Monthly Archives: August 2006
Wistar Convention, Salem Hypothesis and Music
| August 24, 2006 | Posted by scordova under Intelligent Design |
The most well-known recorded clash between non-biologists and biologists over evolutionary theory was at Wistar 1966 : a handful of mathematicians and biologists were chattering over a picnic lunch organized by the physicist, Victor Weisskopf, who is a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) more
Artificial Intelligence and the Game of Checkers
| August 23, 2006 | Posted by GilDodgen under Intelligent Design |
I was going to post this as a comment in Salvador’s thread (http://www.uncommondescent.com/index.php/archives/1481) but it became too long, so I’m posting it as a new topic. On the subject of computer checkers I have some observations. I hate to brag (okay, I lied!) but I am one of the world’s leading authorities on this subject.… more
Evolutionary Manifesto by John Davison (part I)
| August 23, 2006 | Posted by scordova under Intelligent Design |
Dr. Davison has been a professor of biology for over 45 years. He is among the few elite who have managed to get a pro-ID paper published in a peer-reviewed journal. I very much enjoyed reading An Evolutionary Manifesto. more
Information, Materialism and Free Will
| August 22, 2006 | Posted by GilDodgen under Intelligent Design |
The existence of information is a fundamental refutation of materialism. Information has no mass. It has no physical dimensions. And it can exist in multiple places at the same time. It has no physical or materialistic properties whatsoever. Put a gigabyte of information on your computer’s blank hard disk, and check out how much more… more
Darwinists need to recruit Paris Hilton to sell their product . . .
| August 22, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Culture, Darwinism, Evolution |
Right now this is how Darwinists are selling their product: Watch this video: http://www.accolo.com/Accolo-Rethink-Recruiting.wmv This is how they need to sell their product: Go here: http://www.spicyparis.com/index.html. Here’s what recruiting the right people means to an ad campaign (which is what Darwinism has become): more
Can humans compute better than computers? Dave Thomas’s design challenge
| August 22, 2006 | Posted by scordova under Intelligent Design |
Pope Benedict XVI has replaced an evangelizing Darwinist, Dr. George Coyne
| August 22, 2006 | Posted by scordova under Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Religion |
Vatican Astronomer Replaced by Bruce Chapman Chapman writes: Pope Benedict XVI has replaced an evangelizing Darwinist, Dr. George Coyne, as director the Vatican Observatory, according to Zenit News. A Jesuit with a doctorate in astronomy, Dr. Coyne in recent years made himself the public scourge of Darwin critics and scientific proponents of intelligent design. Increasingly… more
Pim Van Meurs Misses the Mark Again
| August 22, 2006 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
On Panda’s Thumb Pim Van Meurs preaches confidently to the choir that we are all biased in that we see faces in natural objects created by chance. Evidently the take-home point Pim wishes to make is that this is equivalent to seeing machinery in natural objects created by chance. So I guess for Pim a cloud that… more
Congratulations Dave Thomas!
| August 22, 2006 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
Dave has proven beyond a doubt that intelligent agents can construct useful trial and error algorithms. As long as the way the trials are conducted and the way the results are judged is well specified then trial and error algorithms work! Of course we all learn to search for solutions using trial and error as children. … more
If the evidence for Darwinian theory were so great, why keep slamming ID? Just present it!
| August 21, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design |
================ Excerpt from Current biology Volume 16, Issue 16, 22 August 2006, Pages R619-R620 doi:10.1016/j.cub.2006.07.041 Copyright © 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Q & A: Roger Hendrix Pittsburgh Bacteriophage Institute and Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA Available online 21 August 2006. ================= …. Q: Given the prominence of the… more
[Off topic:] A lesson from our past
| August 21, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Off Topic |
America and the Barbary Pirates: An International Battle Against an Unconventional Foe by Gerard W. Gawalt Gerard W. Gawalt is the manuscript specialist for early American history in the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. Ruthless, unconventional foes are not new to the United States of America. More than two hundred years ago the newly established… more
Schlemiel Zuckerkandl in his dotage
| August 21, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
Emile Zuckerkandl, an erstwhile co-author with Linus Pauling, just got accepted a very long piece attacking ID in GENE (go here): Gene Article in Press, Accepted Manuscript doi:10.1016/j.gene.2006.03.025 Copyright © 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V. Intelligent design and biological complexity Emile Zuckerkandl Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University and Institute of Molecular Medical Sciences, P.O.Box… more
Dolphins — Not the supergeniuses we thought
| August 21, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Biology, Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design |
Scientist: Dolphins are stupid Thursday 17 August 2006 12:29 PM GMT Dolphins are not as clever as previously thought. Dolphins may have big brains, but a South African-based scientist says laboratory rats and even goldfish can outwit them. Paul Manger of Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand says the super-sized brains of dolphins are a function… more
Old Dogs Can Remember Old Tricks
| August 21, 2006 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
Interestingly enough, dyed in the wool chance worshippers apply theories of chance even when it means denying things that make perfect sense in light of common descent. Case in point is Nick Matzke’s article on Panda’s Thumb entitled You *can* teach an old dog new tricks. In it he expresses amazement at how a dog cancer cell evidently acquired… more
ID continues to invade creationist culture
| August 20, 2006 | Posted by scordova under Creationism, Intelligent Design |
The intelligent design movement has celebrated ID-friendly developments within the Roman Catholic Church. A comparably important development is the ascendancy of ID within the insular enclaves of creationism. more
Darwinist: Now a term of reproach?
| August 20, 2006 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
If Darwinism is not failing, why would Darwinists now want to evade the name they accepted for nearly 150 years? Yes! Despite a clear history of a century and a half of acceptance, a key Darwinist actually did his best to make it sound like an insult. Read on! Some wonder why I, a mere… more
Many universes: Or many fairies?
| August 20, 2006 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Casey Luskin noted a while back at Evolution News that a recent article in Nature noted that many universes theory is not testable: Since the early 1980s, some cosmologists have argued that multiple universes could have formed during a period of cosmic inflation that preceded the Big Bang. More recently, string theorists have calculated that… more
Shrill screeds best evidence for Darwinism?: I guess so …
| August 19, 2006 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Someone recently brownbagged me this: Apparently, a shrill screed has been accepted for the science journal Gene on “Intelligent design and biological complexity”, announcing that Europe so far blissfully seems to have remained relatively immune to the intellectual virus named “intelligent design”. This virus certainly is a problem in the country in which I have lived… more
Why Darwin (probably doesn’t) matter: part 2 more or less
| August 19, 2006 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
“sophophile” wonders whether I’ll reconsider my statement that Darwin doesn’t matter if Michael Shermer has to write a book on why he matters – on the basis of sophophile’s research into book titles. [sophophile: Oh, WHY don't these people have proper names? Isn't this "Internet handle" thing becoming a bit childish after all these years?] At any… more
Why I know Darwin doesn’t really matter: Too many people insist too frantically that he does
| August 19, 2006 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
In a recent book, Michael Shermer, who ” once aspired to Christian ministry, now is one of the most hostile critics of Christianity” (according to Touchstone Magazine‘s Russell D. Moore), holds forth as follows: In a feature article in the Christian magazine Touchstone, [William] Dembski was even more direct: ‘Intelligent Design is just the Logos theory… more