Subject: Misrepresentation of Darwin Conference, Praque 10-21-05

From: "Stanley Family" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 12:20:43 -0700

FYI, 
note "Intelligent Design" usage of "Scientific Conference" and the Title (Darwin and Design: A Challenge for 21st Century Science)

Source:  http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-19-2005/0004173331&EDATE=

SEATTLE, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The theory of intelligent design will
have its first major European showing at a international, scientific
conference in Prague, Czech Republic next Saturday, October 21. Promoters of
the conference -- Darwin and Design: A Challenge for 21st Century Science
(http://www.darwinanddesign.org) -- say that attendance at the Congress Centrum in
Prague could reach 1,000 attendees, including scientists from Europe and the
United States, teachers, students and the general public.
    "The conference will clearly demonstrate that the theory of intelligent
design is based upon scientific evidence and discoveries in fields such as
biochemistry, molecular biology, paleontology and astrophysics," said speaker
Dr. Stephen C. Meyer, director of Discovery Institute's Center for Science &
Culture, himself an Oxford educated philosopher of science. "Many in Europe
know intelligent design and the case against Darwin's theory of evolution only
through inaccurate accounts they have received from the media, and this
conference will help educate them on what intelligent design is really about."
    Discovery Institute is home to many of the leading scientists and scholars
researching the theory of intelligent design. Intelligent design holds that an
intelligent cause rather than an unguided process such as natural selection
can best explain certain features of the universe and living things. Design
scientists do not base their theory on religious authority, but instead on
scientific evidences and well-established principles of scientific reasoning.
They do not support the creationist view that the Earth is only 6,000 or so
years old.
    Charles Thaxton, a biochemist who has taught at Charles University in
Prague, and a fellow of the Discovery Institute, is the chief organizer of the
conference. Thaxton wrote a seminal book on the theory of intelligent design
titled, "The Mystery of Life's Origins" in 1984.  In addition to Meyer,
Thaxton has arranged for notable European scientist Cees Dekker, a biophysics
professor at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, and John
Lennox, an Oxford mathematician, to speak, along with Discovery Institute
senior fellows David Berlinski (author of Infinite Ascent, Tour of the
Calculus and Advent of the Algorithm), biochemist Michael Behe and biologist
Jonathan Wells.
    Representatives of Christoph Cardinal Schonborn of Vienna, Austria will
attend the conference. Cardinal Schonborn, former lead editor of The Catechism
of the Catholic Church, has recently challenged claims of Darwinists that the
Catholic Church accepts the broad anti-design implications drawn by proponents
of Darwin's theory.
    For more information please visit the conference website at
http://www.darwinanddesign.org.

---

From: "Stanley Family" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 18:47:44 -0700

My thanks Mr. Harris,

The heart of their argument is that speciation does not take place and 
cannot be demonstrated - speciation is supposedly only done by the unseen 
"Intelligence". You may be interested in the court action (Kitzmiller et al 
v Dover) currently taking place in Pennsylvania and some of the testimony 
which is accessible from the ACLU excellant website 
(http://aclupa.blogspot.com/).  The cross examination of Dr. Michael Behe is 
particularly informative - and he is to be a speaker in Prague.

The Discovery Institute in backed by a segment of the religious 
fundamendalists with generous donations and is the main source (and 
originators) of the term "Intelligent Design" - and the political 
manipulations to get it incorporated into school systems and Science 
Programs.

DI's agenda is the evolution of science into pseudo science.

Robert Stanley

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Info Person" <[email-masked]>
To: "Stanley Family" <[email-masked]>
Cc: <[email-masked]>; "David Harris" <[email-masked]>
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 3:20 PM
Subject: Re: Misrepresentation of Darwin Conference, Praque 10-21-05

> Thank you for the heads up on this ID conference.  I have been working on 
> an essay about what is science and what is not, based on the work of 
> science philosopher Karl Popper.
>
> This line from their press release captures the heart of their claim: 
> "Intelligent design holds that an intelligent cause rather than an 
> unguided process such as natural selection can best explain certain 
> features of the universe and living things."
>
> But science requires not just that an idea EXPLAIN the observed facts. The 
> method of science requires that an idea be consistent with the observed 
> facts and MAKE A PREDICTION that is unexpected, makes some difference, and 
> can be tested (potentially falsifiable).
>
> What does Intelligent Design predict?  Can you do anything with the idea 
> of "an intelligent cause explains this"?  No.  The real problem with ID is 
> that it is powerless and irrelevant to the testing of how the world works. 
> Science focuses on ideas that have unexpected consequences that can be 
> tested, and since ID doesn't make any interesting predictions, it is not 
> part of science.
>
>   - David Harris, Database Architect/Editor and Outreach Coordinator
>     DarwinDay.org
>
> Stanley Family wrote:
>> FYI,
>> note "Intelligent Design" usage of "Scientific Conference" and the Title 
>> (Darwin and Design: A Challenge for 21st Century Science)
>>  Source: 
>> http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-19-2005/0004173331&EDATE 
>> <http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-19-2005/0004173331&EDATE>=