August 2007

In our last letter we reported that we had only $22,000 to go in matching a $50,000 challenge pledge. We are eager to share with you the good news. We not only raised the remaining $22,000 by the end of May, but went well over the top by that deadline! We appreciate the many friends and team members who gave generously to help make that happen. This puts us on the home stretch for publishing The Design of Life. The challenge pledge and your gifts gave me the liberty to focus more of my time on the book and less on fund raising. Thank you!

Let me give you an example from today's cutting edge science of the vital role that DOL will play in our culture. Remember when you took science in school? You learned that good science required not only certain procedures (hypothesis-forming, data-collecting, testing and recording observations, etc.) but also a certain mind-set, an attitude of openness to airing differing views on a variety of competing hypotheses, all vying to provide the best explanation of all the relevant facts in the matter.

Okay. Even if you don't remember that, maybe you've noticed that today, many in science are saying, "There's no need for scientific dissent any more. Don't waste our time with alternative theories. Our picture of reality is nearly complete. We'll take it from here, thank you." One of the "facts" that the Darwinist party-line has been assuring us of is that genetically, there is only a bit over 1 percent difference between chimps and humans.

"But truth be told" - an Academic Bombshell

Not so fast! The June 29, 2007, issue of the prestigious journal, Science, dropped a bombshell. Admitting by their own headline that the 1 percent human/chimp difference they introduced in 1975 is a "myth," Science further stunned its readers by quoting several authorities. One researcher acknowledged, "There isn't one single way to express the genetic distance between two complicated living organisms" and then added, "For many years, the 1 percent difference served us well because it was underappreciated how similar we were." Another pointed out the very large man/chimp differences in the cortex of the brain. The article closed with a quote from a third researcher in Germany: "I don't think there's any way to calculate a number . . . . In the end, it's a political and social and cultural thing about how we see our differences." Rarely have I encountered a more revealing admission about the agenda that drives so much of the debate on biological origins.

These amazing admissions, which will be read by less than 1 percent of America's young, cry out for an open and courageous science that values, and even welcomes, dissent. How significant it is, then, that the very points revealed in this unusual article have been succinctly expressed in The Design of Life's manuscript for almost a year!

Status Report on The Design of Life

When will DOL be published? Preparation of the book is 98 percent complete. Even so, the intensity of our efforts is increasing since the focus has now shifted to planning the marketing campaign, the announcement of the book's release at a press conference, and exploring the best venue for that to occur. We are upgrading our web site, writing the press release and assembling press kits. Each day requires that we take care of scores of the details essential for the book's success. We are gearing up for a September release and will alert you as to the exact date as soon as we have secured the venue for the press conference. This has been a very long process, but we believe that soon, a formidable case for intelligent design will take up an imposing presence in our culture.

The fund-raising to provide for a strong marketing campaign must now return to center stage.

Recently while watching a highly-polarized debate between panelists on a news broadcast, I had the feeling that neither side could even hear the case made by the other. Facts of major significance were totally ignored. The debaters were like ships passing in the night. Total denial. You see debates all the time that make you wonder if facts matter at all. That was my reaction while watching this news broadcast, but then, one panel member succinctly summarized his view, and, with two important words, summarized even more succinctly his optimism that it would prevail: "Reality matters!"

Biochemistry Prof. Michael Behe, author of Darwin's Black Box, has predicted the same optimistic outcome in science: "The future prospects for design are excellent, because they rest not on any person's or group's preferences, but on the data." Friends, with increasing force, the facts are pressing on the design vs. Darwinism debate, and the facts will drive the outcome.

This is why we are doing everything in our power to push those facts through the barriers and into the open, so that not just some fraction of a percent will encounter them, but many hundreds of thousands, or more. And that is why we are asking you to come onboard and be a part of this historic outcome with your financial support. Our original goal for the funds required to produce and print The Design of Life and put it onto the market with modest financial backing was $275,000. To date, we have raised $228,000, so we still have $47,000 to go. Would you consider how much you can help to bring about this exciting breakthrough? Please email us at , or click "Make a donation" at the bottom of this newsletter.

Thank you so much.

Sincerely,

Jon Buell

P.S. — In spite of the overload that publishing DOL entails, we have also set up a handsome and effective new website to support sales of our supplemental textbook, Never Before in History, and invite you to check it out at: www.neverbeforeinhistory.com.