Darwin Doubters Want to Have their Cake and Eat it too

The phrase "to have your cake and eat it too" means that you can't have it both ways or "shouldn't try to have two incompatible things" [You can't have your cake and eat it].

The Intelligent Design Creationists are giving us a good example of just what this means. They have a new book coming out called "Darwin's Doubt." It's to be published by the religious arm of HarperCollins. The book will be available in a few months in the USA so the IDiots are ramping up the hype in preparation. We are told that this book, just like several previous books from the Discovery Institute, will definitively refute evolution and demonstrate the truth of Intelligent Design Creationism.

Here's how casey Luskin put it a few days ago [Three (or Four) Reasons Everyone Should Read Darwin's Doubt].

When published, Darwin's Doubt will be the single most up-to-date rebuttal to neo-Darwinian theory from the ID-paradigm. In this regard, one exciting element of Darwin's Doubt is that Meyer reviews much of the peer-reviewed research that's been published by the ID research community over the last few years, and highlights how ID proponents are doing relevant research answering key questions that show Darwinian evolution isn't up to the task of generating new functional information.

Here's how the strategy works. The IDiots are arguing the merits of Meyer's new book on the leading creationist blogs. They are generating lots of publicity and convincing their followers that the book is going to be a devastating rebuttal of "Darwinism." None of their followers have read the book but that doesn't matter. They won't have to.

How are scientist supposed to respond? None of us have read the book so we can't (yet) show that it is just more of the same old propaganda that we've seen before. What we can say is that we are very skeptical of the claims being made and we think it is disingenuous to promote those claims when we can't examine the "evidence." We can confidently speculate about what Stephen Meyer is going to say because he has a history and because he gives away some of his arguments in the publicity surrounding the book. The IDiots only sing one note and there's a very high probability that this isn't going to change.

That's exactly what Jerry Coyne said in his post: A (formerly) reputable publisher sells out to creationists. He puts it very nicely—and undoubtedly accurately— when he says, "But creationist Stephen Meyer, from the Discovery Institute, has apparently wrapped up the story. He’s hit upon the real reason for the Cambrian explosion: it’s intelligent design! Yes, baby Jesus made the phyla!"

Does anyone with an IQ over 50 think Coyne's prediction is wrong?

You know what's coming because we've seen it all before with the pre-publication hype for "The Myth of Junk DNA." "Science of Human Origins," and "Signature in the Cell." This time it's David Klinghoffer who is the designated whiner [Current Trends in Darwinian Book-Reviewing].

With a pub date of June 18, naturally no books are available. (Though you can preorder at a nice discount, for now, better than Amazon, over at DarwinsDoubt.com.) Nevertheless, at Why Evolution Is True, University of Chicago biologist Jerry Coyne assumes he knows what will be in the book. His absurd summary: "Yes, baby Jesus made the phyla!"

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Darwinists have a curious way of responding to serious scientific and intellectual challenges to their beliefs. And it's getting more curious, isn't it? It's sort of evolving. If they had answers to ID's challenges, surely they would wait till they read the book, then accurately characterize what it says, and then tell us why Steve Meyer is wrong. But so far, and wasting no time, they have signaled in this strange prophylactic manner their unwillingness to do so.

The solution is obvious to everyone but the IDiots. Don't make outlandish claims about what's in a book until it's published and everyone can check for themselves. It you speculate about what the book is going to say then don't be surprised if others do as well.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

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