Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Mainstreaming ID in Denmark

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Tom Woodward, author of Doubts about Darwin: A History of Intelligent Design (2003) and its sequel (2006), Darwin Strikes Back: Defending the Science of Intelligent Design, is coauthor with Dr. James Gills of The Mysterious Epigenome: What Lies Beyond DNA (2012), writes to tell us,

Thomas Woodward rejser verden rundt med budskabet om, at livet er så kompliceret, at der må være en intelligens bag. Her er han på Mariager Højskole. Foto: Kenneth Lysbjerg Koustrup

Just a quick report from the front lines of the ID/Darwin debate here in Copenhagen, Denmark, as I near the end of a 15-day speaking tour of those two countries.

First, for another few hours, you can see a surprise major article in the largest daily newspaper of Denmark, The Jutland Post (Jyllens-Posten), where here you can scroll down to see the headline at least, and a pic of me holding up one of our new DNA chains.

I am told by ID leaders here that they are somewhat surprised at the overall positive take on what I’m saying, in making the scientific case for ID.

They did give the director of Denmark’s National Natural History Museum”the final word. I’m told that he is dismissing me, according to a quick translation I was given of a few of the article’s paragraphs, by accusing me of being a “missionary” who “knows about as much in this area as a computer salesman knows about computers” and other such digs. Of course, he has no idea what I said.

I will just say that the ID movements of Norway and Denmark, while quite small, have been super-active and slowly successful in raising the consciousness of the entire issue in a pair countries that rank as two of the most pro-evolution societies in the world (Denmark ranks #2 after Iceland in some polls). I found surprising big crowds, full of enthusiasm, everywhere I’ve gone, and the presence of Jonathan Wells’ classic “Icons.” in Danish has been a big plus, alongside the Danish version of “God’s Undertaker” by Lennox. I had a chance to meet Leif Jensen and he’ll interview me Tuesday for his Copenhagen based radio program.

Some thoughts: The Council of Europe may be able to take some credit for the success. Back in 2007, they made “anti” noises about ID, which they didn’t follow up very hard. Free advertising like that is hard to come by these days.

Leif Jensen, mentioned above, looks at the issues from a Vedic perspective. That’s quite helpful because discussion of the evidence for design in nature is complicated by cultural association with only one religion (Christianity) and for that matter only a minority group within it. Yet key contributions to developing the idea are often made by people who do not profess Christianity, starting from Alfred Russel Wallace and continuing, just now, Michael Denton.

Just what “pro-evolution” (as noted above) means right now is a good question, and doubtless one Tom can ask people while he is there.

See also: Discovered!: Why the Council of Europe thinks ID threatens human rights (They’re upset with Muslims, apparently.)

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Comments
Maybe the Viking spirit of new worlds to conquer is alive and well. Glad to hear of the reaction. Possibly also there is always uniformoty of opinion in Europe and so little fear of ID that a freedom og enquiry is okay. In North america ID/YEC is feared because the population already is hostile or weak on evolutionism.Robert Byers
May 30, 2016
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