Monthly Archives: July 2007
Darwinism, atheism, liberal religion, and the academy
| July 31, 2007 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
As the Darwin bicentennial looms (2009) and the flapdoodle flaps, we are treated to ridiculous hagiography and soothing, reassuring spin on how Darwinism can live harmoniously with the non-materialist beliefs of the peoples of Earth. Meanwhile, a friend draws my attention to Taner Edis. more
Identify the Indian or Shut Up
| July 31, 2007 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
Long time followers of this site will remember that my grandfather used to collect small stones he called “arrowheads.â€Â He had the misguided notion that these small pieces of flint had complex and specific chip patterns that he attributed to intelligent agency, i.e., Indians making tips for their arrows. Later in life I learned that… more
CHICAGO READER complains about my comparing Jerry Coyne to Herman Munster
| July 31, 2007 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
The Chicago Reader, a publication I used to read when living in Chicago, reports on my recent blog post at UD about Jerry Coyne, comparing him to Herman Munster (for the comparison, go here): Meanwhile, in what seems like an odd move, creationists have chosen to play on Coyne’s home court by claiming to be… more
Trench warfare, not an arms race
| July 31, 2007 | Posted by Granville Sewell under Intelligent Design |
In his new book, “The Edge of Evolution,” (another masterpiece) Michael Behe looks in considerable detail at the struggle for survival between humans and the malaria parasite where, in the last 100 years, the evolution of more organisms and generations can be studied than were involved in the entire natural history of mammals. He finds… more
New ID threat assessment lists Akyol, O’Leary, … oh and the Pope too, by the way …
| July 30, 2007 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
A friend draws my attention to a recent squawk in TRENDS in Biochemical Sciences Vol.32 No.7 (July 2007) by Barbara Forrest and Paul Gross, who – so far as I can tell – make a career out of opposing the intelligent design theorists. Squawks about the alleged threat posed by the ID theorists are nothing… more
Edge of Evolution deliberately “misshelved” by Darwin zealot
| July 30, 2007 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
At a blog called “biologists helping bookstores,” a Pasadena-based woman whose handle is Shandon explains how she deliberately misshelved Mike Behe’s Edge of Evolution, and a number of other books – distributing them around the store according to her private tastes. Now, you might think that Shandon (hereafter Misshelver) is restricting the right of others… more
Is this the twilight of atheism? – Oxford Historian says yes
| July 29, 2007 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
I’ve just read a most interesting book by Oxford historian Alister McGrath, arguing that we are currently looking at the twilight of atheism. That’s certainly my impression, judging from the remarkably ill-advised antics of the recent anti-God campaign. One thing the campaign made quite clear is that materialism is not some neutral middle ground on… more
Apes R Not Us, and we have to get used to it
| July 28, 2007 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
In a beautifully written article in the New Yorker, Ian Parker describes how he shared the hot, damp work of studying the elusive bonobo (lesser chimpanzee) – long lauded as sexy and peaceful – with one of the only people in the world who actually knows much about them in the wilds. Well, people who… more
The Gospel According to Frank Tipler: O’Leary’s review of The Physics of Christianity
| July 28, 2007 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
When I asked a gifted Canadian physicist what he thought of Frank Tipler’s The Physics of Christianity, he said, “in one word: wacky”. But readers will expect more than one word from me, and I think there is more than that to be said for Tipler’s book. Frank Tipler is in an unusual position. He… more
O’Leary’s review of Weikart’s controversial work From Darwin to Hitler
| July 28, 2007 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
I first determined to make a point of reading historian Richard Weikart’s meticulously researched book, From Darwin to Hitler because Darwinists were very clearly upset by the implications of his work. Some seemed obsessed with proving Weikart, who teaches at California State University (Stanislaus) not only wrong but dishonest and irresponsible – which he certainly… more
SCIENCE’S BLIND SPOT by Cornelius Hunter
| July 27, 2007 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
Here’s a book that came out last month that readers of this blog should be aware of: Science’s Blind Spot: The Unseen Religion of Scientific Naturalism (Paperback) by Cornelius G. Hunter (Author) Book Description Had evolutionists been in charge, they wouldn’t have made the mosquito, planetary orbits would align perfectly, and the human eye would… more
Recent polls relevant to the intelligent design controversy – what do they really show?
| July 27, 2007 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
The recent North American polls I’ve seen recently show several key trends: 1. Both evolution and creation are widely accepted, and the distribution of numbers is roughly stable over the years. No dramatic proof or disproof of Darwin’s theory that would change many minds has occurred. That said, it is quite likely that many people… more
A Personal Story about Random Mutation and Selection
| July 26, 2007 | Posted by johnnyb under Intelligent Design |
I’ve been reading a lot of the classic literature lately on mutation and selection from the 20s, 30s, and 40s. It’s interesting to read old science material with the advantage of hindsight. It’s like watching a movie — you might know what’s going to happen next, but the characters don’t. And so, reading Muller’s experiments… more
When in doubt, doubt
| July 26, 2007 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
I hope I am not interrupting a heated exchange over pepperology* but I thought I’d share this: A reader of the Post-Darwinist wrote me to ask, how it could a plant evolve by Darwinian means to look like a wasp – as we are meant to believe. I replied: Well, the Darwinian theory is that… more
Memo from the Toronto Office
| July 25, 2007 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
To: Dembski From: O’Leary Re: Compensation for Thumbsmen July 25, 2007 Bill, pursuant to your recent comments on the guy in charge of promoting the ID biz conf over at the Thumb, how much ARE we paying our shills anyway? I have been trying to get figures for several months now, but accounting is backlogged… more
PLANET EARTH and the Design Hypothesis
| July 24, 2007 | Posted by idnet.com.au under Intelligent Design |
Dr David Seargent from NSW Australia has just published PLANET EARTH and the Design Hypothesis In many respects, our planet is a cosmic anomaly. Moreover, it is anomalous in such a way as to provide an excellent environment for complex life in what appears to be a largely hostile universe. Is this simply a fortunate… more
Intelligent Design in Business Practice
| July 24, 2007 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
Steve Reuland is all breathless over a conference I’m putting together on intelligent design in business (see his post at PT here). The upshot of his post is that it’s somehow illegitimate to bring ideas from ID into business practice. But of course it’s okay for Darwinists to push not just Darwinism but evolutionary psychology… more
Evolution in the light of intelligent design – making evolution make sense
| July 24, 2007 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Here are the new additions to the Evolution and Intelligent Design Encyclopedia, from British physicist David Tyler. Read, for example, about adaptationist fantasies (how natural selection explains everything it doesn’t explain), why bipedalism (walking on two legs) is good for you (not like what you’ve been told), and what the fact that very old life… more
A de novo–’Out of Nowhere’ — Gene
| July 23, 2007 | Posted by PaV under Biology, Darwinism |
I always find it interesting how Darwinists explain things. Here is a gene that, according to the author, exists in no known species, and simply shows up in this particular fly genome. The way Darwinists want to explain things–knowing that NDE is essentially ‘dead in the water’–is by talking about duplicated genes which are allowed… more
Dangerous questions? Huh? Materialists have NO dangerous questions.
| July 23, 2007 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
At Mindful Hack I have put up some information from a neurosurgeon on why the mind obviously isn’t merely the brain. Amazing stuff, and certainly NOT what you would hear from materialist cognitive scientist Steven Pinker. Pinker posed a whole bunch of “dangerous questions” in the Chicago Sun-Times. What strikes me as remarkable is how UNdangerous… more