The Cosmic Aardvark
This will be a strange Free Fire Zone, because we can’t can’t find anythiung to blog about except the spectacular news just provided by docbill, which we repeat here, with one Curmudgeonly interjection:
Appears the Biologic Institute [An enterprise of the Discovery Institute] is history, green screen and all. On their 2019 990, Director Axe will no longer draw a salary, but will be a prof at Biola “Univ.” Office space is for rent. Location is listed as “permanently closed.” Their final 990 showed a loss of $133,000.
This is interesting news indeed! We can add it to the catalog of catastrophes we listed in Discovery Institute: A History of Failure.
And that explains why the Cosmic Aardvark is smiling. But because there’s nothing else happening, we’re declaring another Intellectual Free Fire Zone. Please use the comments for the discussion of pretty much anything — science, politics, economics, whatever — as long as it’s tasteful and interesting. Banter, babble, bicker, bluster, blubber, blather, blab, blurt, burble, boast — say what you will. But avoid flame-wars and beware of the profanity filters.
Okay, we now throw open the comments to you, dear reader. Have at it.
Copyright © 2021. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.
The Sensuous Curmudgeon 
It seems that the DI is much like Donald Trump. Without a financial Sugar Daddy to bail them out, they are nothing.
If they had registered like the church they were, the DI wouldn’t have had to file 990s.
The office is for rent, but it’s been vacant for a long long time.
@Tomato Addict
True enough. They may have been on the Green Screen for quite a while, possibly since 2017. They never really had a lab as far as anybody can tell, although in previous 990’s they listed some vague expenses for lab equipment and computers. Read that “smoke and mirrors.” Whimper not a bang, they gone now!
So, what happened to Annie Green Screen? No Biola job for her.
Fifteen or more years after Dover, and at last, an admission: there’s no science in ID. No evidence. No testable explanations. The DI never did have anything. Behe, Meyer, Wells, all of them – they’re going to have to stop plugging that line. It isn’t working. It is, in fact counterproductive.
Not unproductive – counterproductive. If you tell people that there is some kind of science behind intelligent design, you necessarily imply that it can be investigated with the tools of science – gathering data, reasoning from evidence, inference from observed fact. Of course most bobblehead creationists won’t bother to actually do that, but once you allow it, some will.
And what then? Why, then they will discover that it’s a lie. There’s nothing scientific about intelligent design. It’s what Dembski said it was: “the Logos theology of John’s Gospel restated in the idiom of information theory”. It’s theology, not science. And it’s an idiom – words that have a meaning different from their face value, one that is culturally, not realistically, determined.
Now, as a dilettante theologian (I can just see my father’s face, were he presented with that description), I can also state that it’s crap theology. But the point is, it isn’t science. The whole shoddy edifice is a lie. And the DI is admitting it.
The transformation is not yet complete. The DI will no doubt continue for some time yet. But the closure of their “Biologic Institute” is an admission that they’ve got no science. It’s God, Bible, scripture, blah, belief, faith, yadayadayada all the way down.
As far as the rest of creationism, the political movement, is concerned, the DI always was suspect because they wouldn’t commit to naming their designer as God, that is, the God of the Bible. They wouldn’t acknowledge God. Matthew 10:32-33. Maybe they’re sorry for that now, but they’re still suspect.
So, whither the DI now? I suspect a slightly different spelling – “wither” – is right. But perhaps that is wishful thinking. They could reinvent themselves. The point is, I think they’re going to need to.
Good to see you again, Tomato Addict!
What then is left? Is Young Earth Creationism it?
This is from the IRS 990 (thanks Doc Bill!) and is also on the Guidestar.org website:
DR. AXE ENTERED INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH BIOLA UNIVERSITY TO SERVE AS THE MAXWELL VISITING PROFESSOR OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY DURING THE 2018/2019 ACADEMIC YEAR, WITH REGULAR VISITS TO CAMPUS. IN AUGUST 2019, DR. AXE BECAME THE MAXWELL PROFESSOR OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AT BIOLA, WORKING FULL TIME ON TEACHING AND WORKING TO HELP BUILD A COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT AT BIOLA THAT INCLUDES ADVANCED UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS. ALTHOUGH HE NO LONGER DRAWS A SALARY FROM BIOLOGIC INSTITUTE, DR. AXE CONTINUES TO SERVE AS THE DIRECTOR AND IS EXPLORING WAYS IN WHICH BIOLOGIC CAN PARTNER WITH BIOLA.
Expenses
$162,466
Revenue
$0
Wowie — now Barbara Forrest is here! Your Curmudgeon is experiencing blogger’s ecstasy.
I’m still kicking. 🙂
Good overview of Biologic Institute’s status (i.e., precipitous financial decline) here:
https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/biologic-institute,841670187/
Careful, Curmie or Barbara will send you a jar of Mayhaw Jelly!
docbill1351, the information you provided me has now found its way to Panda’s Thumb — see Biologic Institute Closes.
Here’s a recent article on the history of creationism and the link to climate change denial: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/2/133/htm
Hiya Curmie! Yes, it’s been too long. I still smile every time I see the Curmudgeonite! 😃
@DocBill: As of her last appearance at Peaceful Science (~2+ years ago), Gauger is having some health troubles and no longer able to work in the lab. It seems there was some sort of lab, but it closed down with her effective retirement.
Clarifying – my news of Gauger’s effective lab retirement dates back to 2018, and the shutdown in 2019 follows. This may not be coincidence.
@Tomato
Gauger was never a creationist wolf like Meyer and Klankerwanker. She was a sheep, devout in her beliefs and just carrying as much water as she could for the few scraps the Tooters threw her. Not a mover or shaker, she’ll just drift away into obscurity. It’s a living, I guess.
I suspect that if the Tooters let the Lab sink they are hard pressed for funding. The top dogs will be the last to go, stuffing their sacks with cheap silverware and doorknobs.
Ann Gauger was kind and certainly sincere. She did work in a lab at BioLogics, but also retired from that, as @Tomato explained. The best work she did was computational, after that, in population genetics. Say what you will about her, but she ended up having some solid points that ended up vindicated by the data. I definitely miss her appearances at Peaceful Science. It has been long time!
For those of you who may not remember this: the establishment of the Biologic Institute appeared in a New York Times article in August 2005 (https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/22/us/in-explaining-lifes-complexity-darwinists-and-doubters-clash.html), just prior to the start of the Kitzmiller trial. But it was not incorporated until October 2005, while the trial was under way. It was a transparent attempt to gain scientific credibility for the ID people who testified in that trial. The roster of editors at BI’s faux journal, BIO-Complexity, is peopled with creationists, including young-earthers (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Creationism_in_Europe/uSuhBQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=matti+leisola+young-earth+creationist&pg=PA216&printsec=frontcover).