Steve Matheson posts a lot less frequently than I would like–but when he does, he’s always excellent. From today’s post on gene duplication:
First, take note that this article is another example of a sophisticated, hypothesis-driven experimental analysis of a central evolutionary concept. Research like this is reported almost daily, though you’d never learn this by reading the work of Reasons To Believe or the fellows of the Discovery Institute. The mis-characterization of evolutionary biology by the creationists of those organizations is a scandal, and as you might already know, my blog’s main purpose is to give evangelical Christians an opportunity to explore the science that is being so carefully avoided by those critics. You don’t need to understand sign epistasis or the structure of transcription factors to get this take-home message: evolutionary biologists are hard at work solving the problems that some prominent Christian apologists can’t or won’t even acknowledge. How does gene duplication lead to the formation of genes with new functions? The folks at the Discovery Institute can’t even admit that it happens. Over at Reasons To Believe, they don’t mention gene duplication all, despite their fascination with “junk DNA.” That’s from a ministry that claims to have developed a “testable model” to explain scores of questions regarding origins.
This makes me mad. No matter what you think of the age of the earth or the need for creation miracles, you should be upset by Christians who mangle science to serve apologetic ends.