Tuesday, December 06, 2005

EVO DEVO and the death of Intelligent Design

Evolution making revolutionary strides.

Indeed, several scientists, including, most prominently, the late paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, have argued that the incipient science of evo devo might represent the next great revolution in the history of evolutionary thought.

Sean Carroll, a professor of biology at the University of WisconsinMadison, and a leading evo-devo researcher, surveys the state of the field for a general audience in his book “Endless Forms Most Beautiful.”

.... Despite the nearly irresistible romance of the scientific revolution, the history of evolutionary biology might end up looking a lot more like evo devo’s own history of the animal kingdom: a few radical innovations early on, followed by some intensely interesting tinkering.

The Death of Intelligent Design
While intelligent design has hit obstacles among scientists, it has also failed to find a warm embrace at many evangelical Christian colleges. Even at conservative schools, scholars and theologians who were initially excited about intelligent design say they have come to find its arguments unconvincing. They, too, have been greatly swayed by the scientists at their own institutions and elsewhere who have examined intelligent design and found it insufficiently substantiated in comparison to evolution.

"It can function as one of those ambiguous signs in the world that point to an intelligent creator and help support the faith of the faithful, but it just doesn't have the compelling or explanatory power to have much of an impact on the academy," said Frank D. Macchia, a professor of Christian theology at Vanguard University, in Costa Mesa, Calif., which is affiliated with the Assemblies of God, the nation's largest Pentecostal denomination.

Derek Davis, director of the J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor, said: "I teach at the largest Baptist university in the world. I'm a religious person. And my basic perspective is intelligent design doesn't belong in science class."

Mr. Davis noted that the advocates of intelligent design claim they are not talking about God or religion. "But they are, and everybody knows they are," Mr. Davis said. "I just think we ought to quit playing games. It's a religious worldview that's being advanced."

Real Jesus followers beat Kansas University professor who is to teach a class on the myths of intelligent design.

A German Protestant Youth Group is selling a nude calendar of erotic scenes from the Bible. - Somehow this is connected.


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