Word: fossils
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Other arguments in this new brand of anti-Darwinism focus on missing pieces in the fossil record, particularly the Cambrian period, when there was an explosion of novel species. Still other advocates, including mathematician, philosopher and theologian William Dembski, who is heading up a new center for intelligent design at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, use the mathematics of probability to try to show that chance mutations and natural selection cannot account for nature's complexity. In contrast to earlier opponents to Darwin, many proponents of intelligent design accept some role for evolution--heresy to some creationists. They are also careful...
...gaps in the fossil record, Dawkins says, that is like detectives complaining that they can't account for every minute of a crime--a very ancient one--based on what they found at the scene. "You have to make inferences from footprints and other types of evidence." As it happens, he notes, there is a huge amount of evidence of evolution not only in the fossil record but also in the letters of the genetic code shared in varying degrees by all species. "The pattern," says Dawkins, "is precisely what you would expect if evolution would happen." Dawkins insists that...
...teachers voluntarily take alternative theories to class. Eric Schweain has been teaching high school biology in St. Louis, Mo., for a decade. Although he follows the district's policy of teaching Darwin's theory, he also talks about intelligent design, an idea he personally favors. "I teach according to fossil evidence, though I make sure to tell students that it's important to talk to family and friends and, if you go to a church, talk to your clergy...
Congress last week passed energy legislation costing $14.5 billion in tax credits and spending. Republicans hailed the bill for its free-market principles and support of less polluting energy sources. Democrats called it corporate welfare for the unclean and well-off fossil-fuel industries...
...industries in Australia, the U.S., China and India. Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, says he sees a single advantage to the new approach: that the Bush Administration is finally acknowledging that global warming is real and that fossil fuels play a role. "But this dual pact approach is not helpful," he says. "The entire world community needs to come together on this issue. The pattern of climate instability we're seeing now is what we predicted for the end of this decade. Look at what's happening...