelson, Stephen Meyer, Dean Kenyon, William Dembski, and others, who explain the issues and arguments for intelligent design as the key to unlocking the mystery of life. The film also features nearly 20 minutes of award-quality computer animation of molecular machines, manufacturing plants, and storage libraries of elaborate information - DNA and proteins at work in the cell, climaxing with a dazzling view of DNA transcription and translation.
In his keynote address, Dr. Paul Nelson (who appears in the film), gave reasons for optimism. He said that Time Magazine, usually solidly Darwinian, admitted just last week that these Intelligent Design scientists may be onto something. U.S. News and World Report is also coming out with a piece on I.D. And Stephen Meyer, who also appears in the film, could not be at the premiere because he was on his way to Ohio (see next headline), armed with copies of the film to give to the school board members. Nelson said that scientists should not arbitrarily rule design off the table. "Keeping science from discovering something that might be true is like having a pair of spectacles that distorts your vision," he said. "It does profound harm to science." He described how Ronald Numbers, evolutionist, once told him that design might be true, but science is a game, with the rule that scientists cannot even consider the possibility of design; "that's just the way it is," he said. (See this quote by Richard Lewontin for comparison.) Yet design is already commonly considered in archaeology, cryptography, forensics, and SETI, so why not in biology? Apparently this arbitrary rule has become a national controversy. Intelligent Design, says Nelson, is finally removing a "rule of the game" that is hindering science. If the reaction of the crowd at the premiere luncheon was any indication, Unlocking the Mystery of Life has launched a well-aimed smart weapon at the citadels of Darwinism.

We highly recommend this film. Copies are just now becoming available for $20. Visit IllustraMedia.com and order it. View it, and pass it around. Share it with your teachers, your co-workers, your church. You will have no embarrassment showing this high-quality, beautiful, amazing film to anyone, even the most ardent evolutionist.

 

 

[tortoise]

This leaves us in a quandry, because I have book right here that says, in at least seven different places, that Cthulhu was the Designer of our universe. Since Cthulhu is a truly ancient and indescribable being (definitely elder god material) with vast unimaginable power, I find this theory plausible.

But I do agree that Marduk and Dagon were perpetrators and could not possibly be responsible for designing this remarkable universe. Marduk couldn't design a working ant farm, never mind a functioning universe with lovely organic critters like us. And as for Dagon, well, only an imbecile would believe that.

But Yahweh versus Cthulhu, that's a close one.

[metacognative]

If your a math/science /engineering fella, telling me that entropy and information increase TOGETHER,
Then what you call science has lost it's way.

[Ichneumon]

I have been given multiple links of jumping "transitions" (nothing unlike differences commonly found within the horse family) and not yet any broad fossil evidence that shows life developing from one central ancestor. NONE! You are ignoring the evidence.

Do *you* even believe these excuses you give for hand-waving away the evidence?

[Doctor Stochastic]

Creationists have been intentionally misquoting Darwin on FR for some time. This continual intentional misquoting makes it difficult to take Creationists seriously.

[PatrickHenry]

I plan on reading "origin of the species" (correct?). Seriously, I don't think it will convert me.

No one is trying to "convert" you. Evolution isn't a religion. You can keep your religion and learn some evolution at the same time. And there's no need to buy it. It's available on line. Here's one site that has it:
The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Was the the same show in PBS that occured the same night that Jack Palance on "Ripley's Believe of Not" totally destroyed some fake occultists? I thought the juxtaposition was amusing.

[BMCDA]

OK, then what's your definition of information content?

[PatrickHenry]

I want fossil evidence layed out. Surely, some scientist has taken the time to do this...not artist, but scientist.

It's a big project. Lots of species, lots of fossils. They're working on it. The Tree of Life.

[Doctor Stochastic]

If your a math/science /engineering fella, telling me that entropy and information increase TOGETHER, Then what you call science has lost it's way.

Of course information and entropy increase together. You could read any of the texts on the subject. Shannon's original paper on the subject is available on the Internet (PDF format.)

[PatrickHenry]

Have you read the Bible? Any of it?

Irrelevant to a discussion of evolution, or any other science. Oh, regarding the Darwin link I gave you ... you're welcome.

[Dimensio]

Are there irrefutable historical accuracies in your book?

Irrefutable historical accuracies don't make the entire work accurate. I could write a complete work of fiction that references the JFK assasination. Just because one historical event is referenced wouldn't change the remainder of the tome.

[Dimensio]

By what means can your claims be tested?

[PatrickHenry]

I think the link I gave you was bad. Try this:
The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.