Hey Beach.
First off, an "advanced degree" in anything other than evolutionary biology doesn't count. A degree in particle physics from MIT only means you are qualified to talk about particle physics, and to a slightly lesser extent about other branches of physics. Just as an evolutionary biologist is in no position to dismiss particle physics, so anyone with an advanced degree from any other field doesn't know enough about evolutionary biology to dismiss it or question it.
Second, here in your post is the reason why I am so opposed to the DI and their under-handed methods. They aim to deceive well-meaning, educated but non-specialist people like yourself into thinking there is a debate to be had between ID and evolution. There isn't.
Among them, these people have some degrees, but the quality of their ID "research" is absolute zero. It is so shabby that it can't get published in any peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Furthermore, their ID concepts like "irreducible complexity" have deen falsified over and over again, not least of which in the Dover, PA trial.
So they try to bypass the review process by going to politicians and whining that the mean scientists are persecuting them.
How would you like your kids' science textbooks to contain ideas that are so false or unsupported or badly researched, that they can't even make it into a peer-reviewed journal?
And who says a person must have an advanced degree in evolutionary biology to study and comment on Darwinism? You? I disagree. Anyone who studies and has experience with biology, the human body, human development, etc. can study and comment on those subjects.
Including this DI fellow:
Robert J. Cihak, M.D., was born in Yankton, South Dakota. He received his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, where he studied under the philosopher Eric Voegelin. He earned an M.D. degree at Harvard Medical School (1962-66), and did postgraduate medical training and academic work as a surgical intern at Stanford Medical Center (1966-67), diagnostic radiology resident at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston (1967-70) and Assistant Professor of Radiology, U. New Mexico Medical School, Albuquerque, (1970-71). He then practiced diagnostic radiology in Aberdeen Washington until his retirement in 1994.
http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=26&isFellow=trueAnd this one:
Stephen C. Meyer is director and Senior Fellow of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute, in Seattle.
Meyer earned his Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University for a dissertation on the history of origin of life biology and the methodology of the historical sciences. Previously he worked as a geophysicist with the Atlantic Richfield Company after earning his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Geology.
http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=11&isFellow=trueHim:
Michael J. Behe, Senior Fellow - CSC
Articles by Michael J. Behe
Michael J. Behe is Professor of Biological Sciences at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978. Behe's current research involves delineation of design and natural selection in protein structures.
http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=31&isFellow=trueAnd him:
David Berlinski, Senior Fellow - CSC
Articles by David Berlinski
David Berlinski received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University and was later a postdoctoral fellow in mathematics and molecular biology at Columbia University. He has authored works on systems analysis, differential topology, theoretical biology, analytic philosophy, and the philosophy of mathematics, as well as three novels. He has also taught philosophy, mathematics and English at such universities as Stanford, Rutgers, the City University of New York and the Universite de Paris. In addition, he has held research fellowships at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria and the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (IHES) in France.
http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=51&isFellow=trueAnd:
Paul Chien, Senior Fellow - CSC
Articles by Paul Chien
Paul Chien is a Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of San Francisco and he was elected Chairman of his department twice. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California at Irvine's Department of Developmental & Cell Biology. He has held such positions as Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Environmental Engineering at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (CIT); Instructor of Biology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong; and a consultant to both the Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory of the CIT, and the Scanning Electron Microscopy & Micro X-ray Analyst in the Biology Department of Santa Clara University, California. Dr. Chien's work has been published in over fifty technical journals and he has spoken internationally, and on numerous occasions, from Brazil to mainland China-where he has also been involved in cooperative research programs. Dr. Chien edited and translated Phillip Johnson's book Darwin on Trial into Chinese as well as Jonathan Wells' Icons of Evolution.
http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=52&isFellow=trueThat's it for now, but I have to say I am very impressed with the credentials of these people.