Gonzaga law prof David DeWolf comments of Richard Dawkins’s effort to spin his recent sympathy for the idea of extraterrestrials bringing life to Earth – as admitted to the Expelled team in the film:

The point of Dawkins’ concession in the movie is not that panspermia is a preferable alternative to evolutionary theory, but rather THAT IT CAN BE STUDIED SCIENTIFICALLY. (Sorry for shouting, but I get excited about these things.)

Dawkins concedes that you could scientifically investigate whether or not the origin of life reflected natural processes or whether it was likely the result of intervention from an external, intelligent source. If you concede this point, which Dawkins appears to do on camera, then Robert Pennock, Eugenie Scott, Judge Jones et al. are dead wrong in postulating “that ID is an interesting theological argument, but that it is not science.” (Kitzmiller, 400 F.Supp.2d 707, 746) Read More ›

(In his review of Expelled, Dinesh D’Souza appears to be using arguments from Intelligent Design – despite his previous apparent opposition.)—————-

Ben Stein Exposes Richard Dawkins
By Dinesh D’Souza, Monday, April 21, 2008

. . .So Stein puts to Dawkins a simple question, “How did life begin?” One would think that this is a question that could be easily answered. Dawkins, however, frankly admits that he has no idea. . . . Franklin Harold writes in The Way of the Cell that even the simplest cells are more ingeniously complicated than man’s most elaborate inventions: the factory system or the computer. Read More ›

You think the following statement from the AAAS is going to help heal the chasm in our society over evolution and ID? New AAAS Statement Decries “Profound Dishonesty” of Intelligent Design Movie A new movie released in support of the intelligent design campaign needlessly drives a wedge between science and religion and insults the life-affirming work of millions of scientists worldwide, AAAS said in a statement issued today. . . . NEWS RELEASE FULL STATEMENT

The Akisment spam filter is acting up and holding up a lot of comments it shouldn’t be blocking. If your comment doesn’t appear right away where in the past it had then it’s the spam filter. Every single one of my comments are being held up in it. So are about a dozen other members’ here. Don’t ask why because I don’t know why… It hiccups like this occasionally and goes away soon. I suspect it gets noticed and fixed at Akismet during normal working hours so it’s more prone to become a bothersome issue on weekends.

Please note this is categorized in off-topic philosophy. Does Darwinian Nobility, capitalized no less, sound like a contradiction in terms? Not really. In the Descent of Man, Darwin talks about the noble nature of man like it was a tangible thing. “Nor could we check our sympathy, even at the urging of hard reason, without deterioration in the noblest part of our nature.” Who’s responsible for eugenics? Simple. People who don’t have the noble nature of man that Darwin mentions like a physical thing. If you don’t instinctively know that the right thing to do is help rather than harm those less fortunate in life than you are then you lack Darwinian Nobility. Is Darwinian Nobility due to nature or Read More ›

“The average rating was three out of five stars,” says Finch. “But then again, the average American has one breast and one testicle.” The review review is at TheBRITES.org. .

Box Office Prophets, in the weekend wrapup: Eighth spot goes to Horton Hears a Who!, the six-week-old kids flick from Dr. Seuss. Horton earned another $3.5 million, and drops 41%. The CGI animated blockbuster has now earned $144.4 million, and is Jim Carrey’s seventh film to gross more than $125 million at the domestic box office. It recently crossed the $100 million mark at overseas cinemas as well. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a film that I am going to decline comment on. It earned $3.2 million from 1,052 venues. Finishing tenth is George Clooney’s Leatherheads, a gamble that didn’t pay off. Leatherheads earned $3 million in its third weekend, and falls 52% after losing 51% last weekend. It has Read More ›

The Expelled film performed agreeably at the box office (see link below) but just for fun google “Expelled” and “lies” and see how many hits you get from very angry Darwin fans. Apparently, a well-meaning Christian was concerned about all this steam and fog, asking, “Is it true? Did the Expelled producers really lie?”

Well, no, yes, … and no again. The term “lies” needs unpacking in the context.

As I mentioned to some friends yesterday, the Darwin fan, like other materialists, uses the term “lie” in a different sense from the traditional one with which that Christian is familiar.

To the Christian, a lie is a deliberate falsehood. In that sense, no, the producers are not lying. Darwin fans really behave as the film portrays them when anyone produces evidence or argument against their orthodoxy.

But Darwin fans themselves use the term “lie” in a quite different way. They mean any statement or piece of evidence that does not promote their party line or does not make them look good.

Their usage has nothing to do with the sincerity of the speaker or the quality of the evidence.

From their perspective, Expelled is full of lies.

But no again if you mean, does the film describe fact as opposed to fiction? It is fact.

Likewise with the claim that the Expelled producers tricked Darwinists into appearing. Read More ›

Taken from Darwin’s “Descent of Man” We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or Read More ›

Expelled easily ranks as having the second largest gross box office receipts on opening weekend of any political documentary ever. It is bested only by Fahrenheit 9/11. As of Sunday morning it has an estimated $3.2 million gross. Even better, in just the first two days of ticket sales it ranks as the 8th highest political documentary by lifetime total receipts. I wonder if Judge Jones has seen it yet? Will he pay for a different movie and sneak in to Expelled? Or will he download a pirated version? Inquiring minds want to know! LOL

Comment written by a moderator of Darwin Central: Someone desparately need to blog an exclusive pirated copy of Ben Stein’s Expelled.

Mainstream reviews of Ben Stein’s EXPELLED are going apoplectic over the movie’s connection between Darwin and Hitler. Take, for instance, the review in the Village Voice: it describes the connection between Darwinism and Naziism as “bizarre and hysterical.” Yet this weekend saw the opening not only of EXPELLED but also of CONSTANTINE’S SWORD. Here’s what the Village Voice has to say about that film: X marks the spot, literally, where Christianity and the Catholic Church fostered the centuries of religious hatred and anti-Semitism that culminated in the Holocaust…. But if his film is more provocative personal inquiry than reportorial knockout punch, it still pokes needed holes in the concept of papal infallibility and provides historical context for the dangers of Read More ›

According to Box Office Prophets the projected total weekend box office sales for Expelled is $3.7 million. According to Box Office Mojo on Friday alone ticket sales were $1.2 million. Just for fun compare to what Flock of Dodos did on opening weekend.

This just in from those ever so clever Internet Infidels: “So I went and saw it [EXPELLED] today. No, I didn’t give Ben Stein any of my money — I bought a ticket to a different movie starting at the same time.” It makes one wonder how much larger EXPELLED’s take would be if Darwinists pulling this trick were factored in.

After being denied tenure at ISU after publishing The Privileged Planet, Astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez has formally accepted a position at Grove City College, PA. (Informally announced on April 4 at Biola)
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ISU Intelligent design proponent finds new job
By: William Dillon, 04/18/2008
Guillermo Gonzalez, an assistant professor at Iowa State University who argues for the use of intelligent design in science, has accepted a new position at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. Read More ›