Canadian Blogger awards

I understand that The Post-Darwinist is in the running as a sci-tech blog. If you like this blog, you might go there and vote for it.

But if you are new to the Post-D and have come here because of the blogger award publicity, let me explain: Years ago, as the faith and science columnist at ChristianWeek, I stumbled on the intelligent design controversy. People kept telling me it was already dead, but it continued to generate news. That did not make sense.

I read up on it, and I could see why. The universe shows evidence of intelligent design. The history of life forms has not gone as predicted at all.

Lots of people who have built their careers on Carl Sagan's "pale blue dot" Earth feel dissed.

And they are mad. In many cases, bleeping mad.

And the intelligent design controversy generated more and yet more news. It was dead every two weeks, then every week. Hmmmmm.

I took a couple of years off and wrote a book By Design or by Chance?, in which I explored the controversy.

In 2005, I started this blog, because I realized that a print book is frozen in time. But the news had now reached the crescendo of every other day. Instead of just squirrelling away files, I decided to put them up on a blog, prior to another edition of my book. You can search these files at Search Blog, upper left. Chances are, I covered a topic you are interested in.

I was rewarded with a number of scoops. Here are my two favourites (because they spiked readership):

In 2005, just after I got started as a blogger, The New York Times picked up my story on the showing of The Privileged Planet at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

In 2007, speaking at a conference in Seattle, I discovered that a documentary was to be made, featuring Ben Stein, on how scientists who talk about design in the universe get hounded out of their jobs.

I promptly pelted back to my room and typed out a story on my laptop. (The film still #5 in political documentaries in the theatre and, as I write this, #4 in DVD documentaries (12:05 pm EST).)

Anyway, I decided to make the intelligent design controversy my main beat. Few others were doing it, so I got a good seat, and it is fun.

Vote for this blog or some other one, as you wish, but I hope you will come back!

I might get another big scoop ...

I will put up some more posts shortly to this blog, and also to my Mindful Hack and Colliding Universes blogs, as well as others. But this afternoon I am taping a TV program on Religulous at iChannel.

Drat. They're nice people, but I hate the Cummer bus from Finch Station. I know the practical reason why the whole world cannot live downtown in Toronto, but I hate frozen feet all the same.

Anyway, I thought I should let you know how this blog got started and what it is about.

Help the blogosphere: Do remember to vote.

Find out why there is an intelligent design controversy: