Darwin Under Fire

A review by James M. Kushiner  July/August 2004 – Touchstone mag In order of appearance: By Design: Science and the Search for Godby Larry WithamEncounter Books, 2003(248 pages; $24.95, hardcover) Science and Evidence for Design in the Universeby Michael J. Behe, William A. Dembski, and Stephen C. MeyerIgnatius Press, 2000(234 pages; $12.95, paperback) Doubts About Darwin: A History of Intelligent Designby Thomas WoodwardBaker Books, 2003(303 pages; $19.99, hardcover) Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincingedited by William A. DembskiISI Books, 2004(366 pages; $18.00, paperback) Darwin’s God: Evolution and the Problem of Evilby Cornelius G. HunterBrazos Press, 2001(192 pages; $12.99, hardcover) … Continue reading Darwin Under Fire

Underwater Paleozoic Landscape

Artwork of underwater Paleozoic landscape, Burgess Shale (535 million years ago). Opabinia, hallucigenia, wiwaxia, pikaia.  by Publiphoto – 2022 Artwork of underwater Paleozoic landscape, Burgess Shale (535 million years ago). Opabinia, hallucigenia, wiwaxia, pikaia. Palaeozoic Vertebrates Poster by Christian Jegou Publiphoto Diffusion/ Science Photo Library The Cambrian Infographic of the multicellular organisms that inhabited the Earth in the Cambrian period.  by Album   Supposed Evolution of Humankind Computer graphics about the evolution of Humankind from Australopithecus to Homo Sapiens (from 4 million years to 150,000 ago).  by Album Continue reading Underwater Paleozoic Landscape

The Naked Emperor: Darwinism Exposed

by Antony Latham, MD My cmnt: I purchased this book in 2014 and have read and reread it several times – yes, it is that good and informative. It is written on the undergraduate level and is not overly technical while still providing details to make his points. I recommend this to any of my readers interested in the evolution-Creation debate but more specifically to those who want an overview for the nonspecialist of why Darwinism has no clothes but is still paraded about by atheists and the Left as (like everything they believe) a mighty emperor in regal clothing … Continue reading The Naked Emperor: Darwinism Exposed

An Ode to Two Years of Unified Democratic Governance

It’s hard to put into words just how bad, how horrible, how devastating to America these two illegitimate years of O’Biden have been. This senile, old, vile fool could only have been elected by blind, partisan Marxist democrats and by cheating through election fraud gotten away with by using the excuse of Covid-19. Under President Trump we had the best economy – for everyone: blacks, Hispanics, women and children – in 60 years plus low inflation, low fuel prices, low unemployment and high labor participation rates. We were respected by our allies and feared by our enemies. We had achieved … Continue reading An Ode to Two Years of Unified Democratic Governance

Worlds Without End

Marvel comics, quantum physics, and the secrets of the cosmos. by Spencer A. Klavan – Summer 2022 – Claremont Review of Books The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is the most successful franchise in movie history. So far, Marvel Studios (a subsidiary of Disney) has produced 29 titles—from Iron Man in 2008 to Thor: Love and Thunder this year. Collectively, the movies have grossed over $26 billion worldwide. That’s before factoring in the TV shows, video games, theme park rides, merchandise, and all the other movies scheduled for production in years to come. These films have caused a cultural and economic … Continue reading Worlds Without End

Fearfully and wonderfully made

ESSAY | Elegant molecular machines at the center of life belie Darwin’s theory by Michael Behe – Post Date: September 22, 2022 – for World.org At a recent conference, I watched a computer simulation of the most important machine in the world: ATP synthase. Without it, no life can exist. In the cells of every organism on Earth, from bluebird to blue whale, from amoeba to alfalfa to Aunt Millie, this molecular machine packages energy for cells to use, like AA batteries for so many game systems. No batteries, no game. I sat halfway back in the room on the center aisle, … Continue reading Fearfully and wonderfully made

Doubting Rationalist: an interview with Phillip E. Johnson

“Intelligent Design” Proponent Phillip Johnson and How He Came to Be by Michael Powell  Washington Post Staff WriterSunday, May 15, 2005; D01 BERKELEY, Calif.  “The Washington Post is not one of my biggest fans, you know that.” Hello? The Washington Post reporter has just walked out of a spray of Pacific-borne rain into the living room of a modest bungalow west of downtown. There’s a shag rug, an inspirational painting or two and Phillip Johnson, dressed in tan slacks and a sweater and sitting on a couch. He pulls a dog-eared copy of a Post editorial out of his shirt … Continue reading Doubting Rationalist: an interview with Phillip E. Johnson

They’re All Good Dogs, and It Has Nothing to Do With Their Breed

Retrievers that don’t retrieve and Papillons that point are all possible because the genes that shape dog behavior predate modern breeding that focuses on appearance, researchers find. By James Gorman – April 28, 2022 – for The New York Times My cmnt: I take this article worth a grain of salt. If you’re dealing with purebreds my lifetime of experience has shown me that absolutely breed makes a difference in dog behavior, skills, intelligence, interests and more. Let me know what you think in the comment section below. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Don’t judge a dog by its … Continue reading They’re All Good Dogs, and It Has Nothing to Do With Their Breed

Homochirality: A Big Challenge for the Naturalistic Origin of Life

by Dr. Hugh Ross October 2, 2017 “On the other hand . . . ” Whenever we hear that phrase, we know exactly what’s coming next. We are about to hear a second perspective. Just like every debate has two sides so, also, do some molecules. This two-sidedness is especially the case with the building block molecules that comprise the proteins, DNA, and RNA that are the critical molecular components of all living organisms. In particular, any molecule with four different chemical groups bonded to a central carbon atom manifests two distinct three-dimensional configurations akin to our left and right hands (see figure below). … Continue reading Homochirality: A Big Challenge for the Naturalistic Origin of Life

The Truth about “Inherit the Wind”

by Carol Iannone – February 1997 – for First Things My cmnt: Darwinism is quite simply philosophical materialism dressed up as Science Let’s set the stage In the middle of the hot summer of 1925, the famous “Monkey Trial” took place in Dayton, Tennessee, a small town of about eighteen hundred people in the Cumberland Valley. A young teacher named John Scopes stood accused of violating the Butler Act, a measure passed earlier that year to restrict the teaching of evolution in state-funded schools. The defense featured the famous attorney Clarence Darrow, and the prosecution starred the celebrated orator, populist, … Continue reading The Truth about “Inherit the Wind”

These Are the Highest Resolution Photos Ever Taken of Snowflakes

Photographer and scientist Nathan Myhrvold has developed a camera that captures snowflakes at a microscopic level never seen before Jennifer Nalewicki – Travel Correspondent January 27, 2021 – for Smithsonian magazine My cmnt: Click Smithsonian above for the complete article. My cmnt: Since the 1920s when man first started understanding and really looking into the microscopic (and subatomic) world we have been privileged to see wonders that we had no idea existed. Much of the evolutionary hypothesis would have been squashed before it could become Leftist dogma if Darwin had been able to peer into the inner workings of the … Continue reading These Are the Highest Resolution Photos Ever Taken of Snowflakes

No Other Gods Before Me

By Robert Louis Wilken – Nov 1993 – First Things My cmnt: Written 28 years ago, this essay on the Truth of Christianity is as relevant today as it was then. What we are witnessing today is the rotten fruit of the Left systematically dismantling Western culture as Professor Wilken warned us in this essay. My cmnt: Wilken writes of “practical atheism” which he calls secularism. At that time we tended to call atheism “secular humanism”. This turned out to be too weak of a description. It doesn’t really capture the true essence of post-modernism in the 21st century. My … Continue reading No Other Gods Before Me

The Gods Must Be Tidy!

Is the Cosmos a Work of Poor Engineering or the Gift of an Artistic Designer? by Jonathan Witt – Jul/Aug 2004 – for Touchstone magazine My cmnt: This is a brilliant essay well worth the long read. Darwinists are fond of pointing out what they consider design flaws in living things. Inefficiencies, in their minds, that a master designer simply would not do. Yet Witt contends that Messy things not only make the world better but also a lot more interesting. My cmnt: It reminds me of when a boy first learns about a girl’s reproductive system. Ewww, they are … Continue reading The Gods Must Be Tidy!

Domestication, Human Exceptionalism, and Creation

by Hugh Ross – April 20, 2020 – for Reasons to Believe How many origin events has Earth’s life undergone? From a naturalistic perspective there is just one origin of life: the origin of the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA). Naturalistic models for life posit that somehow physics and chemistry on the early Earth gave rise to a simple bacterium from which all organisms presently have a common descent. These models also claim that all life can be explained by physics and chemistry alone. Genesis 1 declares that there were three distinct origins of life: (1) the origin of purely physical life … Continue reading Domestication, Human Exceptionalism, and Creation

The “Science” Mantra

By Thomas Sowell – Dec 22, 2009 – for Townhall.com My cmnt: Tho’ this was written twelve years ago it is as pertinent for our times as if it had been written today. Since the intelligentsia (as Sowell refers to the Liberal Elite below) decided that Darwinism would assist in the overthrow of the Biblical worldview that underpinned Western culture it has been promoted and insisted upon as science despite the nearly total absence of factual evidence in support of it and the suppression of vast amounts of evidence that contradict most of its central tenets. My cmnt: Besides the … Continue reading The “Science” Mantra

Taking Leave of Darwin

A Longtime Agnostic Discovers the Case for Design Here is an interesting little book which at 146 pages won’t leave you bogged down in any but the most necessary detail the author requires to explain himself and his enlightenment. For those of my readers who would like to dig deeper into the foundation of modern atheism I can recommend any number of books exposing in detail the fallacious hypothesis which is Darwinism. Simply drop me a note under ‘Contact’ in the menu and I will email you back a list. Please let me know a little about your background or … Continue reading Taking Leave of Darwin

Why Evolution is Different

Two Reasons Why a Bad Theory Remains Popular by Granville Sewell March 2, 2021, 6:33 AM – for Evolution News Section 5.1 appeared at Evolution News and Views (www.evolutionnews.org) September 2, 2014 (see also the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJua-0FpmnI). 5.1 Why Evolution is Different In the current debate between Darwinism and intelligent design, the strongest argument made by Darwinists is this: in every other field of science, naturalism has been spectacularly successful, why should evolutionary biology be so different? Even most scientists who doubt the Darwinist explanation for evolution are confident that science will eventually come up with a more plausible … Continue reading Why Evolution is Different

Dogmatic Signs – A Review of Signature in the Cell

PHILLIP E. JOHNSON NOVEMBER 10, 2010 INTELLIGENT DESIGN PUBLISHED IN TOUCHSTONE MAGAZINE For anyone who wants to understand the argument for the necessary role of intelligent design in the history of life, the indispensable source is now Stephen C. Meyers’ book Signature in the Cell (HarperOne, 2009). For cultural reasons, when arguments for the validity of Darwin’s theory of evolution have been made in the past, emphasis has often been placed on the question of human descent from ape-like ancestors. Meyers’ book, in contrast, directs attention to the scientifically most important subject: the origin of the cell and its complex molecular mechanisms. Meyers’ analysis is … Continue reading Dogmatic Signs – A Review of Signature in the Cell

Richard Dawkins Gets Canceled by the ‘Freethinkers’

By CHARLES C. W. COOK – April 20, 2021 – for National Review The American Humanist Association proves the point that transgenderism will brook no dissent. My cmnt: Oxford professor Richard Dawkins is best known as a popularizer of Darwinism and a vocal opponent of Biblical Christianity. He is an oft-quoted darling of the Left and is the first person they run to for a quick slam against conservative Christians and politicians who have the temerity of pointing out the absurdities of Darwinist claims and Leftist politically correct propaganda. My cmnt: Dawkin’s description of the God of the Old Testament is … Continue reading Richard Dawkins Gets Canceled by the ‘Freethinkers’

As Science Frauds Go, Haeckel Beats Piltdown Man

by David Klinghoffer@d_klinghoffer November 9, 2020, 4:13 PM – for Evolution News & Science Today My cmnt: see my post Ernst Haeckel: Social Darwinist, Racist & Fraud. Ecologist Jeremy Fox at the University of Calgary offers a list of scientific frauds, with Piltdown Man at the top of the list. Writing at his blog Dynamic Ecology, he remarks, “Gonna be hard to top this one, I think.” Is it? From, “What’s the ‘greatest’ scientific fraud of all time?” Charles Dawson (it almost certainly was him) faked actual fossils rather than, say, numbers in a spreadsheet. Although he didn’t fool everyone, … Continue reading As Science Frauds Go, Haeckel Beats Piltdown Man

A Third Infinity — The Infinite Complexity of Cells

by Michael Denton – October 2, 2020, 6:47 AM – for Evolution News and Science Today Editor’s note: We are pleased to offer this excerpt from Dr. Denton’s new book, The Miracle of the Cell. In terms of compressed complexity, cells are without peer in the material world, actualized or imagined. And there is likely far more complexity still to uncover. Even as recently as 1913, when Lawrence Henderson composed his classic The Fitness of the Environment, the cell was a black box, its actual molecular complexity a mysterious unknown. Only as the veil began to lift with the mid-century … Continue reading A Third Infinity — The Infinite Complexity of Cells

Ernst Haeckel: Social Darwinist, Racist & Fraud

Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist and an strong proponent of scientific racism. He, and Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, were highly influential in promoting the idea, strong among liberal political socialists, that African people were genetically inferior and should be wiped out or at least limited in their population. Haeckel promoted and popularized Charles Darwin’s work in Germany and embraced an interpretation of Darwin’s pseudo-scientific theory of modification with descent that promoted the idea that “survival of the fittest” was a natural law that could be applied to … Continue reading Ernst Haeckel: Social Darwinist, Racist & Fraud

Darwinism: In pictures

Darwin drew a lot of criticism from his contemporaries and a fair amount of ridicule also. His fellow biologists and other scientists realized the many weaknesses in his theory and to his credit so did Darwin. His critics were mostly correct but Darwin glossed over the deficiencies in his theory rather than admit the theory simply did not correspond to the observed world. Darwin himself raised these points in his seminal work.  He recognized that they were valid objections then and unfortunately for the committed Darwinist they remain valid objections today. The first is the fossil record.  Darwin knew this … Continue reading Darwinism: In pictures

Giving Up Darwin

A fond farewell to a brilliant and beautiful theory. A review of Stephen Meyer’s thoughtful and meticulous Darwin’s Doubt (2013) By David Gelernter – in the Claremont Review of Books – Spring 2019 My cmnt: Article edited for brevity and clarity. Darwinian evolution is a brilliant and beautiful scientific theory. Once it was a daring guess. Today it is basic to the credo that defines the modern worldview. Accepting the theory as settled truth—no more subject to debate than the earth being round or the sky blue or force being mass times acceleration—certifies that you are devoutly orthodox in your scientific views; … Continue reading Giving Up Darwin

Essay on Purpose

Chance  or No Chance     The same Arguments which explode the Notion of Luck, may, on the other side, be useful in some Cases to establish a due comparison between Chance and Design: We may imagine Chance and Design to be, as it were, in Competition with each other, for the production of some sorts of Events, and may calculate what Probability there is, that those Events should be rather owing to one than to the other.     – Abraham de Moivre, Doctrine of Chances, 1718                          … Continue reading Essay on Purpose

A review of “Darwin on Trial” and a response

In the July 1992 issue of  Scientific American Stephen Jay Gould wrote a scathing review of Phil Johnson’s book Darwin on Trial.  My cmnt: I have included Gould’s review, in full, below because it is hard to find without a visit to the library. He called it, Impeaching a Self-Appointed Judge, a clever take on the fact that Phillip Johnson was one of the premier law professors in the country. After unsuccessfully ignoring the book for two years, Gould finally attempted to discredit it with his nasty review, claiming the book was full of errors. Johnson wrote a detailed response–but Scientific American refused to … Continue reading A review of “Darwin on Trial” and a response