Category: News Media
Welcome News as Scholar Francis Beckwith is Granted Tenure at Baylor
We have reported about last year’s scandalous denial of tenure to Discovery Institute Fellow and noted legal scholar Francis Beckwith. (See here, here, here and here) Now we are glad to report that in a second look at the situation with the appeal process, Baylor President John Lilley has granted Beckwith tenure. World Magazine blog reports the same here. It is welcome news that academic freedom prevailed and Beckwith received what he is due.
Media Goes Ga-Ga Over Baby Australopithecine Fossil
An exciting find was recently reported as scientists discovered what may be the most complete australopithecine fossil specimen ever found. It is reported to be a toddler. Unfortunately, the media is misrepresenting this fossil as if it closely mimics humans. Consider the diagram below which comes from the Seattle Times (“Scientists Find Fossil Child from 3.3 Million Years Ago,” Thursday Sept. 21, 2006, pg. A2): Does Australopithecus afarensis really look so similar to humans? This diagram is extremely misleading. Consider a diagram from an actual scientific paper which reveals the stark differences between Australopithecus (right) and the earliest members of our genus, Homo (left): (From http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/2000/Jan00/r011000b.html covering the Hawks et al. paper) The media is calling this baby fossil “a Read More ›
Review of Francis Collins’s New Book, The Language of God
Dr. Francis Collins will, of course, be remembered as the man who mapped the human genome. In his latest book, a best-seller, the medical geneticist tackles some weighty subjects, namely the relationship between faith and science and the issue of evolution as the backdrop to his entire work. Logan Gage has a thoughtful review in the October issue of American Spectator, in which he says Collins “gives an excellent lay treatment of the argument for design in physics and cosmology,” but later “gets hung up on a common misperception about ID in biology.” Click here to read the entire review.
Shermer: “Right on, Darwin!”
Scientific American is carrying a new piece by Michael Shermer on “Why Christians and conservatives should accept evolution.” Shermer is a libertarian, agnostic Darwinist, so it is curious that he would make this argument. It reminds one of Eugenie Scott‘s lectures in churches. (Recall that they are both original signatories of Humanist Manifesto III.) But perhaps this is all the more reason to hear Shermer’s argument. After all, if ID advocates and their detractors merely speak to their natural constituencies, this controversy-that-does-not-exist will go nowhere. Shermer makes six quick arguments.
Censorship Rears Its Ugly Head in Michigan as Debate over Evolution Heats Up
It used to be that when politicians spoke up against censorship and in support of academic freedom they were applauded. Not anymore, at least in Michigan. Now if you express support for academic freedom and speak out against censorship and dogmatism, you get attacked by rabid Darwinists and their knee-jerk supporters in the mainstream media.