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Argumentum Ad Baseless Demonization: Assessing Dr. John Wise’s Response to Anika Smith and Sarah Levy
It’s disheartening (and revealing) when people have to demonize their opponents in order to argue against them. Unfortunately, SMU biology professor John Wise has chosen this approach, opening his rebuttal to Anika Smith and Sarah Levy by stating, “Deceptive tactics seem to be a recurring theme at the Discovery Institute,” and continuing for the entirety of his response to supply nothing more than a string of misdirected or misinformed ad hominem attacks. Baseless ad hominem attack 1–Of Pandas and People: Wise attacks the Of Pandas and People textbook as if it is dishonest, and as if that affects the Discovery Institute. But Wise fails to mention that the textbook was first published a year before Discovery Institute was even founded, Read More ›
What does David Brooks really think about Darwinism?
It is a rare day that I would dispute Bruce Chapman’s reading of anything. But today is one such day. Disagreeing with Ambassador Chapman’s and Richard Kirk’s interpretations of David Brooks’ recent column “The Age of Darwin,” I (perhaps mistakenly) thought that Brooks was pointing out the irony of our supposedly post-modern intellectual culture which waxes eloquently about having no grand, unifying metanarrative and at the same time bows down to the Darwinian fairytale, to borrow David Stove’s phrase. Writes Brooks:
ID & Evolution Debate at Cal Poly
Michael Shermer and Paul Nelson will meet for their third debate over intelligent design and evolution (they’ve interacted previously at the University of Alabama and Penn State) this Thursday, April 26, at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. The debate will be held in the University Union’s Chumash Auditorium and begins at 8 pm (doors open at 7:30). The event is free to Cal Poly students; $10 at the door for the general public.
A Familiar Story, with a Twist: “Confession”
Nothing is quite so refreshing in times of censorship as a good satire. Fortunately, the ID Arts blog recently highlighted “Confession,” a brief story by James Hoskins published in Number One Magazine, the literary journal at University of Missouri, where Hoskins is a student.
Kirk Answers Brooks on the Status of Darwinism in Western Culture
Has Darwin successfully replaced Marx and Freud, and, of course, the Bible, as a narrative for Western civilization? David Brooks, House Conservative at the New York Times and often a writer of real insight, apparently thinks so. (He is another example of conservatives, like George Will and Charles Krauthammer, who do not want to be bothered to actually read the works of serious Darwin critics, let alone talk with them.) Richard Kirk replies effectively to Brooks in the new American Spectator.