The Unexplained

©copyright 2005 Robert Todd Carroll

Intelligent design (ID) is an anti-evolution belief that asserts that naturalistic explanations of some biological entities are not possible and such entities can only be explained by intelligent causes.  Advocates of ID maintain that their belief is scientific and provides empirical proof for the existence of God or superintelligent aliens. They claim that intelligent design should be taught in the science classroom as an alternative to the science of evolution. ID is essentially a hoax, however, since evolution is consistent with a belief in an intelligent designer of the universe. The two are not contradictory and they are not necessarily competitors. ID is proposed mainly by Christian apologists at the Discovery Institute and their allies, who feel science threatens their Biblical-based view of reality.

In December 2005, federal Judge John E. Jones III ruled that ID must meet the same fate that creationism met in 1987 when the Supreme Court ruled religious doctrines can't be promoted in secular institutions under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Judge Jones wrote in his decision regarding a policy of the Dover, Pennsylvania, school district that added ID to the school's biology program:

The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy. It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy. The arguments of the ID advocates may seem like a rehash of the creationist arguments, but the defenders of ID claim that they do not reject evolution simply because it does not fit with their understanding of the Bible. However, they present natural selection as implying the universe could not have been designed or created, which is nonsense. To deny that God has the power to create living things using natural selection is to assert something unknowable. It is also inconsistent with the belief in an omnipotent Creator... 

Under the vast ice sheets of Antarctica there exists an extensive mountain range entirely encompassed in the ice. Now an international team of scientists who have surveyed the areahave released a first glimpse of their results."Scientists who mapped one of the most enigmatic mountain ranges on Earth have given a first glimpse of their data.

An international team spent two months in 2008/9 surveying the Gamburtsevs in Antarctica- a series of peaks totally buried under the ice cap. "

View: Full Article | Source: BBCNews

In a bizarre story this week home owners who thought they were being burgled when they heard a commotion on the roof of their house discovered that the real culprit was in fact a cow that had jumped six feet offthe ground."A cow has been caught jumping six feet on to a roof, after the owners thought they had been burgled.

Neighbour William de Cothi, 17, photographed the animal after he spotted it on the roof about six feet off the ground. "

View: Full Article | Source: Telegraph

A series of mysterious cattle mutilations in Colorado have left ranchers and authorities baffled. In one case four calves were found dead overnight with their tongues, eyes and internal organs carefullyremoved."Four calves, all killed overnight.

Their innards gone. Tongues sliced out. Udders carefully removed. Facial skin sliced and gone. Eyes cored away. Not a single track surrounding the carcasses, which were found in pastures locked behind two gates and a mile fromany road. Not a drop of blood on the ground or even on the remaining skin."

View: Full Article | Source: DenverPost