Uncommon Descent

Archive for February, 2006

28 February 2006

Casey Luskin Reviews the Kitzmiller Decision

crandaddy

Go here to read the full article.
Not-So-Quick But Nonetheless Dirty Review of the Kitzmiller Decision
By Casey Luskin
Introduction:
This is a response to the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board (hereafter “Kitzmiller) decision (see http://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/kitzmiller/kitzmiller_342.pdf to download the full opinion). This response is adapted from an e-mail I sent out to a bunch of friends in late […]

28 February 2006

Avian Flu - Predictions?

DaveScot

What does the theory of Natural Selection (the most well tested theory in science) predict about Avian Flu?
Anything at all practical that isn’t obvious from simple observations of past flu behavior?
Don’t hold your breath. The most well tested theory in science is also the most useless theory in science.
ID predicts that no […]

28 February 2006

Wayne Stayskal comes through again

William Dembski

See also here and here.

28 February 2006

Ancient Complex Mammal: ~164 Million Years

Patrick

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/311/5764/1068b
Mesozoic mammals have been thought to have been small, nocturnal, and confined to a few niches on land until the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Most are recorded by isolated jaw fragments or teeth. Ji et al. (p. 1123; see the cover and the Perspective by Martin) now describe a Jurassic mammal […]

28 February 2006

Everybody Makes Silly Mistakes - Even Craig Venter

DaveScot

I was reading an interview with Craig Venter (CV) and imagine my surprise when I caught him making a glaring human physiology error:
Ventor: “It’s very simple, because every cell in our body has DNA.”
Oops.
I thought everyone knew that mammalian red blood cells have no DNA…

28 February 2006

Good Reading List from Dave Pierre

DaveScot

Dave Pierre, in blogging about the Los Angeles Times’ continual strawman bashing of ID, posts a great reading list at the bottom of the article.
Questions About Intelligent Design
What Intelligent Design Is—and Isn’t
Primer: Intelligent Design Theory in a Nutshell
The Science Behind Intelligent Design Theory
Thanks Dave!

28 February 2006

Wesley Elsberry Says Liar liar pants on fire to OSC

DaveScot

Wesley Elsberry, when confronted with the following quote from the letter of the federal Office of Special Counsel to Rick Sternberg:
Our investigation shows that NCSE is a political advocacy organization dedicated to defeating any introduction of ID, creationism or religion into the American education system. In fact, members of NCSE worked closely with SI and […]

28 February 2006

New Evidence Supports Natural Selection

DaveScot

The most tested theory in science - Natural Selection - has new and improved evidence to support it says Pim Van Meurs on Panda’s Thumb.
Excuse me, but haven’t the NeoDarwinian dogmatists been saying for years that Natural Selection is as well tested as the theory of gravity?
Do we hear headlines like New Evidence […]

26 February 2006

Henry Morris’s Death

William Dembski

It’s with sadness I announce that Henry Morris died Saturday evening (2.25.06). Henry Morris was a great man, and all critics of Darwinian evolution are in his debt for maintaining pressure on this pseudoscience when so much of the Western world capitulated to it. As I wrote last year at this time (go here) in […]

25 February 2006

UK Guardian: Most of the next generation of medical and science students could well be creationists

scordova

ID is not the same as Creationism, however, it would be naive to say the following article has no bearing on the future of ID.
I’m personally disappointed to hear some creationist students mingling religious ideas into their scientific views, but on the whole, this report can’t be happy news for Richard Dawkins. :=)
Academics fight […]

25 February 2006

Darwin knocked off pedestal in high school textbook

scordova

Broward selects biology text with watered-down passages on evolution

A review by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found that on one edited page, Holt agreed to give Darwin less credit for shaping modern biology…..
Previous editions of the textbook said Darwin’s theory “is the essence of biology.”
In the Broward edition, students will read instead that Darwin’s theory “provides […]

25 February 2006

On a Lighter Note

DaveScot

Dover Trial Preview to Witness Testimony
By: Hosted by Marvin Waldburger
Radio Station WNBLAT
September 29, 2005
Copernicus Stages A Comeback
By: David Berlinski
Discovery Institute
September 27, 2005

24 February 2006

ID’s critics are so clever.

Scottus

24 February 2006

Tolstoy’s Last Letter

William Dembski

[From a colleague:] Leo Tolstoy’s last completed letter, dictated from his sick-bed at the Astapovo train station on November 1, 1910 (six days before his death), and addressed to his son Seryozha and daughter Tanya, included a warning that Seryozha should not allow himself to be seduced by Darwinism. Here is the relevant passage:
“The views […]

23 February 2006

(Culture War) The Final Rout of the Left Has Begun

DaveScot

South Dakota just passed a law making abortion a felony except in case of medical emergency. It’s now just a matter for the governor to sign it which everyone expects him to do. The law is designed to force the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade. The present Supreme Court is […]

23 February 2006

“Public Schools Need Open Debate on Intelligent Design”

William Dembski

Thank you Joelle Parks:
Another critic of the bill [i.e., the Wisconin bill banning ID], Gary McCaleb, a senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said in an interview that his firm would thoroughly investigate the legislation. “Mandating a point of view and trying to enshrine your current science in law is, to me, just […]

22 February 2006

The Real Threat Is “Absolutism” — Yes, Absolutely!

William Dembski

Slumming at Talk.Origins (go here), I ran across the following remark in reference to the Ruse-Dennett Briefwechsel (discussed on this blog here):
I wonder if Ruse has actually watched “The Root Of All Evil?”.
And if childen were indoctrinated with the most extreme forms of racial
bigotry by parents who were Nazis or supporters of apartheid, would […]

22 February 2006

Peer-Reviewed Stealth ID Classic : The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (1987)

scordova

Frank Tipler co-authored a book with John Barrow entitled The Anthropic Cosmological Principle which was a peer-reviewed book published by Oxford University in 1987.
The principle thesis:

Intelligent information-processing must come into existence in the Universe, and, once it comes into existence, it will never die out.

They derive the thesis from Schrodinger’s equation

22 February 2006

There is “teeth” to ID

PaV

Chicken will grow teeth when pigs can fly.
Well, better start searching the skies for flying pork—scientists have discovered a mutant chicken with a full set of crocodile-like chompers.
The mutant chick, called Talpid, also had severe limb defects and died before hatching. It was discovered 50 years ago, but no one had ever examined its mouth […]

21 February 2006

Remarkable exchange between Michael Ruse and Daniel Dennett

William Dembski

As Michael Ruse remarked when he gave me permission to quote the following exchange between him and Daniel Dennett: “feel free to quote — after all, I am in deep sh** already!!!”
HIGHLIGHT OF THE EXCHANGE: “I think that you and Richard [Dawkins] are absolute disasters in the fight against intelligent design – we are […]

21 February 2006

If you can’t beat ‘em… recruit ‘em.

Douglas Moran

I’ts hard to imagine a more exciting time to be participating in this discussion. Just the past 24 hours have brought some incredibly exciting exchanges and inside information, see here and here. But most entertaining of all is Eugenie Scott recruiting churches to defend Darwinism:

Check this out.
And this.
So, Eugenie Scott wants […]

21 February 2006

Complexity, Specification, Design Inference, and Designers

DaveScot

I often see misunderstanding of what ID is about. It’s about inferring design by critical analysis of a pattern and the ways that pattern could have come to exist. I find a comparison with a lottery to be the easiest way to understand this.

21 February 2006

The AAAS Releases a “Statement on the Teaching of Evolution”.

crandaddy

Here’s an excerpt from the Statement:
Science is a process of seeking natural explanations for natural phenomena. Scientists ask questions about the natural
world, formulate hypotheses to answer the questions, and collect evidence or data with which to evaluate the hypotheses.
Scientific theories are unified explanations of these phenomena supported by extensive testing and evidence. The theory
of evolution, […]

20 February 2006

Publisher’s Weekly Review of Darwin’s Nemesis

William Dembski

[For more on this book, go here.]

20 February 2006

500 Courageous Individuals

scordova

I felt it appropriate to honor those who have stepped forward at the risk of their professions and reputations to stand up for free and open inquiry. I would like to also honor those who would wish to have their names put on the list today, but who must wait until the time is […]

20 February 2006

The Scientism of Daniel Dennett

Scottus

The God Genome

For a sorry instance of present-day scientism, it would be hard to improve on Daniel C. Dennett’s book. “Breaking the Spell” is a work of considerable historical interest, because it is a merry anthology of contemporary superstitions.

20 February 2006

Playing Devil’s Advocate: Sudden Origins and Irreducible Complexity

Patrick

One thing that has always irked me is that rarely on this site do we find any critics of ID attempting to challenge the tools/methods of ID directly. For example, one could claim that “CSI isn’t a reliable indicator of intelligence” or “the explanatory filter breaks down under certain conditions” or “ID regularly produces […]

19 February 2006

Natural Selection - Hasty Generalization, Slippery Slope, or Wishful Thinking?

DaveScot

The observed effects of random mutation plus natural selection can account for temporary changes in finch beak size, pigmentation changes in moths, and antibiotic resistance in bacteria. It has never been observed creating novel 1) cell types, 2) tissue types, 3) organs, or 4) body plans. All four of those creative events must […]

19 February 2006

Pat Hayes and the Logical Fallacy of False Analogy

DaveScot

Pat Hayes at Red State Rabble tries to present the face on Mars as an example in false positives equivalent to the appearance of design in cellular machinery. When will uncritical thinkers like Pat Hayes cop to the fact that seeing the Virgin Mary’s face in a tortilla is not the equivalent of seeing […]

19 February 2006

PZ Myers Has An Epiphany

DaveScot

Myers says:

Once upon a time, I was one of those nerds who hung around Radio Shack and played about with LEDs and resistors and capacitors; I know how to solder and I took my first old 8-bit computer apart and put it back together again with “improvements.” In grad school I was in a neuroscience […]

18 February 2006

Strawman Steve">Project Strawman Steve

DaveScot

Project Strawman Steve is nearing its 700th Steve and the Thumbsters are ecstatic.