Month: December 2009
The Enchantment of Life
Let’s talk about a word I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: enchantment. As often happens to me, and probably to you too, a number of things going on in my life have converged to get me contemplating a particular idea that I hadn’t thought much about before. One is reading Richard Dawkins’s bestselling The Greatest Show on Earth. The famous evangelizing atheist seeks to make the case for Darwinian evolution, defending it against the critiques of naïve creationists and other amateurs whom Dawkins cites and argues with contemptuously — for example, a lawyer who runs a conservative website, a lady who’s an anti-abortion activist, and a guy with an Internet ministry. He meanwhile ignores intelligent design theorists with Read More ›
How to Make Eighteen Equal Twelve
Occidental College professor Donald Prothero, who along with Michael Shermer debated Stephen Meyer and Richard Sternberg on November 30, complains that folks at the Discovery Institute are now attacking him with “everything they have.” Prothero writes on the NCSE’s blog Panda’s Thumb, “Normally, it is not worth dignifying their garbage with a response,” but in this case he wants people “to get the straight facts.”According to Prothero: When evo-devo came up in Monday’s debate, Meyer and Sternberg began arguing with each other about reconstructions of a 12-winged dragonfly that I had published in my book. They tried to get a laugh by claiming that such a bug has never been found. As usual, they completely missed the point of that Read More ›
World Magazine Announces “2009 Daniel of the Year”: Stephen C. Meyer
Stephen Meyer has already made year-end lists with Signature in the Cell, an Amazon bestselling science book and one of Times Literary Supplement’s books of the year for 2009, but the latest news goes far beyond that: Stephen Meyer has been named World Magazine’s “Daniel of the Year” for 2009: This fall Meyer came out with a full account of what science has learned in recent decades: Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (Harper One, 2009) shows that the cell is incredibly complex and the code that directs its functions wonderfully designed. His argument undercuts macroevolution, the theory that one kind of animal over time evolves into a very different kind. Meyer thus garners media Read More ›
After Getting Waxed In Debate After Debate Shermer Still Doesn’t Get It
Michael Shermer has now written about the debate he had with Stephen Meyer and Richard Sternberg earlier this week. He’s far classier than his debate partner, Donald Prothero, but alas not all that much smarter. His comment here is basically just the same as his rebuttal was at the debate. It didn’t fly then, and it doesn’t fly now. You’d think that with all the discussion going on since the debate that he would have tried to come up with something a little stronger. Please, listen to the debate here. Shermer trotted out the same tired arguments, and Meyer corrected him. He continues to misrepresent the argument made by intelligent design proponents. every ID argument goes like this:
Avi Davis Responds to Donald Prothero on Beverly Hills Debate
After the Darwinists lost the debate in Beverly Hills, Donald Prothero — the man who cites imaginary eighteen-winged dragonflies as evidence for evolution — tried to salvage his reputation by attacking debate moderator Avi Davis for setting up an unfair encounter. As always, thoughtful readers might want to consider listening to the debate and judging themselves who won and just how fair the battle was. Courtesy of the American Freedom Alliance website, you can listen to the entire debate here. As the moderator of the debate, AFA’s Avi Davis responded to Dr. Prothero’s slurs in an email, which he gave us permission to post here at ENV: Dear Professor Prothero: Your posting BELOW on Panda’s Thumb has been forwarded to Read More ›