Friday, March 07, 2008

Kenneth Miller on NMSR

New Mexicans for Science and Reason posted an interview with Kenneth Miller, Brown University biochemist. It was aired on February 8 of this year can be found here by following the "Archives" link. I am listening to it now. First up is a definition of science as being outside the realm of the supernatural and subject to peer-review. "Throw rocks at me" is how one of the hosts puts it. It is a methodology of learning about the natural world. It is not an ideology. Contrast this with the AIG post on "Are We Against Science?"

They are remarking on the Avalon Explosion, which occurred before the Cambrian explosion and took place over a time period of some thirty million years. This is a problem for creationists because they are fond of saying that the all of the major forms of life "exploded" on the scene, suggesting that animal and plant life did not evolve slowly but arrived on the scene at one time. The Avalon explosion suggests that there has been more than one "explosion." Listen to it if you have the time.

The interview mostly covers the Dover School Board trial and the adoption of the book that he and Joe Levine wrote on biology. He suggests that the Discovery Institute realized that the trial was going to be a "train wreck" because of the "hidden links between ID and old fashioned creationism" and that is why the DI's senior fellows withdrew from the trial. Miller refers to the trial as a "scientific rout for evolution."

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