Free Republic

August 23, 2006 A recent New York Times story described an experiment involving two colonies of rats: The first were bred for tameness. The second colony, "bred from exactly the same stock," was wired to be aggressive. The results were described as the "sweetest cartoon animal" and "the most evil super-villain." Whereas the tame rats poked their noses through the cage to be petted, the others "hurl themselves screaming toward their bars."The researchers' goal in breeding lovable and villainous rats was to understand how human beings domesticated previously wild animals like horses and cattle. They hypothesize that the characteristic that...

There have been a couple books that have been turning points in the development of design theory. Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Darwin's Black Box and The Creator and the Cosmos are all such books. From what I have seen, Creation as Science is the next groundbreaking book. It does what other design books have failed to do, formulate a testable scientific model for design. The author began this in Origins of Life and Who Was Adam?, but here it is the focus of the book. **** Creation As Science: A Testable Model Approach to End the Creation/Evolution Wars Development...

There's a couple of problems with this "missing link" that recent articles have been promoting. Some of the articles also mention this new "link" is "like Archaeopteryx, the famous fossil that bridged the gap between reptiles and birds." Here's the problem with these fossils labeled as "transitionals" : It has long been predicted that fossils should reveal many organisms “in transition” between different types. What the record does reveal is a history of mass extinctions and sudden appearances of new complex types. After each extinction (brought about by various mechanisms such as impact events), hundreds and sometimes thousands of life...

WorldNetDaily reports that 514 scientists with doctoral degrees have signed a statement expressing skepticism about Darwin's theory of evolution. The list include 154 biologists, 76 chemists and 63 physicists who hold doctorates in biological sciences, physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, computer science and related disciplines. The statement, says the report -- which includes endorsements 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 made in PBS's "Evolution" series which claimed "virtually every scientist in the world believes the theory [evolution] to...

Note: This is the fourth part of a multi-part series. You can read the first three installments here and here and here. Some in the newsmedia have been attempting to portray Judge Jones as a conservative Republican who is devoutly religious. Frankly, I don't care whether Judge Jones is either conservative or religious. My concern is whether he is fair and accurate as a judge. But I do object to the media's transparent attempt to reinvent Judge Jones in order to supply a veneer of credibility to his incredibly biased decision. The media are cultivating the impression that Judge...

Note: This is the second part of a multi-part series. You can read the first installment here. It's becoming glaringly apparent that Judge Jones was incredibly sloppy with the purported findings of "facts" in his lengthy 139-page judicial opinion. Time and again, Judge Jones makes assertions in his opinion that are unambiguously factually wrong--even though the correct information was a part of the official record before him. It is beginning to look like he didn't even bother to read or consider the information and arguments submitted by the side he disagreed with. Here are some of the more egregious examples....

The following press release has angered some ID supporters. It's amazing that some ID "guys," after taking so much from Darwin Fundies, can't take criticism from within their own camp. Isn't this one of the ID supporters' complaints against evolutionists? That they ignore criticisms? While ID has accomplished a great deal in showing the flaws with evolution and how to detect design, they have put little emphasis on creating a testable model. In the past they ignored RTB because it’s “too religious.” Now they are mad because RTB has raised the scientific bar. Give me a break. **** Creation Scientists...

Competing Designs Tuesday's ruling by a federal judge in Pennsylvania, disparaging intelligent design as a religion-based and therefore false science, raises an important question: If ID is bogus because many of its theorists have religious beliefs to which the controversial critique of Darwinism lends support, then what should we say about Darwinism itself? After all, many proponents of Darwinian evolution have philosophical beliefs to which Darwin lends support. "We conclude that the religious nature of Intelligent Design would be readily apparent to an objective observer, adult or child," wrote Judge John E. Jones III in his decision, Kitzmiller v. Dover,...

Tuesday's ruling by a federal judge in Pennsylvania, disparaging intelligent design as a religion-based and therefore false science, raises an important question: If ID is bogus because many of its theorists have religious beliefs to which the controversial critique of Darwinism lends support, then what should we say about Darwinism itself? After all, many proponents of Darwinian evolution have philosophical beliefs to which Darwin lends support."We conclude that the religious nature of Intelligent Design would be readily apparent to an objective observer, adult or child," wrote Judge John E. Jones III in his decision, Kitzmiller v. Dover, which rules that...

Judge Jones Follows ACLU, Ignores Contrary Facts CSC Senior Fellow David K. DeWolf has provided us this first, short analysis of yesterday's decision in the Dover School Board case. DeWolf is a professor of law at Gonzaga University and the author of a briefing book for public school administrators, Teaching the Controversy: Darwinism, Design and the Public School Curriculum. In his opinion in the Kitzmiller case, Judge Jones accepted virtually every argument made by the ACLU. To be fair, the ACLU did present testimony supporting the plaintiffs' claim that the school board had acted for religious motives in adopting the...

One of biggest paradigm shifts in origins in recent years is when genetics and morphological studies began to show that Neanderthals and humans weren’t related. Sure, a lot of Darwin Fundies around here don’t know that because they get all of their science from the talking point lists of their Fundamentalist Leaders. So this is probably a big shock too, science is also showing that man is not related to any hominids including apes. In the groundbreaking book, Who was Adam?, biochemist Fazale Rana examines the scientific research that is overturning Darwinian Fundamentalism. Here, using peer-reviewed research that the Darwin...