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Watch Stephen Meyer Talk On Intelligent Design Live From Sao Paulo, Brazil At 3PM Today
Stephen Meyer is in Brazil this week at the “Intelligent Design: Science and Religion” conference at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Sao Paulo, one of Brazil’s oldest and most prestigious universities. He speaks today at 3:00PM PST (7:00PM in Sao Paolo) about Signature in The Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design.The Symposium lectures are being transmitted live on the university website and you can watch Dr. Meyer’s lecture this afternoon there. Once on that page click on the Symposium logo to stream the speeches in real time. Also in attendance at the conference is University of Idaho biologist Scott Minnich, who spoke this morning about “Irreducible Complexity and the Bacterial Flagellar Motor: Assessment of Recent Controversies”. On Wednesday at Read More ›
The ACLU Has a History of Advocating Disparate Treatment for Intelligent Design
In my prior post, I critiqued ACLU-affiliated law professor Gary Williams for claiming that David Coppedge’s case “probably won’t have a shot in court.” If Coppedge has no case, then Mr. Williams must be saying that an employee discussing a matter relevant to the workplace and that is not prohibited by any employer policy–in a non-disruptive fashion–can be targeted when other employees expressing different views about the same topic are not penalized. But this is exactly what happened at JPL, a taxpayer funded entity: JPL has no policy against talking about intelligent design (ID), and permits employees to express viewpoints that are hostile towards ID, but when an employee expresses pro-ID speech, he’s suddenly harassed, investigated, demoted, and told to Read More ›
Response to Michael Tkacz’s Critique of ID
In my previous installment, I discussed St. Thomas’s views of creation and his understanding of how God interacts with the world. The subject could easily fill a long book, of course, but I hope to have provided enough to serve adequately as background for evaluating the criticisms of ID from a few Thomists. One such Thomist is Gonzaga University philosopher Michael Tkacz, who wrote an article criticizing ID in This Rock magazine, published by Catholic Answers, back in 2008. I read both This Rock and the Catholic Answers website frequently. Both are generally very reliable, orthodox sources of information. So the piece would never have seen the light of day if it had been called: “Why God Is Only Allowed Read More ›
Is Pro-Intelligent Design Speech During Work Hours “Not Included” in Protections Against Discrimination?
In a recent post I explained why David Coppedge is alleging religious discrimination in his lawsuit against NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for shutting down his pro-intelligent design speech, even though intelligent design (ID) is science, not religion. In the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Professor Gary Williams of Loyola Law School (and former head of the Southern California ACLU) argued that even if ID is religion (or, as in Coppedge’s case, ID is labeled religion by JPL), that Coppedge’s lawsuit is weak: Certain kinds of religious activity are protected if they are not intrusive – such as wearing certain religious garb – but speech during work hours is not included, he said. So even if intelligent design is viewed as Read More ›
Coppedge Meets Kafka
When I first read the complaint filed in the David Coppedge case against NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I had a sense of déjà vu.