April 2, 2002
The main news this week is the announcement (below) by ARN's Dennis Wagner that two important videotapes from the Discovery Institute are now available. I have watched Unlocking the Mystery of Life, and can confirm that it is excellent. I hope to watch Icons of Evolution very soon. And don't forget the PBS video of Monkey Trial, available at www.pbs.org, featuring me among a fine group of talking heads, which demolishes the "Inherit the Wind" myth of the Scopes Trial.
The British press has been in a media meltdown for the last two weeks over a single school in the London area which teaches (young-earth) creationism as an alternative to evolution (also taught), thus illustrating the vast Darwinian insecurity. The March 2002 journal of the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) is full of articles related to Wedge concerns, including a partial history of the ID movement. The March 29, 2002 issue of Science has a review by Kevin Padian of an 825-page collection from MIT Press, with both the reviewer and the collection editor (Robert Pennock) going all-out to trash ID. In short, everyone is talking about us, or issues related to us, and the Darwinians are very worried. They still like to claim that they can't "teach the controversy" because there is no scientific controversy to teach, but then, what are Science and the MIT Press so absorbed with?
The new ID documentary Unlocking the Mystery of Life, produced by Jim Adams at Illustra Media in conjunction with Discovery Institute, is now available at ARN: http://www.arn.org/arnproducts/php/video_show_item.php?id=17 A second video documentary from Coldwater Media is due out soon on Icons of Evolution. These are both high-quality productions that can be used in a combination punch: Icons as a critique of Darwinism and Mystery providing a clear case for the ID position. I will let you know when the Icons documentary is in. Unlocking the Mystery of Life includes some great animation of the flagellum and the cell. In fact, it includes similar animation sequences to the much more expensive French video, Journey Through the Cell that has been discussed here before. This documentary also includes interviews with many of your favorite IDers including:
This is a great video to use in public school, churches, homeschools, etc. After watching this 67 minute documentary, I felt like I had just experienced an executive summary of Darwin's Black Box, The Mystery of Life's Origins, and the Design Inference. I think this is the kind of tool we have needed to present the ID message to a wider audience.
-- Dennis, ARN
Copyright 2002 Phillip E. Johnson. All rights reserved. International
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File Date: 4.02.02