Sunday, December 31, 2006

More Clarification on Coercion

Link to: original blogpost - comments

Categories : The Critics

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published: dimanche 31 décembre 2006 19:58:05

Ed Brayton writes a wonderful letter to Richard Dawkins that can be found here. I just wanted to set the record straight on the one point that concerns me. Ed writes:

The irony is that I only found out about the petition and your promotion of it in the process of defending you against the charge that you favored such coercive policies. An ID advocate accused you of that in a reply to me on another subject and I came to your defense, saying that despite your statements about parental religious instruction being child abuse, I had seen nothing at all to indicate that you would support coercive policies to end such a practice.

In my article on the typology of ID critics, I never accused Dawkins of advocating coercive policies.

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Intelligent Design Added to Primary School in Britain

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: dimanche 31 décembre 2006 21:47:17

Creationism gains foothold in schools

THE government has cleared the way for a form of creationism to be taught in Britain’s schools as part of the religious syllabus.

Lord Adonis, an education minister, is to issue guidelines within two months for the teaching of “intelligent design” (ID), a theory being promoted by the religious right in America.

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Richard Dawkins and child abuse

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Categories : Religion, Richard Dawkins

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published: dimanche 31 décembre 2006 16:28:38

Since Richard Dawkins withdrew his support for a petition to make religious upbringing illegal, many are now trying to make it look as if the petition was so out of tune with the rest of Dawkins' writings that only those with an irrational hatred of him could believe that he had truly endorsed it.

PZ Myers, for example, quotes from Dawkins' The God Delusion, where Dawkins voices his support for comparative religion, where children can learn about the "many mutually incompatible belief-systems." But that doesn't say anything about the right of parents to raise their children in a particular religion. And as I previously noted, in Dawkins' so-called retraction, he really only regrets signing the petition because it would have also made comparative religion classes illegal. He nowhere affirmed his support for the legal right of parents to give their children a religious upbringing.

In fact, anyone who has followed Dawkins' public statements on religion would have plenty of reasons to think that he would want religious upbringing made illegal. After all, this is a man that has referred to a Catholic upbringing as causing more harm than sexual abuse at the hands of a priest, and who thinks that merely talking about a "Catholic child" or a "Protestant child" is "a kind of child abuse". And in his newest book, The God Delusion, he repeats psychologist Nicholas Humphrey's demand that we should not "allow parents to teach their children to believe … in the literal truth of the Bible":

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Thinkquote of the day: Darwinism as impossible?

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published: dimanche 31 décembre 2006 10:01:00

no description

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Me and ID

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Categories : Intelligent Design, Repost

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published: dimanche 31 décembre 2006 2:36:57

Since we have been receiving a lot of new traffic over the last week or so, and many people rely on stereotypes when thinking about Intelligent Design, I thought I would repost three blogs that better clarify my position. (Of course, the best clarification will soon be found here).

Some ID Positions

Over on the Panda’s Thumb, ID critic Steve Reuland outlines the basic positions of ID. Since none of his assertions would help someone to understand my views, I thought I would answer the various questions he poses.

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Never let the facts get in the way of damning MikeGene

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Categories : The Critics

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published: samedi 30 décembre 2006 22:25:45

PZ Myers lashes out at me as follows:

I was suspicious immediately. For one thing, Mike Gene pulls a bait-and-switch that Ed fell for without question: he claims that Dawkins endorsed this petition on his website. This is not true. There is a different petition from the same group that is endorsed at richarddawkins.net, which encourages the removal of government support for faith-based schools. There is no link anywhere on that site to the controversial petition. When an ID creationist pulls something that sneaky, it's a good idea to think twice.

Of course, it is PZ Myers who got it wrong. It seems that everyone but Myers knew that there was indeed a link to the petition that asks “the Prime Minister to make it illegal to indoctrinate or define children by religion before the age of 16." In fact, at the time of this writing, it is still there; Dawkins has not removed it from his web page. Myers somewhat acknowledges he was wrong by later crossing out the sentence, “There is no link anywhere on that site to the controversial petition" and adds, "(Wait—there is a single link without comment in a list of petitions)." The single link is the link that supposedly did not exist and is found at the top of the page among a list of two petitions. But if Myers is going to lash out at me with knee-jerk accusations, it’s not a good idea to do something like this from a position of complete ignorance.

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The sea urchin and front-loading

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Categories : Biology, Intelligent Design, Evolution, Front-loading

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published: dimanche 31 décembre 2006 1:34:50

Don't let anyone tell you that Telic Thoughts has a monopoly on bringing you news about front-loading. We've gotten some competition from Intelligently Sequenced, where Nathan Munson writes:

As the articles states, "sea urchins are echinoderms, marine animals" and the purple sea urchin, "has 7,000 genes in common with humans, including genes associated with Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases and muscular dystrophy." Of great interest to intelligent design advocates of front loading is the fact that although the sea urchin has no eyes, nose or ears it does have genes that are homologous to genes found in humans that are involved in vision, hearing and the sense of smell.

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Ken Poppe’s RECLAIMING SCIENCE FROM DARWINISM

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Categories : Evolution, Intelligent Design, Darwinism

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published: samedi 30 décembre 2006 17:58:12

Back in June I made a post here at UD that included my foreword to Ken Poppe’s book RECLAIMING SCIENCE FROM DARWINISM (see here). In the post, I did not indicate the book to which it would be a foreword since the book was not yet out and I didn’t want to jeopardize its reception. As it is, the publisher sanitized the foreword. Below the fold is the original as I had intended it.

Let me urge you to get Poppe’s book. It is available at Amazon.com here.

Cover of Reclaiming Science from Darwinism

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Carl Zimmer Hears the Sound

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: samedi 30 décembre 2006 20:12:14

Carl Zimmer hears the sound of taxonomy exploding. PZ Myers, in his haste to dismiss the notion that genotype and phenotype aren’t increasingly at odds in where to place different critters in the so-called Tree of Life, inadvertently refers to an article by his comrade-in-arms Carl Zimmer which backed up the very point I was making.

“But there are times, I must confess, when I feel like I am watching a blind fistfight.” -Carl Zimmer
Kaboom!

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Larry Arnhart asks: “Why don’t social conservatives embrace Darwinism?” O’Leary tries to explain

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: samedi 30 décembre 2006 23:35:15

In a December 26 comment, Larry Arnhart, author of Darwinian Conservatism, asked,

Why would “family values” conservatism be contrary to Darwinian conservatism? In my book, I show how Darwinian science supports family values and traditional morality as rooted in human biological nature. So where’s the conflict?

Where’s the conflict? Well, how about from the beginning to the end?

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Saturday, December 30, 2006

The Book is in What Section?

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: samedi 30 décembre 2006 21:33:56

Shakespeare
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” -William Shakespeare

In The Grand Canyon is How Old? PZ Myers whines like a little girl that the National Park Service includes in its bookstore The Grand Canyon: A Different View. The book attempts to explain the formation of the Grand Canyon from a young earth creationist point of view. The book isn’t in the science section of the bookstore but rather in the inspirational section.

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Dawkins Replies on Ed's Blog

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Categories : Richard Dawkins

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published: samedi 30 décembre 2006 16:40:08

From here:

I did sign the petition, but I hadn't thought it through when I did so, and I now regret it. I have asked the organizer to remove my name. Unfortunately, it seems that the list has already gone off to Downing Street but the organizer, Jamie Wallis, has kindly asked their web manager to remove my name. I suspect that he himself may be having second thoughts about the wording, and I respect him for that. It isn't always easy to get the exact wording right.

I signed it having read only the main petition: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make it illegal to indoctrinate or define children by religion before the age of 16." I regret to say that I did not notice the supporting statement with the heading, "More details from petition creator": "In order to encourage free thinking, children should not be subjected to any regular religious teaching or be allowed to be defined as belonging to a particular religious group based on the views of their parents or guardians." If I had read that, I certainly would not have signed the petition, because, as explained in The God Delusion, I am in favour of teaching the Bible as literature, and I am in favour of teaching comparative religion. In any case, like any decent liberal, I am opposed to the element of government coercion in the wording. Furthermore, the Prime Minister, thank goodness, does not have the power to 'make' anything 'illegal'. Only parliament has the power to do that.

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Dawkins is still jumping the shark

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Categories : Religion, Richard Dawkins

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published: samedi 30 décembre 2006 17:14:43

Richard Dawkins has regretted signing and promoting a petition to make religious upbringing illegal. Or, well, sort of. In reality, he only talks about "teaching the Bible as literature" and "teaching comparative religion", which he is in favor of. But at no point does he mention his stand on religious upbringing - where the Bible may be taught as history, and where only the beliefs of one religion is taught. Should that be legal for parents to do?

But that isn't all. In a later comment, Dawkins goes on to claim that "LABELLING children with the religion of their parents is child abuse." Oh yeah? There exists a large body of professional literature on the subject of child abuse. Where are the studies that show that being called a Catholic child or a Muslim child is child abuse? Dawkins often speaks about the importance of science and evidence. So why doesn't he use the scientific method to answer this question?

Update: The petition is still being promoted on Dawkins' website, so it's possible that we're dealing with an imposter.

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Introduction to the Controversy - Part 3.

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published: samedi 30 décembre 2006 0:00:00

no description

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Dennett gives scientific reasons ID will prevail

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Categories : Religion, Just For Fun, Culture

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published: samedi 30 décembre 2006 14:52:03

It is my speculation the notorious Beyond Belief Conference and Dawkins call to make religion illegal are signs secularism could be on the brink of crisis. Ironically, Daniel Dennett unwittingly gives powerful “scientific” reasons why secularism is doomed and why religion (which tends to be ID-friendly) will prevail as the dominant paradigm in human culture. See Evolution is Cruel to Dawkins and Dennett.

Mike Gene said it so well:

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The Acceptance of Evolution and the Path of Compliance

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Categories : Evolution, Intelligent Design, Darwinism, Culture

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published: samedi 30 décembre 2006 17:33:43

Here’s an old study that I recall reading about as an undergraduate psychology major. It is about groupthink, those who adopt it and those who don’t. As you read it, ask youself who in the debate over evolution and ID is following the path of compliance and, alternatively, the path of independence (note that the distinction is not quite as neat as pro-ID and anti-ID):

“Opinions and Social Pressure” by Solomon Asch
http://www.panarchy.org/asch/social.pressure.1955.html

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Bunny Abuse

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Categories : The Rabbit

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published: samedi 30 décembre 2006 2:15:38


Friday, December 29, 2006

Dr. Stephen Meyer Discusses his Peer-Reviewed Science Article about Intelligent Design on PBS' "Think Tank"

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Categories : News

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published: vendredi 29 décembre 2006 20:24:22

On this episode of ID The Future we are featuring a clip from PBS' Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg. CSC Director Dr. Stephen Meyer appeared on the program and in this segment discusses the publication of his article "The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories" in the peer-reviewed biology journal the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, published out of the Smithsonian Institution.

The publication of the article led to harassment and discrimination against the editor of the journal, evolutionary biologist Dr. Richard Sternberg.

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Other problems for Human Evolution, Nachman’s U-Paradox

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: vendredi 29 décembre 2006 18:05:18

Cornell geneticist John Sanford pointed out many problems confronting the theory of Darwinian evolution, particularly human evolution. (See: Genetic Entropy ) Many of his arguments were subtle. Among them was his discussion of a somewhat obscure paper: Estimate of the Mutation Rate per Nucleotide in Humans by Nachman.

Nachman writes:

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ID — The Board Game

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Categories : Evolution, Intelligent Design, Darwinism

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published: vendredi 29 décembre 2006 19:41:20

You know you’ve arrived when you’re the topic of a board game (look for “ID — The Movie” next).

ID vs. Evolution Board Game

TO PURCHASE: http://www.livingwaters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=536

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On Coercion and Stereotypes

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Categories : The Critics, Richard Dawkins

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published: vendredi 29 décembre 2006 17:47:40

Ed Brayton has replied to my blog where I offer a typology of ID critics. I should point out that I offered this typology up to readers of Telic Thoughts in an attempt to encourage more fair-mindedness about the critics of ID, recognizing a diversity of thought and attitude among them. For example, one should not use Richard Dawkins as the archetype of all ID critics and then paint someone like Ed with this particular broad brush.

Ed take's issue with two points in my blog.

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Venter: Cracking The Ocean Code

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Categories : Evolution, Biology, Comp. Sci. / Eng., Science

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published: vendredi 29 décembre 2006 17:09:12

I just watched Cracking the Ocean Code on the Discovery Science Channel last night. It’s on again at 3pm Eastern Time today and tomorrow. Really amazing. Venter basically circumnavigated the globe stopping every 200 miles to sample the microscopic life in the ocean which he is now shotgun sequencing back at his lab. In the shakedown cruise to the Sargasso Sea hundreds of new species and over a million unique new genes were discovered upon analysis. We’ve only catalogued about 1% of all species on the planet and have sequenced just a tiny fraction of those catalogued. As sequencing methods improve and prices plummet saying this is just the tip of the iceberg is a vast understatement.

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Seeds of ID

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Categories : Repost

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published: vendredi 29 décembre 2006 2:44:37

Information theory, along with cybernetics, have significantly shaped and influenced the study of molecular biology. As a result, it should be no surprise that something like ‘intelligent design’ would eventually emerge. That is, as the models and metaphors began to generate a track record of success, sooner or later teleologists would take note and begin to question whether the success was indebted to a deeper reality.

Anyway, there is a little piece of historical trivia that helps us see how easy it would be to transition from the application of information theory to biology to something like intelligent design.

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Humans only 94% similar to chimps, not 98.5%

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Categories : Biology, Science

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published: vendredi 29 décembre 2006 2:44:43

There’s a bigger genetic jump between humans and chimps than previously believed

A lot more genes may separate humans from their chimp relatives than earlier studies let on. Researchers studying changes in the number of copies of genes in the two species found that their mix of genes is only 94 percent identical. The 6 percent difference is considerably larger than the commonly cited figure of 1.5 percent.

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News fix if you can’t sleep

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: vendredi 29 décembre 2006 3:57:13

I hope to blog on Larry Arnhart wondering why family values conservatives do not embrace Darwinism tomorrow. Meanwhile, if you need a news fix, go here, here, and here, where I have been posting news and comments from the ID controversy for several days, between stabs at various jobs.

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Thursday, December 28, 2006

Recent events in the intelligent design controversy - 4

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published: jeudi 28 décembre 2006 11:58:00

no description

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Dawkins Misrepresents Konner

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Categories : Richard Dawkins

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published: jeudi 28 décembre 2006 8:12:54

Here is a brief snippet where anthropologist Melvin Konner fisks Richard Dawkins over the notion that religion is child abuse. The clip also shows Dawkins complaining about Konner and demanding an apology. The funny thing is that it becomes clear Dawkins wasn't paying attention to Konner. He accuses Konner of accusing him of indoctrinating his daughter, yet Konner said no such thing (replay the video and check for yourself). Oops, there is a lesson in this.

Don't misrepresent someone when the camera is running.


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Belated Apologies for Jack Krebs

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Categories : Random Stuff

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published: mercredi 27 décembre 2006 23:34:15

I have long noted that when most ID critics come to the table, they bring their stereotypes where all ID proponents are either stupid, deceptive, or mentally ill. This stereotype would then often greatly influence the debates, where the critic would go fishing for some tidbit that would serve to reinforce the stereotype (confirmation bias). But with the dawning of the post-wedge world, it has become more clear to me that there are different types of ID critics. That being realized, I think it is more fair to say that this stereotype about IDers is relied upon mostly by type C critics (the hardcore, anti-religious evangelical atheists). This is because the type C critics have the exact same stereotype about all religious people and in their minds, ID = God belief.

So what’s with the title of this blog? Back in the pre-Dover days, when I was posting on ARN a lot, there was one critic who consistently objected when I commented on the critics and their stereotypes and that person was Jack Krebs. Looking back, it is now clear to me that Jack was a type A critic and was most likely speaking about himself with sincerity. So if Jack is out there and reading, I offer my sincere apologies for doubting you and dismissing you at the time.

Recent events in the intelligent design controversy - 3

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published: mercredi 27 décembre 2006 20:00:00

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Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Complexity Slows Evolution

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Categories : Evolution, Brain

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published: mercredi 27 décembre 2006 16:08:59

From here:

What they found was that the "more advanced" species had faster overall rates of evolution. So, on average, the genes from humans and chimpanzees changed faster than genes from monkeys, which changed faster than those from mice.

They explained the trend as a correlate of smaller population size in the more advanced species. Species with smaller population size can more easily escape the harsh scrutiny of natural selection.

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The Year's Top Intelligent Design Stories

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Categories : /

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published: mercredi 27 décembre 2006 11:01:28

On this episode of ID The Future, CSC's Casey Luskin interviews Access Research Network's Dennis Wagner about the top intelligent design news stories of 2006.

play_button.gif Click here to listen.

Access Research Network has compiled a list of the top intelligent design stories of the past year. The list spans the globe and includes such highlights as:

  • 60% of U.S. Medical Doctors Doubt Macroevolutionary Theory

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Recent events in the intelligent design controversy - 2

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published: mardi 26 décembre 2006 23:36:00

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Michael Behe On Falsification

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: mercredi 27 décembre 2006 3:51:40

In the DVD Case For A Creator, in the Q&A section, Michael Behe was asked, How would you respond to the claim that intelligent design theory is not falsifiable?

Behe responded:

The National Academy of Sciences has objected that intelligent design is not falsifiable, and I think that’s just the opposite of the truth. Intelligent design is very open to falsification. I claim, for example, that the bacterial flagellum could not be produced by natural selection; it needed to be deliberately intelligently designed. Well, all a scientist has to do to prove me wrong is to take a bacterium without a flagellum, or knock out the genes for the flagellum in a bacterium, go into his lab and grow that bug for a long time and see if it produces anything resembling a flagellum. If that happened, intelligent design, as I understand it, would be knocked out of the water. I certainly don’t expect it to happen, but it’s easily falsified by a series of such experiments.

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Cross-Pollination Between Uncommon Descent and Telic Thoughts

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: mercredi 27 décembre 2006 5:32:27

I’m a big fan of the Telic Thoughts blog, and I would encourage UD readers to visit TT.

For me, one of the great joys of visiting TT is Joy, one of my favorite TT authors and commentators. In a recent TT post, Orr Fisks Dawkins, Joy makes the following comment:

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Tuesday, December 26, 2006

The Courtier's Reply, v.2

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Categories : Richard Dawkins, The New Atheists

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published: mardi 26 décembre 2006 20:56:57

Over at his official website, Richard Dawkins praises his #1 Fan, PZ Myers.

Congratulations to P Z Myers on this brilliant piece of satire. It applies not just to Allen Orr's review in NYRB, but to all those many reviews of TGD that complain of my lack of reading in theology. My own stock reply ("How many learned books of fairyology and hobgoblinology have you read?") is far less witty.

Richard

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Recent columns of interest : On neuroscience implications/applications of intelligent design

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published: mardi 26 décembre 2006 15:12:00

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A third recent ChristianWeek column: Faith as one of the healing arts

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published: mardi 26 décembre 2006 14:03:00

Faith as one of the healing arts

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Another recent ChristianWeek column:"Made in the image of God"? What does that mean?

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published: mardi 26 décembre 2006 14:09:00

"Made in the image of God"? What does that mean?

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A recent ChristianWeek column: Faith@Science: The God gene? Spot? Circuit? Okay, maybe a Module?

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published: mardi 26 décembre 2006 14:13:00

(Note: This is the column I wrote shortly after dragging myself up from finishing my work on The Spiritual Brain

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Back at last: Three recent columns of interest below

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published: mardi 26 décembre 2006 14:36:00

For a number of reasons, I was not able to write much here lately. The main reasons include an unfortunate data loss whle attempting to renovate at the Post-Darwinist blog and a replacement of my computer system. The need to earning a living is, of course, an ongoing constraint. Always remember, when tempted to trash the blogosphere, most bloggers are volunteers, blogging in their spare time, and if you are offended by what you see ... move onto another blog or pay for print media. It is NOT like this is a one-paper town and I run the paper. Below, I have posted three recent columns, related to the interests of the Mindful Hack.

My other blog is the Post-Darwinist, detailing events of interest in the intelligent design controversy.

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O’Leary’s recent columns of interest : On neuroscience implications/applications of intelligent design

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: mardi 26 décembre 2006 20:17:38

For links to all go here.

1. A recent ChristianWeek column: Faith@Science: The God gene? Spot? Circuit? Okay, maybe a Module?

(Note: This is the column I wrote shortly after finishing my work on The Spiritual Brain, explaining why notions of a God spot, gene, module, or circuit in the brain are completely ridiculous.)

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More on Common Design

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: mardi 26 décembre 2006 17:19:32

I continue to explore the hypothesis of Common Design at The Design Matrix site. This is a topic that is not likely to please people on either side the aisle. Most non-teleologists and critics won’t like it because they don’t like any attempt to treat a teleological perspective as something other than dangerous nonsense. Most creationists won’t like it because my initial attempt to better flesh out this type of hypothesis means that you can’t use it to explain any similarity.

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2006: The Year Dawkins Jumped The Shark

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Categories : The Critics, Richard Dawkins

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published: mardi 26 décembre 2006 4:49:31

As we continue our journey into the post-wedge world, I think the most remarkable thing about 2006 is that this was the year many critics of ID donned their steel-toed boots and decided to get all righteous. Their new solution, you see, is to declare war on all religion and begin a quest to once and for all rid the world of the religious scourge. These critics not only attacked scientists like Francis Collins and Ken Miller, but even lashed out at agnostics and fellow atheists whose opposition to religion wasn’t pure enough.

The Leader and Face of the newly hatched Anti-Religion Movement is the Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, Richard Dawkins. Yet, just as all his neo-Enlightenment started to unfold, he performed a trick to mesmorize his fans, a feat that will be talked about for years to come.

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What Mike Got For Christmas

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Categories : The Rabbit

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published: lundi 25 décembre 2006 23:42:54

Don't let the expression fool you, he loved it.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Thoughts on recent books on the intelligent design controversy: Some ways to spend your holiday cash

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published: lundi 25 décembre 2006 10:50:00

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A Year After Dover, Some States Still Encourage Teaching of Debate Over Darwin

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Categories : /

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published: lundi 25 décembre 2006 17:33:23

In this second of a two part series, CSC senior fellow, John West, reports that since the Dover ruling Darwinists have bullied some school districts into limiting their teaching of Darwinian evolution, yet some states and localities are continuing to adopt public policies to encourage students to study the scientific evidence for and against Darwin’s theory.

play_button.gif Click here to listen

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Thoughts on recent books on the intelligent design controversy: Some ways to spend your holiday cash

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: lundi 25 décembre 2006 15:53:07

Excerpts from Denyse’s comments on some recent books:

Of course, I have forgotten or omitted lots of worthy titles, but fundamentally it was much easier then [five years ago] than now to rhyme off the key titles you would need to read to really keep up with the ID controversy. Today, you need a library shelving cart and a budget to match.

Publishers who might have avoided the ID controversy in the past do not seem as afraid to touch it any more. … (Note: Lots of dull rants have been published all across the board, but presumably you, gentle reader, are only interested in hearing about books that could conceivably be of interest to a lay public.)

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Merry Christmas!

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Categories : Random Stuff

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published: lundi 25 décembre 2006 2:45:00

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Orr Fisks Dawkins

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Categories : Richard Dawkins

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published: dimanche 24 décembre 2006 17:59:37

Here are some excerpts from H. Allen Orr's critical review of Dawkins' anti-religion book:

Indeed Dawkins is fond of imputing ulterior motives to those "Neville Chamberlain School" scientists not willing to go as far as he in his war on religion: he suggests that they're guilty of disingenuousness, playing politics, and lusting after the large prizes awarded by the Templeton Foundation to scientists sympathetic to religion.[2] The only motive Dawkins doesn't seem to take seriously is that some scientists genuinely disagree with him.

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A Christmas Story

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Categories : Humor

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published: dimanche 24 décembre 2006 20:49:43

Enjoy

2006 Blog Efficiency Award Goes To…

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: dimanche 24 décembre 2006 20:24:33

PZ Myers!

By removing all the irrelevant bloviation he’s succeeded in getting Pharyngula’s content compressed to its core essentials. A remarkable invention in blog efficiency. Follow this link to see how the invention works.

Order It Today:: The Design Inference

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The Biggest Story of 2006

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Categories : Humor

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published: dimanche 24 décembre 2006 2:22:48

Terrorism? War? Corruption in the government? Global warming?

Small pototoes.

You may have missed the most horrible crime story of all of 2006. Luckily, one community cracks down on such crime and one vigilant news organization refused to bury this story:

Mr. Bookman

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Categories : Humor

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published: dimanche 24 décembre 2006 4:45:42

I always wondered what happened to Mr. Bookman. It looks like he has moved to Baytown, Texas.

[BTW, Jerry just doesn't get it.]


Recent events in the intelligent design controversy - 1

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published: samedi 23 décembre 2006 22:58:00

no description

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The Digital Evidence for Flagellar Evolution

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Categories : Evolution, Intelligent Design, Darwinism

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published: dimanche 24 décembre 2006 1:18:42

When biological evidence fails to establish Darwinian evolution, go instead for digital evidence. Here at last digital proof positive for the Darwinian evolution of the bacterial flagellum (if Kitzmiller v. Dover wasn’t enough to sink ID, this surely will):


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Saturday, December 23, 2006

He gleefully watched it burn

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Categories : Evolution, School

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published: samedi 23 décembre 2006 19:31:54

I don't care; this is just wrong:

Dover's problems actually started in 2002. Bertha Spahr, chair of Dover High School's science department, began to encounter animosity from Dover residents toward the teaching of evolution. In January 2002, board member Alan Bonsell began pressing for the teaching of creationism. In August, a mural depicting human evolution, painted by a 1998 graduating senior and donated to the science department, disappeared from a science classroom. The four-by-sixteen-foot painting had been propped on a chalkboard tray because custodians refused to mount it on the wall. Spahr learned that the building and grounds supervisor had ordered it burned. In June 2004, board member William Buckingham, Bonsell's co-instigator of the ID policy, told Spahr that he "gleefully watched it burn" because he disliked its portrayal of evolution.

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Lessons from an "embryo"

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Categories : Science, Evolution

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published: samedi 23 décembre 2006 20:20:48

I previously drew attention to the recent study that argues fossilized embryos are really fossilized bacteria. PZ Myers does a nice job of outlining the several lines of evidence that made it look like these fossils were embryonic in origin:

The cells were dimpled and shaped by adjoining cells, suggesting a flexible membrane—not a cell wall. This rules out algae, fungi, and plants.

The number of cells within each specimen was usually a power of 2. This is something we typically see in cleaving embryos, the sequence from 1 to 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 cells.

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Where's Mike?

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Categories : The Rabbit

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published: samedi 23 décembre 2006 21:01:43

The Sound of The Neutral Theory Exploding

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: samedi 23 décembre 2006 18:51:26

KABOOM!
Silent Mutations Are Not Always Silent
“Mutations leading to identical amino acid sequences can change protein folding and function”… 12/21/06

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Last Minute Christmas Present

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Categories : The Rabbit

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published: samedi 23 décembre 2006 2:19:34

In case you are wondering what to get me…..

MacLaurin Institute Lecture Series

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: samedi 23 décembre 2006 2:08:57

For a great, free, downloadable MP3 lecture series visit:

http://www.maclaurin.org/mp3_group.php?type=MacLaurin+Campus+Lectures

There’s lots of interesting stuff on ID, Darwinism and related topics by such people as Denyse O’Leary, Mustafa Akyol, Michael Behe, Del Ratzsch, John Angus Campbell, Alvin Plantinga, and more.

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Sternberg in The Scientist

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Categories : Intelligent Design, Peer Review, The Critics

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published: samedi 23 décembre 2006 0:30:33

A reader notified me of this article about the Sternberg affair in The Scientist:

According to the report, NMNH officials sought to discredit Sternberg and force him out of his unpaid RA position after he allowed an article by Stephen C. Meyer, director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, to be published in the August 2004 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, a peer-reviewed journal of which he was managing editor at the time. While legally separate from the NMNH, Proceedings is governed by a council that includes NMNH scientists and receives public funds from the museum. …

Sternberg, who is also a staff taxonomist at NIH's National Center for Biotechnology Information, said he is "thinking hard" about whether to file a discrimination lawsuit. "I do not think any Federal government employee should be discriminated against on the basis of their outside activities or their intellectual views, concerning theories of evolution or any other subject," Sternberg told The Scientist in an email.

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Congressional Report Shows NCSE Spied on Government Scientist Skeptical of Darwinian Evolution

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Categories : /

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published: vendredi 22 décembre 2006 22:00:11

Richard.sternberg.jpgOne of the most disturbing revelations of the recent congressional investigation into the Smithsonian’s persecution of Richard Sternberg is the behind-the-scenes role of the pro-Darwin lobbying group the National Center for Science Education (NCSE). But spying was only part of the NCSE’s role. According to the congressional report, the NCSE helped mastermind efforts by government officials to publicly smear Sternberg with false information.

play_button.gif Click here to listen.

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Don’t fire him . . . Just make his work-situation a living hell

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Categories : Evolution, Intelligent Design, Darwinism, Science, Legal, Courts, Constitution, Culture

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published: vendredi 22 décembre 2006 23:29:55

The Scientist reports today on the unfolding Congressional probe into the Sternberg case. The following paragraph caught my attention:

NCSE spokesman Nicholas Matzke said his group was not part of an effort to dismiss Sternberg. “A lot of people at the Smithsonian were mad because their journal was dragged into a political issue. We wanted them to focus on the science and not persecute or discriminate against Sternberg on religious grounds,” Matzke told The Scientist. “We advised them not to fire Sternberg,” he said, “and they eventually followed our advice.”

My understanding is that the NCSE did everything just short of asking the Smithsonian to fire Sternberg (does the “S” in “NCSE” stand for sleazy?). But hey, let’s not beat our gums. The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has all the emails that the NCSE sent to Sternberg’s employers. Let’s see them.

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Flash Animation Contest: “There is no God and Richard is his prophet”

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Categories : Just For Fun

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published: samedi 23 décembre 2006 0:13:26

I’m considering offering $250 for the winning entry in a flash animation contest. I’d like the flash animation to incorporate the following elements:

(1) Portray Richard Dawkins as a cult deprogrammer.
(2) Portray a 7-year old Stephen Colbert as the theist he must convert to atheism. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuXpysYEhgA and below)

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Friday, December 22, 2006

David Heddle on the ID movement

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Categories : Intelligent Design, Post-Wedge World

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published: vendredi 22 décembre 2006 21:05:33

David Heddle has some fitting words for members of the political ID movement:

News that Cobb County case had been settled, and that the textbook stickers are a thing of the past, made me think of a closing parenthesis. In my mind, and admittedly not in strict concurrence with the actual timeline, the placement of the stickers was the shot across the bow from the Political-Activist Intelligent Design (PAID) movement, and the settlement of the case is the tippy-top of the PAID movement mast disappearing beneath the surface. (Those aren't mixed metaphors, are they? I can't tell.)

I don't have much new to say about the PAID movement. But I thought I would try to restate some old criticisms in graphical form. I'm not sure if the plot succeeds at making my three recurring PAID movement themes: 1) it backfired, big-time 2) it created a cottage industry complete with a cult-like following and leaders with delusions, it would seem, of becoming the White House Science Advisor 3) it was deceptive - it really is about religion - which makes its ends-justify-the-means methods all the more inexcusable.

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The Vise Strategy Revisited

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Categories : Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Darwinism, Legal, Courts, Culture

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published: vendredi 22 décembre 2006 18:21:57

Barbara Forrest, the official historian for the anti-ID side, has a piece of revisionist history in the latest Skeptical Inquirer (see here). It is titled “The Vise Strategy Undone.” Since I’m the inventor of the Vise Strategy and one of the principal targets of her piece, let me offer a few corrections:

(1) I wrote up the Vise Strategy for the Thomas More Law Center to assist them in interrogating the expert witnesses on the other side (for the full Vise Strategy go here; by the way, I gave this to the Thomas More people as a freebee). Forrest’s piece suggests that the Vise Strategy was tried and found wanting. In fact, the Thomas More attorneys never implemented it — compare the trial transcripts and depositions with the actual strategy. Advice is bad only if it is taken and found to fail. The Thomas More Law Center never took my advice.

(2) Forrest accuses me of withdrawing from the trial. Here are the facts: I’ve been the academic editor of the Foundation for Thought and Ethics (FTE) since 1997. FTE is the publisher of Pandas, the book in question in the Dover trial. Several weeks before I was to be deposed, my boss at FTE, Jon Buell, asked that I have an additional attorney representing FTE’s interests at the deposition. Moreover, I learned that Stephen Meyer was being permitted by Dick Thompson, the head of the Thomas More Law Center, to have an additional attorney present at his deposition to represent Discovery’s interests (even with that privilege, Meyer decided not to be deposed). Given that FTE had, in my view, more to lose than Discovery in this case, I asked the Thomas More Law Center to extend me the same courtesy that they were extending to Meyer. They refused. By this time FTE was insisting that I have an attorney present. This put me in a difficult position with my employer, so I told Thomas More I would allow myself to be deposed only if they permitted an attorney representing FTE’s interest to be present. It was at that point that they removed me as an expert witness. I was frankly looking forward to being deposed. As it is, we can expect there to be future trials where Forrest and I cross swords.

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