Origins Archive

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Design theory—also called design or the design argument—is the view that nature shows tangible signs of having been designed by a preexisting intelligence.

The head of a pro-evolution think tank has issued a retraction for factual misstatements and false allegations she made in an article attacking a California man who wants the scientific weaknesses of Darwin's theory of evolution taught in public school science classes.
AgapePress

I write as neither a creationist nor a Darwinist, but as one who knows what is probably the most disreputable scientific secret of the past century: There is no plausible scientific theory of the origin of species!
The American Enterprise

What is intelligent design? To hear some folks talk, you'd think it's a scam to sneak Genesis into science classrooms.
Discovery Institute, 2005

"It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that)."  --Richard Dawkins, prominent Oxford scientist and author

Review of Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians by Jeffrey Burton Russell, Praeger Publishers, 1997, 132 pages.

An intellectual sea change has begun as Christian scholarship undergoes a renaissance. Leading the way are scholars involved in what is called the Intelligent Design (ID)Movement. But what is ID all about? Here's the answer.

New research on mice has found evidence suggesting a pseudogene plays a crucial regulatory role in the expression of another gene within the cell. Findings like these have important implications for the authority of Darwinian evolution.
The Wedge Update

Each year at about this time millions of students across the country make their way back to campus to continue their unfettered pursuit of truth by asking life’s “big” questions in a free and liberating educational context--right? Well, unfortunately this ideal isn’t always reached. In fact, sometimes it is even obstructed.
The Wedge Update

Pre-existing beliefs are powerful organizing forces that can infiltrate the collective thought of even some of culture's biggest ideas. If we are not careful these beliefs will insulate us from assessing those ideas fairly.
The Wedge Update

The anti-intelligent design community has been bitten by its own rhetoric, and is doing all it can to stanch the wound—by less than ethical means.
Discovery Institute, 2004

Most people know about Darwin's theory only form textbook. Here are Darwin's own arguments for his theory of natural selection.

This classic statement of the existence and attributes of God as discerned in Nature influenced the young Charles Darwin for many years.

Charles Darwin's treatise on the evolution of humankind.

Volume 1 of the life and letters of Charles Darwin

Volume 2 of the life and letters of Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin's famous account of his voyage on the HMS Beagle as an unofficial ship's naturalist.

Darwin's notion of morality virtually supplanted Christian morality in Germany between the 1870s and the 1930s, leading to a "Culture of Death." In The Descent of Man (1871), Darwin suggested that morality was the result of biological evolution and that it differed only in degree, not in kind, from the social instincts of animals.
New Oxford Book Reviews

Many things in nature appear to be designed. This appearance has not diminished with advances in knowledge. To the contrary, it has increased. You'd think this would instill at least a little open-mindedness toward a design hypothesis.
The Wedge Update

It turns out the most promising century was the cruelest. And the moral code--thanks to the rise of scientific materialism--is fading fast. Will anything hold evil at bay?
Boundless

It's official: The sky has fallen. At least that seems to be the conclusion of prominent scientists and educators following a decision by the Kansas State Board of Education not to require schools to teach evolution.
Montgomery (Md.) Journal

Mathematician turned Darwin critic William Dembski says evolutionary theory "disintegrating very quickly." Surprisingly, Dembski says more should be taught about evolution in the classroom--namely, its criticisms.
Associated Press

There are many - folks who insist that evolution is a fact, or well-nigh to it - who read dark intentions between the lines. To them, any talk about critical thinking is simply religiously motivated rubbish.
Discovery Institute, 2005

What's going on at The New Republic? The current issue of the magazine features two broadside attacks on the movement known as Intelligent Design [ID], and the magazine's online edition adds a third.
Baptist Press

If I ever become like Terri Schiavo, please don't put me through what she has endured.
Boundless, 2005

In today's world, Christians are often viewed as weak-minded folks who prefer "comfortable myths" to reality. But that may be about to change.
Boundless

Contrary to typical editorial practices, "The Origin of Biological Informationand the Higher Taxonomic Categories," was published without review by any associate editor; Sternberg handled the entire review process.
Discovery Institute, 2004

The persecuted Smithsonian scientist is Richard von Sternberg, the holder of two PhDs in biology (one in theoretical biology, the other in molecular evolution).
National Review Online

The human genome says "yes," depending on how you look at it. ...
Boundless

Svetlov may not understand why the publication of Meyer’s paper (The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories) was such a big deal.

It is well known in scientific circles that molecular histories often conflict with those based on fossils.

The issue is not whether mutation and natural selection can produce minor changes; it’s whether these mechanisms can create new tissues, organs, limbs or body plans.

"Whether an intelligent cause is located within or outside nature (i.e., is respectively natural or supernatural) is a separate question from whether an intelligent cause has operated."

The scientific literature shows that the rock record, far from supporting neo-Darwinism, has always been something neo-Darwinists have had to explain away.

The evidence your friend presents is certainly consistent with his story. The problem, however, is that it’s also consistent with other explanations. ...

When a design theorist says that a string of letters is specified, he’s saying that it fits a recognizable pattern.

The more we learn about living organisms, the more they look like products of design rather than products of chance and natural law.

"There’s no finding in which you can say, ‘Aha! See, the courts have found that intelligent design is just the same,’" DeWolf said.

Haeckel’s drawings are wrong.

Using the contemporary definition of homology as evidence for common ancestry is circular reasoning.

Just as a watch’s parts are all perfectly adapted for the purpose of telling time, the parts of an eye are all perfectly adapted for the purpose of seeing.

So what's the problem? After all, evolution is indeed a theory.

It's no surprise that intelligent design proponents published a paper in a peer-reviewed journal. The surprise is that it didn't happen earlier.