Pope Benedict, Reason and Evolution

The Catholic magazine, Crisis, is now online with an October article by two Discovery fellows, Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt. Their book, A Meaningful World, appeared in 2006 and forms a backdrop for their current reflections. Very much on their minds from 2006 is also the Regensburg address of Pope Benedict–not the Muslim comments, but the references to Reason. It is another and interesting take on all the atheist fantasy tracts coming out of Darwin-land these days. Look at nature, Wiker and Witt say, but also look at the philosophy of science, the nature of genius, the beauty of mathematics and even works of art.

Banned Item of the Year: Dr. Robert Marks’ Evolutionary Informatics Website

Last year John West nominated Of Pandas and People as Banned Book of the Year after the ACLU tried to have it banned from Dover Science Classrooms. We are again celebrating Banned Books Week, and it is fitting to note that Baylor University is also observing Banned Book Week. Baylor’s Banned Books Week events page states, “What do authors Harper Lee, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck and J.K. Rowling have in common? They have all written books that were challenged and banned by libraries in the United States.” Although his work in question here is not a book, Dr. Robert Marks also has something in common with those authors: someone has banned his ideas. As we have recounted extensively here Read More ›

ALT + CTRL + SCOPES = New York Times Bias

CSC senior fellow Jay Richards used to joke that reporters covering evolution simply sit down at their keyboards and type ALT + CTRL + SCOPES, and out pops a complete story that simply reiterates the false storyline that the primary challenge to evolution is a religious one, just as was the case during the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial in the early days of the 20th century. I laughed when he told me, because I was familiar with how often that bogus storyline was repeated by reporters, and the idea of a computer macro being used to deploy it was funny. It’s not so funny now, though. It looks like the New York Times might indeed have some sort of macro Read More ›

Credibility Gap: Baylor Denies Robert Marks’ Situation Has Anything to do with ID

The Waco Tribune reported that “Baylor vice president for marketing and communications John Barry … denied that the matter has been drawn out because the content is related to intelligent design.” Does Baylor University actually expect us to believe that this has nothing to do with ID? William Dembski reports that the initial e-mail sent from Baylor administrator, Dean Kelley, to Dr. Marks explicitly stated that people were complaining about Robert Marks’s website precisely because it dealt with ID! Here’s what Dean Kelley wrote: “I have received several concerned messages this week about an interview and web site dealing with evolutionary computing associated ID. Please disconnect this web site immediately and Cheryl will arrange a time for us to meet Read More ›