Recently, Marina Johnson of the Louisville Courier-Journal and Jolene Almendarez of the Cincinnati Enquirer duplicated some of my work and documented declining Ark ticket sales (they confirmed what I have been documenting for many months. They also confirmed that the sales tax rebate incentive from Kentucky Tourism ended in mid-August, 2026).

Tellingly, Ken Ham refused to be interviewed for this story. Rather, on August 25, Mr. Ham responded with an AIG-produced video. The video is filled with “jokes” and brief cuts of Donald Trump.

Apparently, Mr. Ham doesn’t like speaking to reporters who might ask him difficult questions. Mr. Ham spent more time in this video discussing declining newspaper sales than the fact that his Ark is selling fewer tickets every year. He basically admitted that ticket sales are declining but deflected the issue by pointing out that the newspaper that originally published the story (the Cincinnati Enquirer) has declining sales. Mr. Ham is such a master of obfuscation that his followers are likely to not understand the deceitful and irrelevant switch in topics.

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Photography Contest.

Malcolm Schongalla, Honorable Mention.

More, including the second photograph, below the fold.

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Eric Hedin had a post at Science & Culture Today (The Discovery Institute’s former Evolution News) that seems to fully commit to Platonic idealism and to teleology. Which is surprising since he is a Ph.D. in particle physics, from my own University. It will be found here.

Its final two paragraphs will give you the general drift, but you should read Hedin’s post, which is short:

To imagine that each of the millions of species of living creatures on Earth “evolved” by a weeding-out process, undirected by any idea of the wholeness they would ultimately manifest, runs counter to our experience with functional design and the known limitations of the laws of nature. If prolific reproductivity is the “goal” of natural selection, why should life have ever evolved to anything beyond bacteria? Cancer cells, as a mutation from original design, would seem to be evolution’s crowning achievement.

The wholeness of living organisms testifies to their metaphysical origin as an “idea,” originating in the mind of their Maker. The evidence suggests that creatures exceed the boundaries of what is possible by undirected natural forces. Even information, as we understand it, appears to fall short as the groundwork for life. Apparently, life comes from life, and nothing else will suffice. Life is a brilliant idea!

Is there some way we can counter this argument? The title of his article is “In Defiance of Evolution, Life is an Idea”. Is evolutionary biology finally totally defied?

To see comments, click on the title of this post or on the header showing the number of comments.

Photography Contest.

John Harshman, Third Place.

Lauri Lebo is an advocacy coordinator and organizer for the Pennsylvania State Education Association. As a reporter, she covered the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial and wrote a book about her coverage, The Devil in Dover. She is a recipient of NCSE’s Friend of Darwin award in 2026. We asked her to write a few paragraphs linking to her recent article in the Reviews Reports of the National Center for Science Education. – Matt Young

It’s been 21 years since the First Amendment test case of Kitzmiller v. Dover, in which U.S. District Court judge John E. Jones III ruled that “intelligent design,” a form of revamped creationism, is unconstitutional to teach in the public schools.

While the parents who sued and science teachers celebrated, the school board members and their legal team had little to say. Looking back, most people involved in the trial said that few minds were changed. Many were just glad the national spotlight was no longer shining on Dover.

But roots run deep in south-central Pennsylvania, and history repeats itself. Some on the religious right quietly started preparing for the next opportunity.

I still get asked about comparisons between Kitzmiller v. Dover and attacks today on our public schools. Particularly, what did we learn about defeating school boards pushing a religious agenda? In this article in the Reviews Reports of the National Center for Science Education, I delve into what worked then and what works today.