Uncommon Descent

Archive for January, 2006

31 January 2006

Common Descent at Uncommon Descent

William Dembski

I have consistently argued that intelligent design neither rules out the common descent of life on Earth (Darwin’s single Tree of Life) nor restricts the implementation of design to common descent, as if that were the only possible geometry for the large-scale relationships of organisms. Thus, with regard to this forum, the truth or falsity […]

31 January 2006

ID at Frazier Park Town Hall

Douglas Moran

The ID they learned about was apparently much more scholarly, well-reasoned and attractive than what they may have read in the newspapers.

31 January 2006

The Plausibility of (ID) Life

PaV

Here are some excerpts from The Plausibility of Life, by Marc W. Kirschner and John C. Gerhart. While reading the book, I find that along the way the types of statements which follow are to be found almost everywhere .
One of the objections (disingenuous, in my opinion) that the Darwinists have to […]

30 January 2006

ID at George Mason University

scordova

Since the topic of ID in Universities has come up elsewhere, I decided to post what is going on at George Mason University.

30 January 2006

Pegasus Discovered!

DaveScot

In browsing the New Mexicans for Science and Reason site and the Oynate Man prank (which I’d seen before but since it’s so hilarious enjoyed reading again) I came across this statement in the April Fool article explaining what would constitute real evidence against evolution:

30 January 2006

Fred Flintstone Fossils

DaveScot

Often when we ask the evolutionist what might falsifiy the notion that humans evolved sometime in recent epochs from previous non-human animal species they tell us that discovery of human and dinosaur fossils in the same strata would falsify it.

30 January 2006

John Lynch: “I Admit It… I Teach Intelligent Design”

DaveScot

Arizona State University Professor of Evolutionary Biology John Lynch admits he teaches something on the topic of intelligent design. I shudder to think what it is he teaches about it but that’s neither here nor there for the point I’m about to make.

29 January 2006

Dover - It Was All About the Book

DaveScot

This article lays it out and backs it up with quotes from the opposition.

28 January 2006

Stephen Meyer in the Daily Telegraph

William Dembski

Intelligent design is not creationism
By Stephen C Meyer
Daily Telegraph: 28/01/2006.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/01/28/do2803.xml
In 2004, the distinguished philosopher Antony Flew of the University of Reading made
worldwide news when he repudiated a lifelong commitment to atheism and affirmed the
reality of some kind of a creator. Flew cited evidence of intelligent design in DNA and
the arguments of “American [intelligent] design theorists” […]

28 January 2006

ID in the official curriculum at the University of Bern

William Dembski

This just in from a colleague about the internationalizing of ID:
ID is part of an university lecture on the University
of Bern. The lecture is called “Philosophy of Biology”
and organized by Prof. Dr. Gerd Graßhoff.

28 January 2006

Evidence for the Evolution of Complexity

William Dembski

Here’s a revealing quote from Neil Greenspan about the evolution of complexity:
In fact, there is no evidence of any kind to indicate that the magnitude of a system’s complexity poses any sort of barrier to an origin through evolution, as opposed to an origin through design by an intelligent agent. (source)
Let me suggest that the […]

28 January 2006

The better the technology, the stronger the design inferences

William Dembski

He Did It
By EUGENE H. METHVIN
January 28, 2006; Page A9
On May 20, 1992, the state of Virginia executed Roger Coleman, defying a global outcry that included Pope John Paul II, Time and Newsweek. A circus of 50 cameras and 14 satellite trucks crawling with newscasters from as far away as Japan crowded around the prison […]

27 January 2006

Harris Poll Shows ID Support Rises Fastest With Education

DaveScot

From Table 7 of the Harris Poll
Belief in Evolution doubles from 17% to 35% as education goes from high school to postgrad.
Belief in ID triples from 6% to 17% as education goes from high school to postgrad.

27 January 2006

Harris Poll on ID

William Dembski

From a colleague:
Harris Poll: http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=581
According to Table 7, belief in Intelligent Design increases with increasing education. (Ditto for evolution.)
According to Table 8, belief in ID is more common among Democrats than Republicans. (Ditto for evolution.)
According to Table 9, belief in ID is more common in the Northeastern and Western USA and less common in […]

27 January 2006

Attack IDeas - Not the People Who Hold Them

DaveScot

27 January 2006

BBC Horizon Production: “A War on Science”

William Dembski

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/war.shtml (Yes, that’s me.)

27 January 2006

Oldie but goodie: Berlinski reviews Dawkins

William Dembski

http://www.refcm.org/RICDiscussions/Science-Scripture/X%20Evolution/keeping_an_eye_on_evolution.htm

26 January 2006

[Off Topic:] Baylor’s New President Being Neutralized?

William Dembski

A religious college that sticks to its traditions is not — or at least not automatically — guilty of intolerance. . . . What is going on at Baylor University when the provost undercuts the new president, John Lilley, by promising that he won’t be allowed to interview new candidates for faculty positions?
For rest […]

26 January 2006

The Intelligent Design “Scam”

William Dembski

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/view/2624/1/147/

26 January 2006

Julian Huxley’s Confession

DaveScot

By popular demand…
Julian Huxley’s Confession
by John A. Davison

26 January 2006

The entire protein household of yeast: 257 machines that had never been observed

William Dembski

And now for another amazing example of what natural selection can accomplish (or not):
Press Release
Heidelberg, 22 January 2006
http://www.embl.org/aboutus/news/press/2006/press22jan06.html
The closest look ever at the cell’s machines: The first genome-wide screen for protein complexes is completed
“To carry out their tasks, most proteins work in dynamic complexes that may contain dozens of molecules,” says Giulio Superti-Furga, who launched […]

26 January 2006

Another Pro-ID Paper Passes Peer Review

scordova

At the encouragement of Stephen Meyer of the Discovery Institute and Dave Abel of the The Gene Emergence Project and The Origin-of-Life Foundation, Albert Voie submitted this work.

26 January 2006

Surprising poll result in Britain: They’re almost as skeptical of evolution as we are

William Dembski

Richard Dawkins should be very pleased that his efforts at educating the British public have met with such overwhelming success. He has much to look forward to in his retirement:
Britons unconvinced on evolution
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4648598.stm
Over 55s were less likely to opt for evolution than other groups
More than half the British population does not accept the theory […]

26 January 2006

(Off Topic) Comment Moderation

DaveScot

I made a new category “Comment Moderation” to explain the policy at Uncommon Descent.
All I’m doing for now is collecting Bill Dembski’s previous statements on it in one place (here) and further stipulating that nothing has changed.
4/16/05 Comments about Comments
5/15/05 About This Blog
11/30/05 Why I ruthlessly edit comments on this blog

25 January 2006

Further indications that neo-Darwinism is dead

William Dembski

University of Pittsburgh Professor of Anthropology Jeffrey H. Schwartz has consistently swum against the neo-Darwinian mainstream, and this new 30Jan2006 paper in the New Anatomist with University of Salerno Professor of Biochemistry Bruno Maresca is no exception. The starting point of their argument is clear: Neo-Darwinism has failed and does not fit the evidence. For […]

25 January 2006

Vonnegut Transcript

William Dembski

Here’s the transcript of the NPR interview with Vonnegut that I mentioned yesterday on this blog:

25 January 2006

Review of Debating Design

William Dembski

Debating Design: From Darwin to DNA
by William A. Dembski and Michael Ruse (Editors)
Cambridge University Press, 2004
Review by Gal Kober on Jan 22nd 2006
http://mentalhelp.net/books/books.php?type=de&id=2982
The anatomy of man is a key to the anatomy of ape.” Karl Marx (Introd. to a Contrib. to a Critique of Polit. Economy, 1957)
Intelligent Design and the war waged […]

25 January 2006

Elephants Never Forget - Spite in the Animal Kingdom

DaveScot

How much do most of us really know about the other mammals we have so much in common with? Or perhaps I should ask how little do most of us really know. Here’s a thought provoking article from naturalist Dr. Daphne Sheldrick who spent 30 years working with elephants in the wild and […]

25 January 2006

Herbert London on Cardinal Schoenborn

William Dembski

Science and the Church: What it means to question Darwinism
by Herbert London
http://www.cruxproject.org/ScienceChurch.htm
Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, the Catholic archbishop of Vienna, recently
caused a firestorm in intellectual circles when he made the rather obvious
argument that Darwinism has many unexplained characteristics. The New York
Times responded reflexively by suggesting that the Church was turning away
from “modern science.”

25 January 2006

ID isn’t so complicated afterall!

PaV

MOST of the small satellite galaxies around the Andromeda galaxy are lined up in a single plane that slices through its spiral disc, an alignment that suggests the satellites are floating on a river of dark matter.

24 January 2006

Michael Ruse: Contributes both to Johnson’s and Dawkins’s Festschriften in 2006

William Dembski

Michael Ruse has the unique distinction of contrbuting essays both to Phillip Johnson’s Festschrift (see here) and to that of Richard Dawkins — and both in 2006. The latest Oxford U Press catalog of new & recent titles in philosophy has the following entry:
Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think, edited […]