Theory of 'intelligent design' isn't ready for natural selection

To Seattle area residents the struggle over how evolution is taught in public high schools may seem a topic from the distant past or a distant place.

Don't bet on it. One nearby episode in the controversy has ended, but a far-reaching, Seattle-based agenda to overthrow Darwin is gaining momentum.

Roger DeHart, a high-school science teacher who was the center of an intense curriculum dispute a few years ago in Skagit County, is leaving the state. He plans to teach next year in a private Christian school in California.

The fuss over DeHart's use of "intelligent design" theory in his classes at Burlington-Edison High School was merely a tiny blip in a grand scheme by promoters of the theory.

The theory is essentially this: Life is so complex that it can only be the result of design by an intelligent being.

As unlikely as it may seem, Seattle is ground zero for the intelligent-design agenda, thanks to the Seattle-based Discovery Institute and its Center for Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC).

Headed by one-time Seattle City councilman and former Reagan administration official Bruce Chapman, the Discovery Institute is best known locally for its savvy insights on topics ranging from regionalism, transportation, defense policy and the economy.

In the late '90s, the institute jumped into the nation's culture wars with the CRSC. It may be little known to local folks, but it has caught the attention of conservative religious organizations around the country.

It's bound to get more attention in the future. Just last month, a documentary, Icons of Evolution, premiered at Seattle Pacific University. The video is based on a book of the same name by CRSC fellow Jonathan Wells. It tells the story of DeHart, along with the standard critique of Darwinian evolution that fuels the argument for intelligent design.

The video is part of the anti-Darwin agenda. Cruise the Internet on this topic and you'll find something called the Wedge Strategy, which credits the CRSC with a five-year plan for methodically promoting intelligent design and a 20-year goal of seeing "design theory permeate our religious, cultural, moral and political life."

Last week, Chapman tried to put a little distance between his institute and the "wedge" document. He said it was a fund-raising tool used four years ago. "I don't disagree with it," he told me, "but it's not our program." (I'll let the folks who gave money based on the proposed strategy ponder what that means.)

Program or not, it is clear that the CRSC is intent on bringing down what one Center fellow calls "scientific imperialism." Surely Stephen Jay Gould already is spinning in his grave. Gould, one of America's most widely respected scientists and a prolific essayist, died just two weeks ago. Among his many fine books is one I kept by my bedside for many weeks after it was published in 1999, "Rock of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life."

In "Rock of Ages," Gould presents an elegant case for the necessary co-existence of science and religion. Rather than conflicting, as secular humanists insist, or blending, as intelligent-design proponents would have it, science and religion exist in distinct domains, what Gould called magisteria (domains of teaching authority).

The domain of science is the empirical universe; the domain of religion is the moral, ethical and spiritual meaning of life.

Gould was called America's most prominent evolutionist, yet he too, was a critic of Darwin's theory, and the object of some controversy within the scientific community. There's a lesson in that: In the domain of science there is plenty of room for disagreement and alternative theories without bringing God into the debate.

I have no quarrel with those who believe in intelligent design. It has appeal as a way to grasp the unknowable why of our existence. But it is only a belief. When advocates push intelligent design as a legitimate scientific alternative to Darwinian explanations of evolution, it is time to push back.

That's what they continue to do in Skagit County. Last week, the Burlington-Edison School Board rejected on a 4-1 vote a proposal to "encourage" the teaching of intelligent design. Bravo.

Despite proponents' claims of scientific validity, intelligent design is little more than religion-based creationism wrapped in critiques of Darwin and all dressed up in politically correct language. All for the ultimate goal — placing a Christian God in science classrooms of America's public high schools.

So, what is your theory as to the apparent progression as evidenced in the fossils discovered so far? Does God pop in every so often and zap new, more complex species into existence? You see, this is where most creationists stutter and blubber; they are perfectly happy to try to poke holes in the only theory that accounts for the evidence, but they refuse to give a hypothesis that does a better job at explaining the evidence than the theory of evolution (creationists are a bit like anarchists in this manner -- they want to tear down the existing order, but they have nothing with which to replace it).

Once in awhile we get a hit-and-run post by a creationist that says basically, "God did it like it says in the Bible and the fossil record is the result of the Flood." These folks never stick around for the resulting barrage of posts showing the untenableness (?) of such a position. However, one must hand it to them -- they do state straight up what they believe.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have medved, bless his heart. Medved believes we are the result of a genetic experiment by the inhabitants of the mysterious 12 planet at a time when the Earth orbited Saturn. He also believes the Sun is a big ball of electricity and that gravity is an electrical phenomenon. Any really way-out-there theories on biology or cosmology might make their way into ol' Ted's theory-of-everything except that Ted hasn't updated his thoughts in at least seven years. One thing you can say about Ted, though, he puts his ideas out there for the whole world to laugh at -- a coward he ain't.

The Blues Brothers, on the other hand, make a habit of hiding their true beliefs; it took close to a year to pin Little Boy Blue down on a definition of evolution and even now he adds new clauses to the theory that can't be found in the scientific literature, then calling everyone who disagrees with him "liars" or "slime." Big Blue spends his time making cryptic remarks, parsing his opposition's wording and arguing the meaning of those words. Neither has offered a Blue's Clue as to what he believes to be the truth, probably because each knows that his ideas have as much chance of being accepted by rational human beings as that of a snowball surviving the Netherworld.

Truthfully, the evolution/creation debate has devolved from a war of ideas to being a last-ditch guerrilla rear-guard action by a fanatical creationist resistance who do not know what they are fighting for, but do know what they are fighting against.

Leaving out the notion of mysterians on the mysterious "12 planet", is there any evidence of genetic engineering on this planet in past ages?

Read the following and you be the judge:

Henry Gee
Monday February 12, 2001
The Guardian

The potentially-poisonous Japanese fugu fish has achieved notoriety, at least among scientists who haven't eaten any, because it has a genome that can be best described as "concise". There is no "junk" DNA, no waste, no nonsense. You get exactly what it says on the tin. This makes its genome very easy to deal with in the laboratory: it is close to being the perfect genetic instruction set. Take all the genes you need to make an animal and no more, stir, and you'd get fugu. Now, most people would hardly rate the fugu fish as the acme of creation. If it were, it would be eating us, and not the other way round. But here is a paradox. The human genome probably does not contain significantly more genes than the fugu fish. What sets it apart is - and there is no more succinct way to put this - rubbish.

The human genome is more than 95% rubbish. Fewer than 5% of the 3.2bn As, Cs, Gs and Ts that make up the human genome are actually found in genes. It is more litter-strewn than any genome completely sequenced so far. It is believed to contain just under 31,780 genes, only about half as many again as found in the simple roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans (19,099 genes): yet in terms of bulk DNA content, the human genome is almost 30 times the size.A lot is just rubbish, plain and simple. But at least half the genome is rubbish of a special kind - transposable elements. These are small segments of DNA that show signs of having once been the genomes of independent entities. Although rather small, they often contain sequences that signal cellular machinery to transcribe them (that is, to switch them on). They may also contain genetic instructions for enzymes whose function is to make copies and insert the copies elsewhere in the genome. These transposable elements litter the human genome in their hundreds of thousands. Many contain genes for an enzyme called reverse transcriptase - essential for a transposable element to integrate itself into the host DNA.

The chilling part is that reverse transcriptase is a key feature of retroviruses such as HIV-1, the human immunodeficiency virus. Much of the genome itself - at least half its bulk - may have consisted of DNA that started out, perhaps millions of years ago, as independent viruses or virus-like entities. To make matters worse, hundreds of genes, containing instructions for at least 223 proteins, seem to have been imported directly from bacteria. Some are responsible for features of human metabolism otherwise hard to explain away as quirks of evolution - such as our ability to metabolise psychotropic drugs. Thus, monoamine oxidase is involved in metabolising alcohol.

If the import of bacterial genes for novel purposes (such as drug resistance) sounds disturbing and familiar, it should - this is precisely the thrust of much research into the genetic modification of organisms in agriculture or biotechnology.

So natural-born human beings are, indeed, genetically modified. Self-respecting eco-warriors should never let their children marry a human being, in case the population at large gets contaminated with exotic genes!One of the most common transposable elements in the human genome is called Alu - the genome is riddled with it. What the draft genome now shows quite clearly is that copies of Alu tend to cluster where there are genes. The density of genes in the genome varies, and where there are more genes, there are more copies of Alu. Nobody knows why, yet it is consistent with the idea that Alu has a positive benefit for genomes. To be extremely speculative, it could be that a host of very similar looking Alu sequences in gene-rich regions could facilitate the kind of gene-shuffling that peps up natural genetic variation, and with that, evolution. This ties in with the fact that human genes are, more than most, fragmented into a series of many exons, separated by small sections of rubbish called introns - rather like segments of a TV programme being punctuated by commercials.

The gene for the protein titin, for example, is divided into a record-breaking 178 exons, all of which must be patched together by the gene-reading machinery before the finished protein can be assembled. This fragmentation allows for alternative versions of proteins to be built from the same information, by shuffling exons around. Genomes with less fragmented genes may have a similar number of overall genes - but a smaller palette of ways to use this information. Transposable elements might have helped unlock the potential in the human genome, and could even have contributed to the fragmentation of genes in the first place (some introns are transposable elements by another name). This, at root, may explain why human beings are far more complex than roundworms or fruit flies. If it were not for trashy transposable elements such as Alu, it might have been more difficult to shuffle genes and parts of genes, creating alternative ways of reading the "same" genes. It is true that the human genome is mostly rubbish, but it explains what we are, and why we are who we are, and not lying on the slab in a sushi bar.

• Deep Time by Henry Gee will be published shortly in paperback by Fourth Estate. He is a senior editor of Nature. Related articles

There is no "junk" DNA, no waste, no nonsense.

One of these days, Ted, you'll learn to do a Google search before posting.

From Energy Science News:

The Fugu genome was chosen because it contains essentially the same genes and regulatory sequences as the human genome, but it carries those genes and regulatory sequences in approximately only 400 million bases as compared to the 3 billion bases that make up human DNA. With far less so-called "junk DNA" to sort through, finding genes and controlling sequences in the Fugu genome should be a much easier task. The information can then be used to help identify these same elements in the human genome.

Almost the exact same wording can be found in this Institute for Systems Biology article.

Note that these articles says there is "far less," not "no" junk DNA. This means junk DNA is present in the Fugu. So, while the Fugu is a genetically compact little wonder, it is a far cry from being your proof that life on this planet is genetically engineered.

Also, your contention that life on this planet is the result of genering, and your contention the Fugu fish is proof brings up a rather disconcerting proposition: the Fugu accomplishes in 400 million base pairs what it takes a human 3 billion base pairs; does this mean man is an early, failed experiment and the Fugu fish is the penultimate creation?

I could have sworn you'd mentioned the 12th planet in one of your previous postings. However, I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. I did find some pages on the 12th planet (Nibiru), and discovered its cosmology is only tangentially compatible with your version of catastrophism. However, for the rest of the crevo crew, I'll post the most informative of the Nibiru websites I could find. It's at least as entertaining as Saturnism (though not nearly as entertaining as TimeCube).

The Anunnaki and the 12th Planet of Nibiru

"And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth... That the sons of God
saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God
came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men
which were of old, men of renown." (Genesis 6:1-2,4.)

According to Zecharia Sitchin, there is a 12th planet in our solar system. This planet is called Nibiru, and is situated somewhere beyond Pluto (Planet "X"). This planet, unlike the other planets in our solar system, has an elliptical orbit and moves clockwise rather than counterclockwise. It was a collision of Nibiru with another planet in our solar system (Maldek) which created Earth. Nibiru's orbit passes thorough our solar system only once every 3,600 years, which is equal to one Nibiru year. Nibiru is inhabited by the Anunnaki (the Nefilim/giants in the Bible), "Those Who From Heaven To Earth Came". They landed on Earth, colonized it, mining the Earth for gold and other minerals, establishing a spaceport in what today is the Iraq-Iran area, and lived in a kind of idealistic society as a small colony. They returned when Earth was more populated and genetically interfered in our indigenous DNA to create a slave-race to work their mines, farms, and other enterprises in Sumeria, which was the so-called Cradle of Civilization in out-dated pre-1980s school history texts. They created Man, Homo Sapiens, through genetic manipulation with themselves and ape man Homo Erectus.

"If the Anunnaki created us, who created the Anunnaki?"

Enlil and Enki, two governors of Earth sent from Nibiru to rule Earth, were responsible for all this power and control. They gave the ancient Sumerians their architectural, agricultural, astronomical, and cultural training in exchange for labor and "gifts to the gods" in the form of a lot of mining, food, and material goods. Therefore the Nibirians themselves no longer had to physically work on Earth. The Nibirians disguised themselves as fish-humans, lion-humans, bird-humans, and other creatures to get the people to worship them as token gods, something that Moses violently opposed. Later, the Pleiadians, who were involved in Egypt's 3rd Golden Age, attempted to end the worship of the many Nibiruan and Sirian gods in these lands with the one-god concept. However, wars always resulted from these differences of belief systems, and the Sirians and Nibirians thrived on all the humans fighting each other instead of the gods who were the real enemies behind the scenes.

Every 3,600 years a major event occurred on Earth that was well-documented by ancient and modern historians. The Great Flood of religious referred to an attempt to destroy the slave races of humanity by the Nibirians because they have rebelled against their leaders(gods) from Nibiru. Enlil and Enki were involved in a heated dispute over whether to destroy or preserve the slave races and this power struggle resulted in ancient wars.

This controversial theory is based on Sitchin's interpretation of ancient Sumerian texts, with its origin in the Bible, in the book of Genisis. Sitchin has spent decades as an archeologist and historian in the Middle East, researching ancient writings from the Sumerian civilization into a 5-part paperback series, 'The Earth Chronicles', documenting the Nibirian interaction on Earth in ancient times. If you want the truth, read this series. It is so well documented it has been given great reviews in the establishment news media, something Von Däniken never attained.

ZECHARIA SITCHIN's work is dazzling, credible, provocative, exciting and highly important in finding our real past, and therefore our real future. It is based on the premise that mythology is not fanciful but the repository of ancient memories; that the Bible ought to be read literally as a historic/scientific document; and that ancient civilizations were the product of knowledge brought to Earth by the Anunnaki, "Those Who from Heaven to Earth Came."

One astounding assertion after another has made Sitchin the most controversial writer of our time because he challenges everything we thought we knew about human civilization. It's easy to dismiss Sitchin's research in the same way that other people dismiss UFO's, Eric Von Daniken and countless other researchers who claimed to have found evidence for extraterrestrial visitors to this planet. But Sitchin is well aware of this devil's advocacy, and vaporizes the arguments of skeptics with solid scholarship, including the most rigorous translations of Sumerian text, Vedic tales and excerpts from the original Greek and Hebrew versions of the Bible. This ability to translate many languages is no small achievement. Those of us who will never possess the ability to decipher 6,000-year-old clay tablets must trust that Sitchin has done his job accurately. But his sources reveal an utter integrity, including the finest, most respected citations and references imaginable.

Zecharia Sitchin was born in Russia and raised in Palestine, where he acquired a profound knowledge of modern and ancient Hebrew, other Semitic and European languages, the Old Testament, and the history and archeology of the Near East. He is one of the few scholars who is able to read and understand Sumerian. Sitchin attended and graduated from the University of London, majoring in economic history. A leading journalist and editor in Israel for many years, he now lives and writes in New York. His books have been widely translated, converted to Braille for the blind, and featured on radio and television.

Intervju med Zecharia Sitchin

Zecharia Sitchin's Earth Chronicles

The Earth Chronicles: Time Chart compiled by Dave Schultz

Impressions of The Earth Chronicles by Joseph W. Schultz

Zecharia Sitchin - A balanced critique by Alan Alford

Resources: The Sitchin Index
	   Zecharia Sitchin
           Zecharia Sitchin (David Icke)
           Earth Portals: The Return of the Anunnaki
	   Divine Encounters
	   The 12th Planet FAQ
	   Zecharia Sitchin (UFOMind)
    	
           Everything You Know Is Wrong - Human Origins from Lloyd Pye
	   Face II at Cydonia on Mars: The Anunnaki?
    	   The Book Of Enoch
	   UFOs and the Bible
       	   Emperor Anu & the Flying Saurians
   	   " NIBIRU ". The 12th Planet?
	   The Gods of Eden
	   Breaking the Godspell
	   The Planet Nibiru	    	   
	   Nibiru
           'The Pleiadian Agenda' by Barbara Hand Clow
	   Review of the 12th Planet (THE KALEIDOSCOPE JOURNAL)
    	   Inanna Returns
	   Nibiruan Council Home Page
    	   Sumerian Mythology FAQ	
	   The 12th Planet (The Edge Forum)
	   The Center for Interplanetary Judaism

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