Advocacy against Materialism and Neo-Darwinism: 2021


 

Long interview with me and Canadian philosopher and historian Matthew Ehret on Darwinism and its social aspects at Zain Khan Live (January 2nd, 2021).


 

Interview with me by Andrew McDiarmid for ID the Future podcast titled "A Paleontologist Buries Another Proposed Cambrian Precursor(January 4, 2021).


In his latest posting titled "Bechly Bloviates "Briefly"! " (January 16, 2021) hardcore Darwinist troll Bill Needle celebrated at his Marmotism blog that my last article on Kimberella was surprisingly short. He deludes himself that this was only because his silly comments have such magical power over me. Hilarious, that this deplorable loser did not even recognize in his phenomenal inaptitude that this article was just the final install of my 14-part article series on Kimberella. He also hallucinates that nobody actually reads my stuff. Well, he apparently confused the more than 3.5K Facebook likes for my Kimberella series with the zero likes for all of his lonely posts.

In his ridiculous response "Bitching Bechly!" (Jan. 21, 2021) this schmuck first shows that he does not even know his mother language English by petty quibbling to a non-native speaker that I allegedly misspelled inaptitude (no boy, it's correct, see here). Next, he completely loses his mind in claiming that I lied, when I said that he had doubted that anybody reads my stuff. Let me quote to refresh his lousy memory: "I don't think even the most rabid ID creationists are going to bother reading your [insult deleted]." Like all dumb people suffering from Dunning-Kruger effect he is blissfully unaware of his inaptitude. He is also muddleheaded in believing that Christians must react like gentle sheeple to all hostile and rude idiots, because due to his total biblical illiteracy he is ignorant of the fact that Jesus could be very harsh himself (e.g., whipping pharisees and calling them a "brood of vipers").

Enjoy Bill's implicit admission of defeat, revealed by his sissy whining about a deserved harsh response without addressing any of the actual points.

Two-part article at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News, with my critical comments on a new study, which again (unconvincingly) attempts to identify Namacalathus as an Ediacaran lophophorate animal:

Part 1: "Resurrecting Namacalathus as an Ediacaran Animal" (January 18, 2021)

Part 2: "Namacalathus Revisited — Not Much to See" (January 19, 2021)

 

Webinar with Q&A about "Discontinuities in the Fossil Record" for the Britisch Center for Intelligent Design C4ID (January 18, 2021).


 

Audio interview with me at Elmo's World podcast (Jan. 29, 2021) about my world view and its development, including metaphysics, religion, intelligent design, and techno-utopianism.

 

 

Briefly featuring in a video about "Scientists, who affirm Intelligent Design" by Discovery Institute (Febr. 10, 2021).


Interview with me by Eric Anderson for ID the Future podcast titled "Botany Journal Revisits Darwin’s “Abominable Mystery”(Febr. 23, 2021), about the abrupt origin of flowering plants in the Cretaceous as a problem for Darwin's theory.


Featured in "Botany Journal Revisits Charles Darwin’s “Abominable Mystery”" at Evolution News (Febr. 25, 2021).

Seven part article series titled "A Precambrian House of Cards" for Discovery Institute's site Evolution News about a new study that describes alleged developmental genetic similarities between Precambrian animals and us, as well as the uncertain affinities of Trilobozoa:

Part 1: A Precambrian House of Cards (March 22, 2021)

Part 2: Ediacarans are not Animals (March 23, 2021)

Part 3: The Enigmatic Tribrachidium and Trilobozoa (March 24, 2021)

Part 4: Examining Potential other Trilobozoans (March 25, 2021)

Part 5: Uncertain Affinities of Trilobozoa (March 26, 2021)

Part 6: Unknown Biology of Trilobozoa (March 28, 2021)

Part 7: Evans et al. (2021): All Four Examples Debunked (March 29, 2021)

 

Clueless troll Bill Needle responded with the silly posting "Gunter Bechly Ad Nauseum!" (sic: this illiterate simpleton does not even know how to correctly spell Latin terms like ad nauseam) at his Marmotism blog (March 27, 2021). As usual, his boorish waffle is guaranteed 100% free of expertise and any substantial arguments.

 

A long interview with Fazale Rana and me about "God, Science and Darwin" and the evidence for intelligent design, at Zain Khan Live (April 6, 2021).


Article titled "The Cambrian Explosion Has Just Gone Nuclear" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (April 8, 2021), about the discovery that the alien Ediacaran biota and the complex Cambrian biota were only separated by a very short gap of 410 thousand years.

Here is a translation into Portugese thanks to Dr. Enezio E. de Almeida Filho:

"A explosão Cambriana acabou de se tornar explosão nuclear!!!"

This article was also featured as "#1 Story of 2021" at Evolution News (Jan. 1st, 2022).

 

Recording of my webinar "Evidence against Neo-Darwinism from the Fossil Record" for Discovery Institute's Science & Culture Network SoCal on April 10, 2021.

 

 

 

There is also a follow-up Q&A posted on YouTube on May 5, 2021.


 

"What if - Life Story: Dr. Günter Bechly" (in German) with my testimony for the VBG Luzern Hochschultage "What if ...?" 2021 (April 14, 2021).


 Recording of my lecture "New Evidence Against Materialism and for the Concept of Intelligent Design (and a Cosmic Mind)" for the Rising Tide Foundation on April 18, 2021.

The updated slides are available at AuthorStream. If Authorsteam should not work for you, you can download the PDF here.


Unfortunately, the 3 hour recording of my lecture and Q&A was months later deleted from the YouTube channel of RTF, as well as any mentioning of my lecture on their website. This happened without any consultation or notification of mine! After several unanswered emails, a contact with co-founder and vice president Matthew Ehret via Facebook Messenger revealed that RTF does not want any arguments that are based on the established mainstream physics of quantum mechanics and relativity theory because they only endorse crackpot alternatives. This was not evident from their invitation of my lecture nor from the program description of their symposium "As above, so below". I consider this behaviour as an appalling and cowardly act of censorship and herewith strongly distance myself from this cult-like organisation.

Please feel free to protest here: https://risingtidefoundation.net/contact/

David Klinghoffer's article "Dinosaurs and More: Bechly on the Fossil Record vs. Neo-Darwinism" Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (April 19, 2021), featuring my webinar above.

Recording of my live webinar on „Fossil Discontinuities as a Problem for Darwinism“ for the Polish EnArche Foundation on April 28, 2021.

My lecture and answers are in English, only the introduction and questions are in Polish.


Article titled "Scientists Conclude: Human Origins Research Is a Big Mess" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (May 10, 2021), about the rarely communicated fact that the science of human origins is  far from settled.

 

Live discussion (3.5 hours) about "The Fossil Record, Evolution, and Intelligent Design" with biologist and YouTuber Erika "Gutsick Gibbon" on the Theology Unleashed YouTube channel (May 14, 2021).


 

 

Interview with me about "God, Philosophy & Science"  at Zain Khan Live (April 30, 2021).


Four part article series on Darwin's "abominable mystery" for Discovery Institute's site Evolution News about new studies that allegedly help to solve the mystery of the abrupt appearance of flowering plants in the Cretaceous period:

Part 1: Darwin’s “Abominable Mystery”: Still Alive and Kicking (June 11, 2021)

Part 2: Darwin’s "Abominable Mystery’"Is Not Alone: Gaps Everywhere! (June 12, 2021)

Part 3: Darwin’s "Abominable Mystery": Jurassic Flowering Plants After All? (June 14, 2021)

Part 4: Darwin’s "Abominable Mystery": Mesozoic Cupules Come to the Rescue? (June 15, 2021)

 

Interview by Marco Respinti with me about intelligent design theory for the Centro Italiano per l'Intelligent Design CIID (June 18, 2021).


Also see the article "To an Italian ID Group, Günter Bechly Explains His Remarkable Journey" by David Klinghoffer at Evolution News (June 28, 2021).

This article immediately provoked a silly rant titled "Günter Bechly is Triumphant" by an anonymous coward at The Sensuous Curmudgeon blog (June 28, 2021).

 

Intelligent Design debate of me with computational biologist Joshua Swamidass for the Unbelievable show hosted by Justin Brierley at Premier Christian Radio (June 18, 2021). Also available as Podcast.


David Klinghoffer reported about this event "Watch: Bechly and Swamidass Debate Intelligent Design" at Evolution News (June 19, 2021).

Also see some reactions under "Bechly and Swamidass: For and Against ID" at Peaceful Science.

 

 

Reposting of my Unbelievable debate with Joshua Swamidass at the ID the Future podcast:

Episode 1477:  "An ID Debate: Joshua Swamidass and Günter Bechly, Pt. 1" (July 12, 2021)

Episode 1478: "An ID Debate, Pt. 2: Joshua Swamidass and Günter Bechly" (July 14, 2021)

 


In this very personal interview by Sean McDowell my good friend Stephen C. Meyer tells the story of my "conversion" from Darwinism to ID and how I made contact with Discovery Institute (timecode 25:00-27:45; July 22, 2021).


Second research paper from our "waiting time problem" project published  (print: Sept. 7, 2021; online: May 14, 2021):

Hössjer O., Bechly G. & Gauger A. (2021): On the waiting time until coordinated mutations get fixed in regulatory sequences. Journal of Theoretical Biology 524, 110657.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2021.110657

 

Our article made it on place three of the most downloaded articles for the Journal of Theoretical Biology in the past three months (August 20, 2021).


Announcement in an article "In Mainstream Journal, ID Theorists Explore “Waiting Times” for Coordinated Mutations" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (August 18, 2021).

This article was chosen as one of the "Three Major Advances for ID" in 2021 in Brian Miller's review of the year at Evolution News (December 28, 2021).

This of course provoked another inept rant "ID Creationism's Beard" by Bill Needle at his Marmotism blog (August 24, 2021), showing his hypocrisy, because just two posts earlier he asked why we don't publish our stuff in peer-reviewed scientific journals. You can't make this up.

Other Darwinist reactions were posted by Mikkel Rasmussen at Panda's Thumb (June 12, 2021) and Scott Buchanan at  Letters to Creationists (Sept. 2, 2021)

Online lecture with live Q&A about scientific arguments against Neo-Darwinism and for Intelligent Design presented to Iranian students and academics in Germany and at the Universites of Tehran and Isfahan (Sep. 29, 2021).

 

You can freely join as guest via this link (click on Persian and choose English):

https-//vc.sharif.edu/ch/philsci-speech.webloc

 

A recording is freely available at:

https://www.aparat.com/v/eqBsk

 

and here is a part of the Q&A with the critical questions by a very bright 9-year-old boy:

https://www.aparat.com/v/fu2CE

 


 

 

 

The new book „The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith“ at Harvest House includes a chapter no. 31 titled "Does the Fossil Record Demonstrate Darwinian Evolution?" (pp. 345-356) authored by me (October 5, 2021).


Excerpt "The Discontinuous Fossil Record Refutes Darwinian Gradualism" from my book chapter for  Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (November 2, 2021).

New episode no. 9 "Fossils: Mysterious Origins" of the Science Up_Rising documentary series by Discovery Institute, featuring Casey Luskin, Richard von Sternberg, Stephen C. Meyer and myself talking about evidence from the fossil record against Darwinism (Nov. 17, 2021).


Also see article "New Science Uprising Episode Asks, “Just How Bad Is the Fossil Record for Darwin’s Theory?”" by David Klinghoffer for Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (Nov. 15, 2021).

 

A 36 minute Q&A interview with me about the evidence from the fossil record against Darwinism and for intelligent design, as bonus material to the Science Up_Rising episode by Discovery Institute (Nov. 23, 2021).


Also see article "Günter Bechly: Why the Fossil Record Points to Intelligent Design" at Discovery Institute's site Evolution News (Nov. 23, 2021).

Speaking engagements and other scheduled events for 2021:

  • January 18, 2021 (via Zoom): Webinar "Discontinuities in the Fossil Record" for C4ID.
  • January 28, 2021 (via Zoom): Interview for Elmo's World podcast.
  • February 10, 2021: Recording of a podcast about "Darwin's Abominable Mystery" for ID the Future.
  • March 3, 2021: Recording of a series of educational videos about Darwinian evolution for the Danish site Search+Find (scheduled to go live in August).
  • March 12, 2021 (via Zoom): Video interview for the Hochschultage of the VBG Schweiz in Luzern.
  • March 26, 2021 (via Zoom): Video interview for the CIID - Centro Italiano Intelligent Design.
  • March 31, 2021: Video discussion with Fuz Rana about evidence for God and intelligent design for Zain Khan Live.
  • April 10, 2021 (via Zoom): Webinar about "Evidence against Neo-Darwinism from the Fossil Record" for the SoCal and CO chapters of Discovery Institute's Science & Culture Network.
  • April 16, 2021 (via Zoom): Another interview for Zain Khan Live.
  • April 18, 2021 (via Zoom): Webinar "New Evidence against Materialism and for the Concept of Intelligent Design (and a Cosmic Mind)" with Q&A for the Rising Tide Foundation.
  • April 28, 2021 (via Zoom): Webinar "Fossil discontinuities as problem for Darwinism" for the EnArche Foundation in Poland. (Facebook)
  • May 3, 2021: Another recording of a series of educational videos about Darwinian evolution for the Danish site Search+Find (scheduled to go live in August). A third part will follow soon.
  • May 7, 2021 (via Zoom): Video interview about the fossil record and intelligent design theory by Chris Duwe for the Norwegian organization BioCosmos. Available in this Norwegian online course "Design i Naturen: Modul 5": https://designinaturen.simplerosites.com/courses/39529-modul-5-viser-fossilene-design.
  • May 14, 2021 (via Zoom): Live discussion about "The Fossil Record, Evolution, and Intelligent Design" with anthropologist and YouTuber Erika (Gutsick Gibbon) about the fossil record and intelligent design for the YouTube channel Theology Unleashed.
  • May 17, 2021 (via Zoom): Video interview by Steve Smith for the website Why I Believe.
  • 8 June, 2021 (via Riverside.fm): Video discussion with Joshua Swamidass about intelligent design, moderated by Justin Brierley for Unbelievable at Premier Christian Radio.
  • July 2, 3, and 9, 2021 (via Zoom): Three Q&As for Discovery Institute's Summer Seminars on Intelligent Design.
  • Sept. 29, 2021: Online lecture with live Q&A on "Scientific Evaluation of Neo-Darwinism and Intelligent Design" for Iranian students and academics in Germany and at the Universities of Tehran and Isfahan.
  • October 4-8, 2021: Conference "Potentials & Limitations of Evolutionary Processes" in Israel. [Postponed to 9-13th May 2022 because of Covid].
  • October 9-13, 2021: Private conference in Florence. [Postponed to October 2022 because of Covid]
  • Early December, 2021: Filming an interview in France for a movie documentary [Cancelled or postponed because of Covid].