Nature Gets It Wrong About ID’S Relation to Creationism

Image courtesy of CCS/CAPES.



Joel Kontinen

“The appointment of a creationism advocate to lead the agency that oversees Brazil’s graduate study programs has scientists here concerned—yet again—about the encroachment of religion on science and education policy.”

However, evolution is based on naturalism, which is a religion minus the influence of God. So, this just proves that evolutionists want to do away with God.

"President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration on Saturday named Benedito Guimarães Aguiar Neto to head the agency, known as CAPES. Aguiar Neto, an electrical engineer by training, previously served as the rector of Mackenzie Presbyterian University (MPU), a private religious school here. It advocates the teaching and study of intelligent design (ID)."

Here’s how nature defines ID. “It is an outgrowth of biblical creationism that argues that life is too complex to have evolved by Darwinian evolution, and so required an intelligent designer.”
Some researchers are worried, with the temple of Darwin going down.

“CAPES is a key federal agency within Brazil’s Ministry of Education. It is responsible for regulating, supervising and evaluating all graduate-level programs at Brazilian universities, and funds thousands of scholarships for master’s and doctoral students. It also issues funding calls for research and provides training for teachers in primary and secondary education.”

Source:

Escobar, Herton. 2020. Brazil’s pick of a creationist to lead its higher education agency rattles scientists. Nature 26 January.

Duane Gish, Legendary Creationist Biochemist, Turns 90

Doctor Duane Gish turns 90 today. Image courtesy of CreationWiki.



Joel Kontinen

At a time when skeptics claimed that no real scientist would doubt Darwinian evolution, Duane Gish, who has a PhD in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkley, rose up to the challenge and showed that it was evolution that was not true.

Together with Dr. Henry Morris, the founder and president of the Institute for Creation Research (ICR), Dr. Gish took part in debates in major US universities. They succeeded so well that evolutionists eventually recommended against debating creationists.

In addition to taking part in 300 debates, Dr. Gish has written 5 books, published 40 papers in scientific journals and written several popular-level articles.


Source:

Northwest Creation Network , Duane T. Gish.

At last: Skeptics are awakening to see what creationists really believe

Skeptic, Michael Shermer’s magazine, is probably one of the best-known skeptic publications. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

Known for his many books and articles, Michael Shermer, the editor of Skeptic magazine, is not averse to discussing controversial topics. In the new issue of E-Skeptic he recommends Daniel Loxton’s article on creationism.

Loxton equates young earth creationism with Darwinism.

According to an old myth, creationists believe that species have hardly changed since creation.

However, Loxton took a look at the websites of Answers in Genesis and Creation Ministries International and he was almost as astonished as the shepherds to whom angels announced the good news near the little town of Bethelem.

He noticed that creationists do not deny natural selection. Neither do they claim that species have not changed or do not change.

Many creationists believe that the global flood of Noah’s days was a genetic bottleneck that most probably accelerated speciation.

Loxton even checked what Creationwiki had to say about baraminology. The concept is derived from the Hebrew words bara (’create’) and min (’kind’). In other words, baraminology has to do with the study of created kinds.

Animals change according to their kinds. For instance, the Australian wild dog dingo (Canis lupus dingo) is now considered to be a separate species. It probably developed from the domesticated dog (Canis lupus familiaris) that returned to living in the wild. The domesticated dog developed from the wolf (Canis lupus).

However, a dog could never evolve into a cat. Neither could a unicellular organism develop into a multicellular animal since it would need far too many beneficial mutations. As Haldane’s dilemma suggests, even hundreds of millions of years would be far too short for that.

Darwinian evolution does not work in practice. It cannot explain where the necessary genetic information comes from. Without huge additions of information, a unicellular organism will for ever remain a unicellular creature.


Source:

Loxton, Daniel. 2009. Young Earth Creationism = Darwinism. Skepticblog (8 December)
http://skepticblog.org/2009/12/08/young-earth-creationism-darwinism/

An Atheist Defends Intelligent Design

A new book describes intelligent design as science.




Joel Kontinen

Usually, detractors of intelligent design dismiss it as religion clothed in scientific garb. Darwinists have for instance labelled it as a Trojan Horse for smuggling religious views into science teaching. They are often unable or unwilling to make a distinction between creationism and intelligent design.

A fresh book written by an atheist challenges the Darwinian understanding of intelligent design. Bradley Monton attempts to approach the issue objectively in his book Seeking God in Science: An Atheist Defends Intelligent Design (Broadway Press, 2009). Monton, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Colorado, concludes that intelligent design is science.

According to Monton, intelligent design is a genuine attempt to seek the truth and it could thus be included in the school science curriculum.

Monton’s theses are unusual. He acknowledges that intelligent design arguments have made him less certain of his atheism but he nevertheless tries to fit design into his worldview that excludes the supernatural.

It seems that Monton is an honest atheist.

A few years ago Anthony Flew, who for half a century was the best-known spokesman for atheism, acknowledged that arguments for ID caused him to understand that God exists.

Design in nature is obvious. The apostle Paul wrote:

” For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).


Source:

Gilson, Tom. 2009. ID's Unlikely Defender. (28 July)
http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/articles/12030-ids-unlikely-defender

50 Years Ago: Huxley’s Premature Declaration

Sir Julian Huxley made a rather premature declaration in 1959. Image from Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen


1959 was a special year for evolutionists. It marked the 100th anniversary of The Origin of Species. When the Darwin centennial was celebrated in Chicago, Sir Julian Huxley announced confidentially that creationism was essentially dead.

Sir Julian Huxley (1887-1975) was the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley who was known as Darwin’s bulldog.

When Huxley made this statement, doctors Henry Morris and John Whitcomb were already writing their book The Genesis Flood, which increased the popularity of creationism manifold. Published in 1961, the book is still having a profound effect around the globe.

Now, as the Darwinian world prepares to celebrate Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday, we have yet to hear any predictions about the demise of the last Darwin dissenters.


Source:

Whitcomb, John C. 2006. The History and Impact of the Book, "The Genesis Flood". Acts & Facts 35:5, I-iv. (May 2006) http://www.icr.org/article/2719/