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Codevilla: “Darwinism corrupted Northern and Southern thinkers equally”
Angelo Codevilla’s new book The Ruling Class: How They Corrupted America and What We Can Do About It has been stirring enviable attention since it first appeared as an essay in The American Spectator. “Magnificent,” writes David Goldman at First Things. “I felt like I had just plunged head-first into 50-degree water.” New York Times blogger Tom Kuntz says: Few articles have resonated with conservatives this year as much as Angelo M. Codevilla’s essay…It says America is divided between an elite, government-dependent “ruling class” — Republicans and Democrats alike — and a majority “country class”: families, businesses and institutions not dependent on subsidies and privileges. Excerpt from the book: Human equality made sense to our Founding Fathers, because they believed Read More ›
Response to John Wise
[Note: This response was co-authored by Stephen Meyer, Paul Nelson, Rick Sternberg and Jonathan Wells, who each presented at the “4 Nails in Darwin’s Coffin” event at SMU. Doug Axe, who also presented, responded here.] On Thursday, September 23, 2010, following a showing of the film Darwin’s Dilemma, we presented a program of short talks in the Hughes-Trigg Theatre at Southern Methodist University (SMU). We argued that the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution has not solved these related problems: The origin of novel protein folds (talk by Axe) The origin of anatomical novelties (talk by Sternberg) The origin of animal body plans (talks by Nelson and Wells) SMU biology lecturer John Wise attended the event – or so it appears, because Read More ›
Intelligent Design as State of the Art
[NOTE: Today we welcome a new contributing writer to Evolution News & Views, Guy Coe. Mr. Coe graduated from the University of California at Davis with a B.A. in Rhetoric and a minor in political science. As a lifelong student of argumentation and logical analysis, his career has taken him from Executive Salesman, to News Reporter, to U.S. Senate Communications Aide, to Tour Guide, to Retail Management, to father of a budding teenager, “where all communications logic begins to break down.” With a lifelong interest in the issues of intelligent design and origins theories, his status as “interested layperson” allows him to continue to follow the evidence where it leads, while showing proper respect for the lifelong dedication displayed by Read More ›
Evolution Readiness Project Promotes Made-Up Stories about Darwin and the Galápagos Finches
When it comes to teaching young children about Darwin, the NSF’s $2 million Evolution Readiness Project recommends resources that give him no end of praise. One of their recommended resources, the book Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution, calls “the theory of evolution … one of the great accomplishments of science.” One of the prime examples of evolution in the book is the classic Galápagos finch beak story. Darwin, we are told, visited the Galápagos islands and “found a [sic] unusual group of finches” which “gave Darwin important clues about the way evolution works.” Supposedly Darwin “noticed that on each islands the birds’ beaks were shaped differently” and “Darwin believed that small changes in the birds over many generations Read More ›
Science Reporters Should Quit Crying “Life!”
Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press is reporting that astronomers have discovered an extrasolar planet in the “goldilocks” zone of its star. That is, the planet appears to be in the circumstellar habitable zone where water can persist at liquid temperatures on its surface. The planet, named Gliese 581g, is a mere 20 light years away from Earth. The article is referring to the circumstellar habitable zone, though presumably it is also in the galactic habitable zone since it’s so close to Earth. That means that Gliese 581g may have two of the major factors needed to make a planet hospitable to life. Unfortunately, we’ve seen hundreds of reports like this, so I now read them with a bit of Read More ›