A senior research scientist at the National Center for Biotechnology Information has published a paper that claims: “The relationships between major groups within an emergent new class of biological entities are hard to decipher and do not seem to fit the tree pattern that, following Darwin’s original proposal, remains the dominant description of biological evolution.” The author is Eugene Koonin of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, and National Institutes of Health, and the paper is entitled: “The Biological Big Bang model for the major transitions in evolution.” It’s now available on-line. Koonin is widely regarded and is certainly at the center of the scientific establishment. So it is no surprise that the orthodox Darwinian priesthood Read More ›

Dr. Alan Packer, Senior Editor of Nature Genetics, contacted me recently and asked to publicly comment on my recent post on Evolution News and Views entitled Spit-Brain Research. My post was critical of a press release about an article published in Nature Genetics . I am grateful for his observations. My reply follows in my next post. Michael Egnor has been kind enough to allow me to contribute a comment on his recent post ‘Spit-Brain Research’. The post discussed work by George Perry, Nathaniel Dominy and colleagues, published in a paper entitled “Diet and the evolution of human amylase gene copy number”. As one of the editors at Nature Genetics, where the paper was published, I was pleased to see Read More ›

In this video clip, Richard Weikart delivers a presentation based on his book From Darwin to Hitler. Weikart explains that Darwin’s ideas about species competition not only inspired eugenics movements in Germany and the United States, but also influenced intellectuals like Friedrich Hellwald to view brutal human conflicts as a natural part of the human struggle to survive. In short, Darwinian principles greatly undermined notions about the value of human life. This DVD is available from Access Research Network.

When it comes to teaching intelligent design in social studies classes, not science classes, mind you, but social studies, ID critics were for it before they were against it. Their strategy of attack has been simple: equate ID with creationism because creationism isn’t allowed in science classes. Thus, for years we’ve heard things like: “it may be appropriate to discuss these beliefs in a comparative religion or social studies classroom”; and “to present it as a valid alternative to evolution in a science class (as opposed to teaching about it in a social studies class) is unconstitutional.” The Darwin only lobby group National Center for Science Education published a piece advocating exactly this approach in 2004: Elementary teachers have backbones, Read More ›