Spectacular animations: The bacterial flagellum, the ID guys’ mascot

The flagellum of the bacterium is the unofficial symbol of the intelligent design community, and here’s a great new series of animations of it. (The reason it is their unofficial symbol is that biochemist Mike Behe pointed to it as a possible example of irreducible complexity - an organ or organism that is useless unless it has already achieved a high order of complexity. In Behe’s view, a slow Darwinian process is unlikely to produce such an organism, so we must look elsewhere for an explanation of its origin, one that amy include intentional design. Opponents of ID argue that the flagellum could have evolved over a long period of time from humbler precursors that were doing simpler jobs, just as the four-stroke engine naturally evolved over a long series of time from the two-stroke engine ...

If you like this blog, check out my award-winning book on the intelligent design controversy, By Design or by Chance?. You can read excerpts as well.

"Academic Freedom Watch : Here's the real, ugly story behind the claim that 'intelligent design isn't science'?".

Roseville, California, lawyer Larry Caldwell is suing over the use of tax money by Darwin lobby groups to promote religious views that accept Darwinian evolution (as opposed to ones that don’t). I’m pegging this one as the next big story. It will be interesting to see the line that the “separation of church and state” people take.
How to freak out your bio prof? What happened when a student bypassed the usual route of getting frogs drunk and dropping them down the chancellor’s robes, and tried questioning Darwinism instead.

Christoph, Cardinal Schonborn is not backing down from his contention that Darwinism is incompatible with Catholic faith, and Pope Benedict XVI probably thinks that’s just fine. Major US media have been trying to reach rewrite for months, with no success.

Museum tour guides to be trained to "respond" to those who question Darwinism. Read this item for an example of what at least one museum hopes to have them say.