Top-Ten Evolution & Intelligent Design Stories of 2013
by Mike Keas

INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH: Dr. Michael Behe

"The Mind Renewed" podcast with Julian Charles

FEATURED YouTube VIDEO:

Irreducible Complexity

Michael J. Behe

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ID The Future podcast blog provides listeners with the most current news and views on evolution and ID through brief interviews with key scientists and scholars developing the theory of ID, as well as insightful commentary from Discovery Institute senior fellows and staff on the scientific, educational and legal aspects of the debate.

Uncommon Descent is a weblog founded by William Dembski to serve the Intelligent Design community.

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Looking for more information on Intelligent Design?

Intelligent Design is the study of patterns in nature that are best explained as the result of intelligence. ᾦ#65533; William A. Dembski

The theory of intelligent design holds that certain global features of the universe provide evidence for the existence of an intelligent cause, or that certain biologically innate features of living things provide evidence for the doctrine that the features are the result of the intentional actions of an intelligent cause which is not biologically related to the living things, and provide evidence against the doctrine that the features are the result of an undirected process such as natural selection. ᾦ#65533; Bradley Monton

The mention of it has been banned from some classrooms. People have lost their jobs for discussing it.  A growing number of scientists are proponents of it. What exactly is intelligent design (ID) that it is causing such an uproar?  For an excellent overview of the concepts and history of ID see the New World Encyclopedia online entry.  Then when you are ready to dive into the details you can:

• Listen to Mathematician William Dembski debate intelligent design with Biologist Lewis Wolpert
• John McWhorter censored interview with Michael Behe on bloggingheads
  
• Download the free College Student’s Back to School Guide on Intelligent Design
• Hugh Hewitt Interview Transcript with Richard Dawkins
• You can imagine the universe in 10 dimensions and then learn what you ought to know about time traveling the multiverse
  
• Read the modern physics arguments for The Strong Free Will Theorem (Conway and Kochen)
• Check out the Master’s Degree in Science and Religion at Biola University
• Watch this streaming video origins debate featuring Jonathan Wells and Massimo Pigliucci
  
• Watch this streaming video debate on ID (Stephen C. Meyer) vs. Evolution (Peter Ward)
  
• Check out the 200th birthday party being thrown for Darwin at www.charlesdarwin.org
• Check out The 15 Coolest Cases of Biomimicry (human designers imitating design in nature)
• Review this “living scorecardᾦ#65533; on Darwin’s predictions
• Download free Molecular Machinery posters
• Listen to these two podcasts interviews about the 2008 Top 10 Darwin and Design News Stories and Resources.
• Listen to a podcast on The Scientific Merits of Intelligent Design Part 1 and Part 2.
• View the Design Isomorph Catalog and learn how many human technological designs have been found to preexist in living organisms
• View the ARN 2008 Top 10 Darwin and Design News and Resource Selections
• Read the ARN 2008 Year-end report on preparing for the Darwin Bicentennial Celebration
• Order DVD Darwin Bicentennial Celebration: A Retrospective Look at the Origins of Species
• Download free Darwin Bicentennial Celebration bookmarks
• Learn why atheist philosophy professor Dr. Bradly Monton defends ID in this podcast interview
• Read What can evolution REALLY do? by Prof. Ralph Seelke
• Purchase the Expelled DVD or Expelled DVD Super Bundle
• Watch Professor Steve Fuller’s lecture on ID
• Read the ARN IDURC student newsletter
• The Puzzle of Orphan Genes, video lecture by Dr. Paul Nelson (Mackenzie University, Brazil. English & Portuguese--lecture begins at 7:00 minute mark)
• Watch the ID “Where’s the Beefᾦ#65533; DVD Trailer
• Read these evidence-free Darwinian “Just-So Storiesᾦ#65533;
• Listen to a podcast about the intelligent design of “Sporeᾦ#65533;
• Watch “What You Ought to Knowᾦ#65533; about Evolution
  and Global Warming
• Watch this video Interview with Expelled Educator, Dr. Carolyn Crocker
• Read the  latest rant & rave reviews for Expelled
• Read the “Ivorygate Documentsᾦ#65533;
• Neuroscience Debate: PZ Myers vs. Angus Menuge
• Read Intelligent Design: Required by Biological Life?
• Read the Iowa State academic lynch mob emails regarding Guillermo Gonzalez
• Check out these spectacular images from the nano world
• Join the ARN Expelled Top 10 Challenge
  
• Listen to the Part1 and Part2 podcast on the ARN top ID news stories for 2007
• Read these responses to the new NAS booklet on evolution
• View the ARN 2007 Top 10 Darwin and Design News and Resource Selections
• Read the ARN 2007 Year-end report on intelligent design
• Read this response to the PBS/NOVA “Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trailᾦ#65533; program and another response here
• Visit this new clearinghouse website on Intelligent Design

Or continue browsing our vast web site and discover the hundreds of articles, books, videos, commentaries and news items available on this fascinating and timely topic.

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• What is intelligent design (ID)?
  Design theory—also called design or the design argument—is the view that nature shows tangible signs of having been designed by a preexisting intelligence. It has been around, in one form or another, since the time of ancient Greece. click for full section text

• How can you tell if something is designed? Isn’t that pretty subjective?
  In our ID definition, we note that intelligent design is much more modest than earlier versions of design theory. But it’s also more powerful. Instead of looking for such vague properties as "purpose" or "perfection"—which may be construed in a subjective sense—it looks for the presence of what it calls specified complexity, an unambiguously objective standard.That term sounds like a mouthful, but it’s something we can all recognize without effort. click for full section text

• How does intelligent design apply to biology?
  One of the central claims of intelligent design (ID) is that "intelligent causes are necessary to explain the complex, information-rich structures of biology." The more we learn about living organisms, the more they look like products of design rather than products of chance and natural law. Ironically, many opponents of intelligent design concede this fact. Of course, many biologists believe that the apparent design of living things is an illusion—produced not by an intelligent source, but by chance and natural law. click for full section text

• Haven’t scientists shown that biological systems evolved through strictly natural processes?
  You will often hear that contemporary evolutionary theory is supported by overwhelming evidence. Such "evidence" is not remotely decisive unless you’ve already decided that only naturalistic causes could have created such organisms as fruit flies, worms and humans. But that’s precisely what is at issue. In fact, there is systematic evidence against contemporary evolution theory. Researchers in such fields as paleontology, embryology, microbiology, biochemistry and genetics have uncovered systematic evidence that is deeply at odds with naturalistic evolution. click for full section text

Related questions to consider:

• How do you assess the evidence for and against naturalistic evolution?
• Doesn’t the fossil evidence support naturalistic evolution?
• Can’t we actually see evolution in action?
• What about the molecular evidence?
• What about the evidence from embryology?
• What about the evidence from homology?
  
  

• Doesn’t ID refer to something supernatural?
  From an ID perspective, the natural-vs.-supernatural distinction is irrelevant. The real contrast is not between natural laws and miracles, but between undirected natural causes and intelligent ones. Mathematician and philosopher of science William Dembski puts it this way: "Whether an intelligent cause is located within or outside nature (i.e., is respectively natural or supernatural) is a separate question from whether an intelligent cause has operated." Human actions are a case in point: "Just as humans do not perform miracles every time they act as intelligent agents, so there is no reason to assume that for a designer to act as an intelligent agent requires a violation of natural laws." click for full section text

• Isn’t "intelligent design" another name for "scientific creationism?"
  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) and other organizations have tried to portray intelligent design as another variant of scientific creationism. Although intelligent design is compatible with many "creationist" perspectives, including scientific creationism, it is a distinct theoretical position. This can be seen by comparing the basic tenets of each view. click for full section text

• How many scientists take this stuff seriously?
  Intelligent design is still a minority position, but even many scholars who disagree with it are intrigued by the idea—and can’t seem to get it out of their minds. Biologist and philosopher of science Paul Nelson observed that despite opposition in the culture and in science, the intelligent design movement will continue to grow.

  “It’s not the kind of thing you change overnight,” Nelson said. “But there’s a steady, healthy growth of the intelligent design community, where we’re bringing in a lot of people of diverse backgrounds and diverse viewpoints. The little plant of intelligent design continues to flourish.” click for full section text

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Response to the PBS Evolution Project On September 24, 2001, PBS launched an 8-hour documentary series promoting Darwinism. The program will rerun often on PBS, is being promoted heavily to the public schools and can be ordered directly from PBS. (www.pbs.org/evolution/). As with the Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series two decades ago, the PBS Evolution Project comes across more as evangelism for the Darwinian worldview, than as rigorous, undebatable science. This program offers a great opportunity to teach your students critical thinking skills, so in keeping with ARN's goals of open and honest academic debate, we have compiled this page of analyses, commentaries, and critiques of the series.

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