Darwin Day 2018: Wikipedia Receives Censor of the Year Award

Wikipedia is the 2018 Censor of the Year.




Joel Kontinen

On February 12, which happens to be Charles Darwin’s birthday, Discovery Institute grants the Censor of the Year (COTY) award on individuals or organisations, recognising their “outstanding efforts in silencing debate about Darwinian evolution and alternative theories of life's origins.”

Past recipients of the award include Jerry Coyne, Neil deGrasse Tyson, the Commission on the General Conference of the United Methodist Church and the German Natural History Museum.

This year’s award goes to Wikipedia for the erasure of German palaeontologist Günter Bechly, disinformation about intelligent design and the biased treatment it gives to ID scholar Walter Bradley.

Source:

Klinghoffer, David. 2018. Happy Darwin Day! Our 2018 Censor of the Year Is Wikipedia. Evolution News & Science Today (12 February).

Wikipedia Expells Distinguished Scientist for Doubting Darwin

Dr. Bechy is a dragonfly fossil expert, but that wasn't notable enough for Wikipedia's non-scienctist contributors. Image courtesy of Daderot, public domain.





Joel Kontinen

The message of Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is as timely now as it was almost a decade ago.

The latest installment of Darwinian censorship features Günter Bechly, a distinguished German paleontologist.

Dr. Bechly was a curator at the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany, but he lost his job when he became disillusioned wth Darwinian evokution.

Now, some evolutionists want to make him invisible as well. Wikipedia editors, most of whom are non-scientists, have erased his Wikipedia page, ostensibly for trivial reasons, but the real reason seems to be that he embraces intelligent design.


Source:

Klinghoffer, David. 2017. Wikipedia Erases Paleontologist Günter Bechly.Evolution News & Science today (10 October).

Creator And Design Are “Inappropriate Language” in Science Publication

A biology paper was expelled from PloS ONE due to “inappropriate language”.




Joel Kontinen

The concept of what amounts to inappropriate language has evolved quite a bit in science publications.

The pioneers of modern science (for instance Robert Hooke, Sir Isaac Newton and Louis Pasteur) were doing research for the glory of God.

In contrast, their modern successors seem to think that 'Creator' and 'design' are indecent words. Somewhere along the way
Darwinists hijacked science publications and now they want to set their own rules.

Recently, a paper published in PloS ONE mentioned the word Creator (written with a capital C) three times.

This was too much for the Darwin lobby. They were furious.

PlosOne reacted promptly. The journal editors decided to retract the paper. Here’s their explanation:

”Following publication, readers raised concerns about language in the article that makes references to a 'Creator', and about the overall rationale and findings of the study.

Upon receiving these concerns, the PLOS ONE editors have carried out an evaluation of the manuscript and the pre-publication process, and they sought further advice on the work from experts in the editorial board. This evaluation confirmed concerns with the scientific rationale, presentation and language, which were not adequately addressed during peer review.

Consequently, the PLOS ONE editors consider that the work cannot be relied upon and retract this publication.

The editors apologize to readers for the inappropriate language in the article and the errors during the evaluation process.”

This shows to what lengths evolutionists will go to silence any dissent. In this case, the Chinese researchers who wrote the paper might not actually have endorsed creation or even intelligent design, but the word Creator obviously crept into the paper during the translation process.

In any case, it highlights the narrow-mindedness, and probably also hatred, of some evolutionists.

Source:

PLOS ONE Staff. 2016 Retraction: Biomechanical Characteristics of Hand Coordination in Grasping Activities of Daily Living. PLoS ONE 11(3): e0151685. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0151685. (4 March 2016).

CreatorGate? Use of the Words Design and Creator in PLoS ONE Article Prompts Angry Protests from Darwinists

This kind of design is acceptable. Image courtesy of Steve Swayne, Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0). But saying hand co-ordination is designed prompted censors to protest against an article recently published in the journal PLoS ONE.



Joel Kontinen

A paper published in PLoS ONE was recently retracted after complains from evolutionists that it attributed human hand co-ordination to the Creator’s design.

The critics did not find fault with the actual science in the paper; what they disliked was the use of the words design and Creator. They were especially unhappy with the fact that the source of the design was written with a capital C.

This obviously was too much for the Darwin lobby.

The paper, written by three Chinese researchers, used the following expressions:

”The biomechanical characteristic of tendinous connective architecture between muscles and articulations is the proper design by the Creator to perform a multitude of daily tasks in a comfortable way.”

“Hand coordination should indicate the mystery of the Creator’s invention.”

But the writers also disclosed a belief in some sort of evolution over millions of years:

“Our study can improve the understanding of the human hand and confirm that the mechanical architecture is the proper design by the Creator for dexterous performance of numerous functions following the evolutionary remodeling of the ancestral hand for millions of years.”

None of the three Chinese researchers speaks English as their first language, so something might have been lost in translation and the entire affair might well turn out to be a storm in a teacup.

They saw design where anyone would see design, but they might not have known that design is such a touchy word in the west, especially if coupled with the use of its source – the Creator.

The entire episode reminds me of what Ben Stein pointed out in the documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed – Darwinists will go to great lengths to exclude all dissent.

Design is so obvious in nature that it has become increasingly difficult to evade the d-word. However, in 2011 the journal BioEssays instructed would-be authors to avoid using terms that might suggest that a biological trait is designed.

It seems that for Darwinists, the very use of the words design and Creator smacks of heresy.

They seem to prefer the Blind Watchmaker approach instead, regardless of the evidence.

Sources:

Cressey, Daniel. 2016. Paper that says human hand was 'designed by Creator' sparks concern. Nature news (3 March).

Liu, Ming-Jin et al. 2016. Biomechanical Characteristics of Hand Coordination in Grasping Activities of Daily Living. PLoS ONE. (5 January).

The Problem with The Cosmos

Materialistic dogma cannot account for beauty in the cosmos. Image courtesy of J. Hester and P. Scowen, Arizona State University/NASA.




Joel Kontinen

Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series included his belief in a purely materialistic universe: Time and again he claimed: “The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be."

This, of course, is not a scientific claim but rather a philosophical one.

The new Cosmos series, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, repeats this same atheistic dogma.

We know that natural laws cannot bring the cosmos into existence. The universe looks designed, which is something Cosmos will not admit. Instead, it dwells on the persecution of the 16th century monk and philosopher Giordano Bruno.

However, Darwinists have turned out to be much more intolerant of dissenters than the Catholic Church is or was or ever will be.

Ben Stein’s film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed shows unambiguously who the real persecutors are in our days. They are the ones who do not want to allow any criticism of materialistic dogma that often masquerades as science.

Atheists Are Trying to Prove That the Message of Expelled Is True

Ben Stein’s film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed revealed that evolutionists oppress and discriminate against scientists who doubt Darwinian evolution.




Joel Kontinen

A very suspicious stew is brewing in the academic sphere in the USA. It all began when Jerry A. Coyne, a professor at the University of Chicago and a well-known Darwinian blogger, complained about a fellow scientist.

Coyne, who is an outspoken atheist, claimed that Eric Hedin, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Ball State University, favours the view of intelligent design (ID) and presents Christianity in a very positive light. Coyne demanded that the university had to scrutinise Professor Hedin’s teaching, and Ball State promised to look into the matter.

Coyne complained of a course that is actually not about science. In his own lectures he does not shy away from atheism, but like PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins (before he retired), he is quick to promote naturalistic dogma and exclude all other worldviews.

Darwinians have hardly ever tolerated dissenting views.


Source:


Jaschik, Scott. 2013. Science or Religion? Inside Higher Ed (17 May).

The Coppedge case: An illustration of Expelled: No intelligence Allowed

Joel Kontinen


What happens when a NASA employee lends two pro-ID DVD documentaries to his co-workers?



Although Dr. Wernher von Braun, the father of the US Apollo programme, and several astronauts were professing Christians, the atmosphere at NASA has changed diametrically from the days astronauts could read the opening verses of the Book of Genesis while orbiting the moon.

Since 1997 David Coppedge has worked as an information technology specialist and system administrator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. According to the Evolution News and Views blog, ”in 2000 he earned recognition for excellence, receiving the important role of 'Team Lead SA' (system administrator), a role he held until his demotion in 2009.”

The reason for his demotion? He loaned two DVDs - The Privileged Planet and Unlocking the Mystery of Life to his co-workers.



Source:

Crowther, Robert. 2010. How NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Punished David Coppedge for His Views on Intelligent Design. (16 April)
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2010/04/how_nasas_jet_propulsion_labor.html#more

Free Thinkers as Thought Police

Free Thinkers have assumed the role of Orwellian thought police. In George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four Big Brother keeps watch so that no one will think unauthorised thoughts.




Joel Kontinen

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has approached tourist boards in the UK, urging them to cease promoting the Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm in Somerset.

Early this year, the BHA sponsored a conspicuous bus campaign in London with ads doubting the existence of God. Now, when a zoo farm wants to promote the existence of God, the humanists, who would describe themselves as free thinkers, are assuming the basic Orwellian model of not tolerating any dissenting views.

The Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm opened to the public in 1999. It houses a hundred animals and attracts approximately 120, 000 visitors each year. Noah’s Ark does not hide its belief in a creator God.

However, Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm promotes a much longer time frame of earth history than traditional creationism but it seems that the very idea of doubting Darwinism causes problems for dissenters. Recently, Ben Stein himself was expelled from New York Times.

Miranda Stevenson, director of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, says, ''I find it extraordinary that an organisation that I thought promotes free thinking appears to want censorship.”

Perhaps free thinkers ought to change the name of their ideology.

Source:

Telegraph. 2009. Noah's Ark Zoo in creationist row. (27 August) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/6100222/Noahs-Ark-Zoo-in-creationist-row.html

Ben Stein Expelled From the New York Times

Ben Stein has noticed that criticism is not without risks.




Joel Kontinen

For five or six years, Ben Stein wrote a popular bi-monthly column for the New York Times. However, atheists were offended with his 2008 documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. They also expressed their dislike of his views in the Times.

It seems that there is no room for the Designer in the liberal media.

Then Ben Stein criticised another icon of the left leaning media: Barack Obama or more specifically, his economic policy. Times promptly informed Ben Stein that the paper will no longer publish his column.

In other words, press freedom does not seem to fare well in the USA.



Source:

Stein, Ben. 2009. Expelled From the New York Times. The American Spectator (10 August)

Want to Promote Academic Freedom?

Joel Kontinen

As evidenced by Ben Stein’s documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, questioning Darwinian evolution has become hazardous for scientists, academics, teachers and students. Recently a British scientist was expelled from the Royal Society for his unorthodox approach to dissenters.

Now, with Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday just around the corner, science journals are praising the man and his achievements while keeping silent on the weaknesses and consequences of his theory.

However, dissent against Darwin has by no means become extinct. Discovery Institute, for instance, is scheduling its Academic Freedom Day on Darwin’s birthday (February 12). The celebrations will include a video and essay contest for high school and college students.

Darwin once stated, "A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question."

His supporters have obviously forgotten the advice he gave. Thus the need for Academic Freedom Day. For more details, go to Academic Freedom Day. com .

British Scientist Expelled After Controversy Over Creationism

A leading scientist was expelled from the Royal Society.


Joel Kontinen


Creationism is a dangerous word – at least if you say it aloud. Professor Michael Reiss, Director of Education at the Royal Society, the leading science organisation in Great Britain, was forced to step down after he was accused of instructing teachers to discuss creation in science classes.

Although the British press invented colorful headings of the dispute, professor Reiss, who has a PhD in biology and is also an ordained priest of the Church of England, did not encourage teachers to treat creationism as a valid alternative to Darwinian evolution. He merely said that creationism is a worldview that should not be disparaged.

However, professor Reis did not say that creationism was wrong, and this caused Darwinists to call for his resignation.

For instance, Richard Dawkins, who makes no bones about being an atheist, questioned the right of a Christian to be the director of education of a leading science organisation.

But Index on Censorship, an organisation committed to freedom of speech, lamented the lack of academic freedom in Great Britain.

It seems that the basic thesis of Ben Stein’s recent documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is very obvious in Europe. Critics of Darwinian evolution are discriminated against. Scientists do not even have to criticise evolution. Just a mention of the word creationism is enough to bring them into trouble. The same is true of another forbidden word, design, especially if it is preceded by the term intelligent.

In October 2007 the Council of Europe claimed that creationism was a potential threat to human rights. Now it seems that panic has also spread to the British isles. At least the leading science publications Nature and New Scientist have sternly warned their readers about the dangers of dissenting from orthodox Darwinism.

Steve Fuller, a professor of sociology at the University of Warwick in the U.K. thinks that the fear of creationism is at least partly due to the popularity of intelligent design in Britain.

For instance, Truth in Science, an organisation run by highly placed scientists, has campaigned for a more honest approach to the teaching of evolution in schools.

But with the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species approaching in 2009, his supporters are nervous and this seems to have resulted in panic reactions.

Sources:

Fuller, Steve. 2008. Science shouldn’t shut down discussion. Index on Censorship. http://www.indexoncensorship.org/?p=622

Intelligent Design The Future. 2008. Expelled in England: Steve Fuller Shares View on Education Director’s Resignation. (19 September.) http://intelligentdesign.podomatic.com/entry/2008-09-19T15_39_27-07_00

Smith, Lewis ja Frean, Alexandra. 2008. Leading scientist urges teaching of creationism in schools. Times Online. (12.9.)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4734767.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

Times Online. 2008. Unintelligent Design. (editorial, 12 September). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article4735469.ece

Expelled and Schopenhauer's Prediction

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860). Image from Wikipedia.


Joel Kontinen




Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) said, “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

Schopenhauer’s view might be construed as an interpretation of our understanding of science and our origins. The word science comes from the Latin sciencia, ‘knowledge’. It is a quest for the truth, or at least it should be.

But in reality, almost always a ruling paradigm dictates what counts for truth and what does not. This can be seen in the Darwinian reaction to Ben Stein’s film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Early in the film, Richard Dawkins says, “As a scientist I am pretty hostile to a rival doctrine”.

Evolutionists were not very pleased with this admission or with some others, judging from their posts on various Internet forums.

It seems that in the origins debate, Schopenhauer’s first two stages overlap. Rival, i.e. non-Darwinian explanations are both ridiculed and violently opposed.

But if Schophenhauer is right, they will eventually be accepted as being self-evident.

Dinosaur Expert: Anti-Creationists Are the Greatest Enemy of Science Education in the U.S.

Robert Bakker. Image from Wikipedia

Joel Kontinen

Science education has lately been the source of much heated debate, largely due to the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed featuring Ben Stein. Stein’s documentary lamented the monopoly of Darwinian evolution in scientific research and science education. As expected, many prominent neo-Darwinists, for instance Richard Dawkins and P. Z. Myers, have reacted aggressively to the film. Recently, a renowned paleontologist joined the fray. However, his contribution was a stunning surprise.

Dr. Robert T. Bakker is one of most famous living dinosaur experts, known for his 1986 book The Dinosaur Heresies. He is the Curator of paleontology at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Director of the Morrison Natural History Museum in Colorado. Recently Bakker was interviewed on the Laelaps Science Blog by Brian Switek.

During the e-mail interview, Bakker said that he considered “the loud, strident, elitist anti-creationists” to be be greatest enemy of science education in the United States. He explained that he meant “Richard Dawkins and his colleagues”, calling them “uber-Darwinists”. In his view, they “come across as insultingly dismissive of any and all religious traditions.”

Bakker probably had in mind Dawkins’ book The God Delusion that has caused quite a stir. It has also given rise to rebuttals such as David Berlinski’s just released The Devil’s Delusion.

The Bakker interview was made before the April 18 release of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Bakker’s views are interesting since he is neither a creationist, at least not in the traditional sense of the word, nor affiliated with the Intelligence Design movement. He seems to advocate some form of theistic evolution or the view that God used evolution. Yet he comes close to what Ben Stein, a Jew, has to say about science education.

It is no secret that origins issues are extremelemy sentitive. Bakker’s contribution has already caused some discussion in the blogosphere.

Read more about Expelled here.


Source:

Switek, Brian. 2008. Paleontological Profiles: Robert Bakker. Laelaps science blog

Another Expulsion?

Joel Kontinen

Texas has in effect expelled any critical evaluation of origins issues. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board refused to give accreditation to the ICR Graduate School's Science Education program. This is strange since the very same program was already accredited in California. The Institute for Creation Research (ICR) moved its headquarters to Texas last year and had to apply for accreditation in Texas for its MA programme.

Ben Stein’s film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed pointed out the dismal lack of academic freedom in science education. The refusal to grant the ICR’s Graduate School accreditation shows that intelligence is still not allowed.

Read more details here.

Expelled is the Hottest Item in the Blogosphere

Joel Kontinen

Ben Stein’s film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, due to open on April 18, has become the hottest item in the blogosphere. Expelled documents how Darwinists oppress and threaten scientists and science teachers who dare to suggest that everything has not come about and developed through chance alone.

Darwinists are furious. Richard Dawkins, who is interviewed in the film, managed to attend a screening in Minneapolis although he was not invited. Dawkins relied on a minor trick: he gave Clinton as his first name. Technically, he was not lying since his full name is Clinton Richard Dawkins.

PZ Myers, another prominent critic of Intelligent Design, was barred from attending the movie and he wrote a bitter response in the Panda’s Thumb forum. Myers demanded that the supporters of Intelligent Design should be met with ”some form of righteous fury, much butt-kicking, and the public firing and humiliation of some teachers, many school board members and vast numbers of sleazy far-right politicians.”

It is odd that an atheist would publicly speak about righteous fury. After all, righteousness is a Judeo-Christian concept. One might think that Darwinists would not bother with ethical issues but perhaps they do, after all.

Mark Mathis, the producer of the movie, commented on the reaction of Myers and others, saying it was strange since ”these men applaud when professors throughout the nation are fired from their jobs and permanently excluded from their profession for mentioning Intelligent Design.”

Expelled documents how Darwinists endanger academic freedom. It seems that they are now afraid that their monopoly is about to end.

See the trailer here.

Source:

EXPELLED Controversy Top Issue in Blogosphere. Premise Media press release. http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080325006175&newsLang=en