More for amusement than anything else, I sometimes check the latest reviews of my books and those of my colleagues on Amazon. Here’s the beginning and end of a review of Icons of Evolution (authored by my good friend Jonathan Wells) posted three days ago:
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A review by a medical researcher, June 27, 2006
Reviewer: Ian R. […]
Spider silk and diatom silica structures are just accidents. We can’t design stuff like this ourselves but when we take these two complex things found in nature and combine them then all of a sudden it’s a design! Wheeeeee! Aren’t we smart!
Novel nanocomposites from spider silk–silica fusion (chimeric) proteins
Check out SALVO: http://www.salvomag.com. It’s hard-hitting and in-your-face without being ponderous. I love the “fake” ads, like The Center for Human Enhancement’s ad that features a stylized human head with the caption “be perfect” and the recommendation to “visit upgrademe.com.” Denyse O’Leary as well as other allies have pieces in the premier issue (autumn 2006), […]
Here is the archive for the NCSE webpage going back to 1996: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.natcenscied.org.
Let me know if you find anything interesting.
Over at evolutionnews.org (http://www.evolutionnews.org/2006/06/whats_up_with_ronald_numbers_a_2.html) Casey Luskin comments on an article coauthored by Ronald Numbers for the Journal of Clinical Investigation (”Defending science education against intelligent design: a call to action”).
In this article we once again hear the bogus co-option argument as a proposed refutation of irreducible complexity: “…Michael Behe’s irreducible complexity argument ignores exaptation (co-option)…â€Â
This […]
“Just so story†is a phrase one hears often in the origins debate. Etymologically, the phrase is traced to a series of children’s stories by Rudyard Kipling in which he gave comical accounts of how various animals acquired their peculiar traits, including “How the Camel got his Hump,†“How the Rhinoceros got his Skin,†[…]
This is a follow on to my earlier article urging people to write their congress persons in support of H.R. 2679, Public Expression of Religion Act of 2005.
What I want to talk about here is how the people have been stripped of their right to have a jury judge the law - commonly called jury […]
The Cornell ID Course is open to any participants as long as they abide by the rules of engagement:
The following rules will be strictly enforced:
Ad hominem attacks, blasphemy, profanity, rudeness, and vulgarity will not be tolerated (although heresy will always be encouraged). However, vigorous attacks against a member’s position are expected and those who […]
Scientific American Best Flame Award 2006
For those of you enjoying the antics of those bungling buffoons over at the PT circus (I know I am!), I’d like to warn you that too much of that stuff will rot your brain. Never fear, however. I’ve got just the thing to remedy that. Bill Vallicella (aka the Maverick Philosopher) […]
First, my thanks to occasional UD commenter and blogger Larry Fafarman for bringing this to my attention.
This bill, introduced in the U.S. House with 50 cosponsers, seeks to bar awarding attorney’s fees in lawsuits involving the 1st amendment establishment clause and limit the awards to injunctive relief. The multi-million dollar attorney fees collected by […]
DaveScot beat me to the punch (see previous post). Just so you don’t have to wade through the 515 (and counting) comments on the Ron Numbers thread (if you must consult it, go here), here are some highlights. It is heavily edited, of course, but what I left out is even dopier than what I […]
Lenny Flank and PZ Myers, both positive atheists, are going for each other’s jugular on Panda’s Thumb. Myers thinks Flank is harming the cause because Flank refuses to agree that theists need to be lined up and shot and Flank thinks Myers is an idiot because Myers is alienating people in numbers so great […]
Reprogramming Biology
by Ray Kurzweil, July 2006 Scientific American
Biology is now in the early stages of a historic transition to an information science, while also gaining the tools to reprogram the ancient information systems of life. Our electronic devices typically update their software every few months, yet the 23,000 software programs called genes inside our cells […]
Below is a letter to me by Darrel Falk, a biologist on the faculty at Point Loma Nazarene University. Darrel and I have known each other for several years, and even though our views on ID diverge, we respect each other. The letter here is in response to my recent blog entry at UD on […]
My book NO FREE LUNCH is now, five years after its publication, appearing in paperback. I was asked to write a new preface to the paperback edition. Here is an excerpt:
… Ironically, the very sketchiness of mathematical details that Wolpert claims prevents one from properly assessing the book does not prevent him from offering just […]
In addition to the engineers, physicists, chemists, and mathematicians who dissent from Darwin, anywhere from 33% to 60% of medical doctors dissent from Darwin (see Nearly Two-Thirds of Doctors Skeptical of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, HCD Research Poll, also check out PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS WHO DISSENT FROM DARWINISM).
Pro-ID sympathies are reflected by the fact […]
[This just in from a colleague in Kansas:] We are distributing the multicolored brochure titled “Frequently Asked Questions About the New Kansas Science Standards” and explaining the message in more detail: A genuine scientific controversy over evolution clearly exists — its historical character alone guarantees that evolution contains subjective and controversial “narratives” about what happened. […]
I’ve been lax in keeping the topic here on intelligent design and away from everyone’s favorite religion (or lack thereof). I’m as guilty as anyone. To remedy this situation I’m going to be deleting any comments I see with gratuitous references to religion until further notice. I’ll make an exception for any […]
Weinberg has a knack for seeing through pretensions. His reference to Sontag’s “piety without content” reminds me of Martin Gardner’s “loyal liars” in his delightful and depressing theological novel The Flight of Peter Fromm (available from Prometheus — I’m going to be using it in my apologetics course this fall).
MR. WEINBERG: In my experience most […]
Rammerstorfer, Markus (2006). Nur eine Illusion? Biologie und Design [Only an Illusion? Biology and Design]. Tectum-Verlag, Marburg / ISBN 3-8288-9117-9.
This book is now available. Amazon.de displays it here:
http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/3828891179/028-6300370-3230923?v=glance&n=299956
See also the author’s homepage: http://members.aon.at/evolution/Book.html.
Darwin’s tortoise dies
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/darwins-tortoise-aged-176-dies/2006/06/23/1150845377114.html
Father time has finally caught up with the world’s oldest animal in
captivity.
Giant Galapagos tortoise Harriet has died of a suspected heart attack at the
ripe old age of 176 on the Sunshine Coast.
She was a star attraction at Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo since the 1980s and
even features in the Guinness Book of Records for […]
In light of the recent discussion on this blog about Darwinism as a naturalistic mystery religion (go here), I decided to revise and update a piece I did a long time ago relating evolution and alchemy. I’ve titled it “Evolution as Alchemy” (go here for pdf, here for html). I’ve also included the text (minus […]
Check out the following links:
http://www.salib.net/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1065
http://www.partaidamaisejahtera.com/diskusi/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=9
In shocking news this morning, johnnyb was fired from his job for being irrelevant. When asked about why he was fired, ABC Co. gave the following response — “We looked at the operation of the company, and, while there were many programs attributed to him, and some people claimed that the network worked because […]
Here is an edited report on Ken Miller’s talk that he gave at Texas Tech back in March 2006 (go here) as well as a portion of a keynote address given by Francis Collins at the 2002 ASA meeting in Malibu (go here):
Ken Miller’s talk was well attended — the auditorium was stacked (400+) with […]
[From an attorney friend of mine:] Bill, here is an item you might want to “blog” about, relating to the ACLU and the obligation of public schools to keep books in their libraries that take positions some parents object to: An AP story today (6/22/06) in the Washington Times is headlined “ACLU: Miami can’t pull […]
My last post describes 67 scientific academies around the world weighing in to support evolution. Not to be left behind, the Episcopalian intelligentsia and leadership have just done the same.
Both houses, Bishops and Deputies, of the Episcopal Church General Convention have approved the following resolution. The Episcopal Church is therefore now on record in supporting […]
Here is a story in the Guardian about the world’s science academies locking arms and digging in their heels to stem the tide of anti-evolution sentiment issuing from the unruly masses. Now if only evolution weren’t such a crock …
Scientists call for better teaching on evolution
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1802823,00.html
Rebecca Smithers
Thursday June 22, 2006
The world’s leading scientists […]