Monthly Archives: September 2006
ID advancing in Virginia, Dawkins and fellow Darwinists fight back
| September 25, 2006 | Posted by scordova under Culture, Education, Intelligent Design, Religion |
ID is quietly advancing in the mother state of one-fourth of the American Presidents. I do not know if the advance of ID in Virginia means anything to Richard Dawkins, but 4 of his 17 scheduled stops in his God Delusion world-wide book tour will be in the Virginia/DC area! Coincidence? more
Question: Is the key problem that new species are seldom or never observed?
| September 25, 2006 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
A key problem with the argument over Darwinian evolution (evolution by natural selection acting on random mutations) is that so few actual examples of speciation (new species forming) have ever been observed that we really have no way of knowing for sure whether Darwin had the right idea. I suspect that explains precisely why acceptance… more
Book review: Andrew Brown on Dawkins’ “The God Delusion”
| September 24, 2006 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
No friend to religion, Andrew Brown nonetheless says that Richard Dawkins’s “incurious and rambling” diatribe against religion “doesn’t come close to explaining how faith has survived the assault of Darwinism, opening with It has been obvious for years that Richard Dawkins had a fat book on religion in him, but who would have thought him capable… more
UK Organization Promoting the Teaching of Scientific Criticisms of Darwinian Theory
| September 23, 2006 | Posted by GilDodgen under Intelligent Design |
Over at Evolution News and Views there is a notice about a new organization in the UK, Truth in Science, that seeks “…to promote good science education in the UK. Our initial focus will be on the origin of life and its diversity.” From their website: For many years, much of what has been taught… more
Another reason why longstanding ideas should not be above question
| September 23, 2006 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
I first got interested in alligators when I discovered, from zoologist Norbert Smith, that the “reptilian brain” theory – according to which alligators cannot show emotion because the mammalian brain (which they don’t have) must evolve first – can’t be true. Alligators are quite capable of showing emotion or curiosity about anything that they are… more
Paul Nelson in Oslo, Norway — the latest
| September 23, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design |
Paul Nelson spent yesterday morning in the editorial offices of Dagbladet, the main daily newspaper in Oslo, and fielded reader’s questions via the Internet. Approximately 1,000 emails came in. Here is the exchange: http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2006/09/20/477320.html. Note that the title of the Dagbladet piece, “Hadde Darwin Rett?” means “Was Darwin Right?” more
The hopeless quest of a hopeless theory
| September 22, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Education, Religion, Science |
There’s a big “evolution of religion” conference coming up in Hawaii: http://www.evolutionofreligion.org/index.php. Daniel Dennett is among the featured speakers. Here’s a brief description of another featured speaker: On Sunday evening the Rev. Michael Dowd, who has been called “North America’s evolutionary evangelist,” will share his experience of teaching and preaching a sacred, meaningful view of… more
Frank Beckwith awarded tenure
| September 22, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Education, Intelligent Design |
I just learned that Frank Beckwith has been awarded tenure at Baylor. This is a huge development for Baylor, signifying a decisive reversal for the forces of secularization that have done everything in their power of undermine Baylor’s Christian identity. Note that Frank was opposed because of his openness to ID (not outright support) and… more
Finally the truth about ID! — And now in paperback
| September 22, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
I’m informed that simple blockquotes are dangerous when trying to stay in Google’s good graces. I’m also informed that providing a comment in front of a blockquote, which thus constitutes new material, is a way of keeping Google happy. Hence this comment. The blockquote below is self-explanatory. Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design Is… more
Quaint and Amusing Things Our Ancestors Believed
| September 21, 2006 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
I came across this quote from 1906 today: “Each of us was, at the beginning of his existence, a simple globule of protoplasm, surrounded by a membrane, about 1/120 of an inch in diameter, with a firmer nucleus inside it. Ernst Haeckel, Last Words on Evolution (London: A. Owen & Co., 1906). One wonders if… more
The Google Problem
| September 21, 2006 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
The reason we have been excluded from Google’s index is several mirror sites that automatically copy and republish our content have sprung up. In the past there was only one such mirror site which is Wesley Elsberry’s at http://antievolution.org/buud/ To address this I am going to post a copyright message at the bottom of our… more
[Off topic:] Google says we no longer exist.
| September 20, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Off Topic |
www.uncommondescent.com no longer comes up on Google searches, though it still comes up on Technorati searches. No action was taken on this blog to block search engines from indexing our content. This is all very curious. more
Paul Nelson in Oslo, Norway
| September 20, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
Paul Nelson will be speaking at the University of Oslo in the afternoon, and then at the Rikshospitalet auditorium in the evening: 21 September 2006 14.15-16.00 University of Oslo Auditorium 2, Georg Sverdrups Hus Blindern “Is Intelligent Design a Theory of Biological Science?” Seminar leader: Professor Nils Roll-Hansen, Univ of Oslo 19.00-21.15 Rikshospitalet Medical Faculty… more
Student Video on ID
| September 20, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
FIRST PRIZE WINNER Middle School Caitie Adams, Hillary Wood & Anna Viterisi, 8th “Science or Faith: Intelligent Design in Public Schools” Lora Batchelor Middle School Bloomington, IN Insight Communications Air Date: 4/11/06 | Watch Interview Source: http://www.studentcam.org/winners_2006.asp. more
A Reply to Mark Frank
| September 19, 2006 | Posted by crandaddy under Intelligent Design, Philosophy |
Carlos, Mark Frank, and I were discussing design detection over at Alan Fox’s blog, Languedoc Diary, last week when a mountain of work I had allowed to pile up forced me to take a short blogging sabbatical. Well, I’m back (for the moment at least), and I thought I’d post my response to Mark’s last… more
A Mathematician’s View of Evolution
| September 19, 2006 | Posted by GilDodgen under Intelligent Design |
If you haven’t run into this essay from The Mathematical Intelligencer by mathematician Granville Sewell, I recommend it. In a concise and easily accessible fashion he summarizes why a mathematician might be driven to skepticism about orthodox Darwinian theory. I continue to find it entertaining that many Darwinists are convinced that only religious fanatics, the… more
Is Evolution Repeatable?
| September 19, 2006 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
One of our commenters here, trrll, made the oft-cited claim that evolution is unrepeatable. I asked what evidence there is of this and he made some unsubstantiated claims. Because of the frequency of such claims here I asked that he back them up before he comments here again. As of now the result of my… more
How does natural selection do it? No, this is not a rhetorical question!
| September 18, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Darwinism, Intelligent Design |
Ferns provide model for tiny motors powered by evaporation Scientists looked to ferns to create a novel energy scavenging device that uses the power of evaporation to move itself — materials that could provide a method for powering micro and nano devices with just water or heat. “We’ve shown that this idea works,” said Michel… more
Are wiki-textbooks going to make room for ID?
| September 18, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Education, Intelligent Design |
Who needs paper? Online texts could be cheaper So, what’s this Global Text Project about? It’s an effort to pool the knowledge of university professors and students around the globe and produce 1,000 university textbooks using wiki technology. The books will span undergraduate subjects from biology to literature to computer science. There are millions of… more
Darwinism: A House Divided
| September 18, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design |
Here’s an illuminating book review. We are increasingly seeing two streams of Darwinism — one which says there’s no problem reconciling it with religion; the other which sees the two as completely incompatible. As the reviewer notes: “Stanovich takes the hard line that accepting darwinism has to mean opposing virtually all religious beliefs. He praises… more