Iowa/area news

...and has spawned some press coverage, here in the Ames Tribune and here in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, making us the first state to have faculty from all Regent universities speak out against intelligent design. I'll briefly address some of the comments. In the first article, U of I physics professor (and signer of the DI's "Scientific dissent from Darwinism" petition) Fred Skiff elaborates one giant strawman: "It's part of science to consider what blinders you might be wearing," Skiff said. "Materialists put conditions on science that things can only exist if they satisfy materialism. I…
That's my new favorite anti-ID quote, spoken by Mark Blumberg, at the University of Iowa Freethinkers' panel discussion on intelligent design last evening. Dr. Blumberg was discussing what a piss-poor design the human vertebral column is, and concluded his talk with the comment above. The other speakers, Scott Robinson and Evan Fales, also did a great job of conveying the issues. On the ID side was physicist Fred Skiff,one of the "dissenters from Darwinism." I'm sure Skiff is a nice guy and apparently a good physicist, but...wow. A biologist, he ain't. He conflated abiogenesis with…