October 2008
Dear Friend of the Foundation:
In these days of great uncertainty, do you want to know that you have an investment for the future, the value of which grows greater every day? Here it is: Undeniable progress for intelligent design and for The Design of Life! But please note: In this letter we first will be sharing with you evidence that your investment in this work is having a major impact; then we want to share with you a serious financial need that has become very personal.
Ten months after its release, DoL is selling in the top 15% of books in its scientific category on Amazon.com! Last winter we told you that DoL would be the featured selection in an upcoming Conservative Book Club offer. The Club's bulletin arrived in our mail about a week ago, and already, they have placed a second order for more books! Let me share with you a part of their description for DoL. It is as good a summary of what DoL achieves as anything I could write:
Nearly 20 years ago, a small non-profit in Texas published a textbook called Of Pandas and People—an event that set off a firestorm. The National Center or Science Education (NCSE) condemned the book as full of "half-truths, untruths, and nonsense." Law review articles tried to prove it unconstitutional. And in 2005, a federal judge banned it outright from science classrooms. Why did Darwinists go to such extremes? Simply because the book offered a potent, comprehensive critique of Darwinian evolution and proposed a legitimate scientific alternative, intelligent design (ID).
Fast forward to 2008—and Pandas' successor, The Design of Life, written by leading ID theorists William Dembski and Jonathan Wells, brings readers up to speed on the numerous advancements of ID over the past 20 years. The Design of Life is more than twice as long as Pandas, recounting many of the peer-reviewed scientific papers, scientific books, and laboratory studies completed by ID theorists. It offers an excellent up-to-date account of ID for any reader.
ID Making Inroads Where It Matters
Friends, intelligent design is on the move and is more irrepressible than ever. In a lecture last June to Christian faculty gathered in Washington, D.C. from throughout the U.S., Biola philosophy professor J.P. Moreland described a "renaissance of evangelical Christian intellectual activity, energizing the intellectual life of higher education." He referred enthusiastically to a featured article in the previous month's Chronicle of Higher Education, Evangelicalism Rebounds in Academe, by Rice University sociologist D. Michael Lindsay, who notes the positive impact intelligent design has had on opening the agenda-bound classroom to various views. Lindsay urges for the continued expansion of religious pluralism on our campuses, for, "Just as the debate surrounding intelligent design has forced many biologists to engage religious topics in the classroom, so will rising religious pluralism."In late August, I was privileged to correspond with Dr. Henry F. (Fritz) Schaefer, Director of the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry at the University of Georgia, author of more than a thousand scientific papers published in peer reviewed journals, and five time nominee for the Nobel Prize. As a result, we—FTE—received his endorsement to help us promote DoL:
I have known William A. Dembski for many years, and consider him a good friend. Bill Dembski is a true Renaissance person, with advanced degrees of distinction in theology, mathematics, and philosophy. There are two books I am currently recommending to university students who want to explore the highly controversial and sometimes overheated origins debates. The first is William Dembski's The Design of Life, and the second is Francis Collins' The Language of God. There is much merit in the Collins book, especially the parts that deal with his own spiritual experience, but my own views are closer to Dembski's.
Nationwide Distribution
To spur the growing value of the product in which you have invested, we are working very hard to raise the visibility of DoL and to get it into the markets where it can achieve its potential for breaking the Darwinian stranglehold on our culture. We are thrilled with the reception we have had. Let me highlight just two of these efforts:- The Foundation for Thought and Ethics signed a contract with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute to provide national distribution of DoL through the large book retail chains. Normally, publishers our size do not have access to these retail chains. At a minimum, however, two of the three largest retail chains are expected to carry DoL. (Individual stores determine which of the chain's books they will carry.) The first shipment of books to the warehouse of ISI's distributor in Chicago was made earlier this month.
- FTE signed a second contract with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute granting them publication rights for a spin-off book on the origin of the first life. With the captivating title, How to Be An Intellectually Fulfilled Atheist, Or Not, this powerful spin-off is the authors' recasting of the content of the DoL chapter on that topic. It is illustrated with graphics from the movie, EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed and features a page advertising The Design of Life.
Design of Life's Momentum at a Crossroads
The most important marketing effort underway is a program for contacting university faculty to get DoL into undergraduate and graduate classrooms and seminars. But friends, before we can really push ahead, we need your help now as much as we have ever needed it. We have plans for more than a dozen marketing programs. But over half of them, though camera-ready, are on hold because we are simply out of funds. Efforts made to date have drained FTE's resources, to the extent that even our daily on-a-shoestring operations are at risk.We are determined to pay our bills on time and to do right by our creditors. While there was no fat in our budget, in June, we started cutting back. We terminated the blog on the DoL web site, eliminating two retainer fees, and last week we all but eliminated an 11-year staff member. We are cutting our costs wherever possible and managing on far less than budgeted. We recognize you yourself may be affected by the economic downturn, and that you will hear from other ministries that are. This low tide will affect all boats in the harbor. But as you can see, our situation well predates the current challenges.
- On a very personal note, I feel I must share with you that I have not drawn salary for a number of months now. All of our income—your faithful support—has been invested in marketing DoL and meeting non-discretionary expenses. But this has come at a serious personal cost, putting Linda and me in a tenuous financial situation. I have avoided mentioning this in our mailings, but after much counsel, have decided I should do so now. Could you help us address this problem? We will continue to put the aggressive pursuit of our mission goals first, but we must also address this shortfall.
We covet your prayers that God would provide for our financial needs, but we also ask that when you pray, you ask Him too what he would have you do to help us financially.
Sincerely,
Jon Buell
President
P. S. Thank you for reading this report and for praying about what you might give.