It’s not turtles all the way down; it’s design all the way down: from the constants of physics, to the production of life-permitting chemical elements in supernovae that are coincidentally unstable and spew out these elements to produce rocky planets on which life can exist, to the characteristics of carbon formed in a very narrow […]
In the popular media, the picture that we get of the ID controversy is this: primitive man attributed many phenomena in Nature to design, science has progressively removed the need for the design hypothesis from these phenomena one by one, and now a group of religious fanatics is trying to make a last stand […]
Ben Stein to battle Darwin in major film
Actor-commentator stars in ‘Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed’
Ben Stein, the lovable, monotone teacher from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “The Wonder Years” is back in the classroom in a major motion picture release slated for February 2008.
But this time, the actor will be on the big screen asking […]
When I first encountered Biola adjunct prof Cornelius G. Hunter’s Science’s Blind Spot: The Unseen Religion of Scientific Naturalism (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2007), I was intrigued by the possibility that it might help me understand the people who want to destroy the careers of anyone who doubts that Darwinian evolution can produce mind from […]
Heard about the Council of Europe’s draft resolution against ID.
Sighed. Smiled to myself.
And then I took my worn paperback copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance down from the shelf:
The real University…has no specific location. It owns no property, pays no salaries and receives no material dues. The real University […]
Here are extracts from the Council of Europe’s Draft Resolution against ID, Creation, and anything that does not toe the materialist line. Note the passages in bold.
A. Draft resolution
1. For some people the Creation, as a matter of religious belief, gives a meaning to life. Nevertheless, the Parliamentary Assembly is worried about the possible […]
I can’t say I feel sorry for these atheistic scientists in agreeing to interview for EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED. When the BBC interviewed me for their Horizon documentary on ID (Horizon = the UK version of PBS Nova), they gave the ID side no warning that the program would be titled A WAR ON SCIENCE […]
Okay, here at last is Jerry Bergman’s review of Stuart Pivar’s Lifecode. Yes, Stu Pivar was the friend of Steve Gould who was suing and then unsuing PZ Myers. Also, note the new book announcement about Jerry Bergman.
Francisco Ayala’s latest book, DARWIN’S GIFT TO SCIENCE AND RELIGION, defends Darwinism against ID. For my review of that book for Science & Theology, go here.
How do we measure the scientific literacy of a society? How do we boost it? What is the value of this literacy? Who is responsible for fostering it?
These were questions posed by Seed Magazine to its readers in its second annual Science Writing Contest. Among the judges were Adam Bly, editor-in-chief and founder of […]
Where does artistic expression come from? Why do almost all of us, as humans, seem to have an insatiable desire to create? Why do certain works of art endure over centuries?
Here’s what I think of the whole mess (and I am not an American and do not live anywhere near Waco or Baylor and have nothing but trouble to expect from either side in this matter.):
“God’s Undertaker - Has Science Buried God?” by John Lennox, has now appeared with Lion-Hudson in the UK and with Kregel in the US. The book had previously appeared in Germany (Lennox knows German very well) and had an enormous impact there.
Lennox is a Reader in Mathematics and Fellow of Green College, University of Oxford. […]
From “Evo-Devo of feathers and scales: building complex epithelial appendages”
http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~cmchuong/2000CurrOpinGenetandDev.pdf p5 and p6
“Archeopteryx existed ~145 million years ago and appears relatively advanced: it has different types of feathers over the body but still has teeth, claws in the wing, and a feathered tail. The flight feathers in the wing are asymmetric, suggesting that it could […]
Recently, a friend who thinks about (and has published on) the nature of the eukaryotic genome, said to me, “Paul, no one really knows what the genome is any more.” He went on to explain that the picture most biologists carry around in their heads, of the relationship of genes to organismal form and […]
A block of Carrera marble and a large crane, apparently.
Didn’t know about the Clorox® either. So that’s why my asparagus never tastes quite right: keep forgetting to add the chlorine.
(HT: Jason)
See my short article in the Michigan Tech Lode (week of 2007-09-19): click here
While it’s routine to hear of ID proponents being persecuted–and there are many more stories than the high profile cases mentioned here on UD–sometimes we may forget that the same may happen to Darwinists. I was reading Darwiniana today and this article by MSNBC caught my eye:
Computer programs that purport to validate the grand claims of Darwinian (i.e., chance and necessity) biological evolution are a hoot.
In early August my aerospace R&D company sent me off to Livermore, CA for a four-day course in using a finite element analysis (FEA) simulation program called LS-DYNA, originally developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It […]
Here are the new entries to the Encyclopedia: Evolution in the light of intelligent design
Acritarchs - oldest known protists (Tyler)
The picture emerging of the Late Archaean is one that includes prokaryotes and eukaryotes, photosynthesis, an oxygenated atmosphere and lots of biological activity. This is a big contrast from the picture even 10 years ago. The […]
In my 2000 Mathematical Intelligencer article
I speculated on what would happen if we constructed a gigantic computer
model which starts with the initial conditions on Earth 4 billion years
ago and tries to simulate the effects that the four known forces of physics
(the gravitational and […]
September 14th marked the end of the first wave of media attention in the Baylor administration’s censoring of Prof. Robert Marks’s Evolutionary Informatics Lab (now on a third-party server at www.EvoInfo.org). With the coming to campus of a crew from Ben Stein for his forthcoming movie/documentary EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED, things have ramped up and […]
I don’t know what I would do without my regular fix of fellow Toronto journalist David Warren, who - having made clear that he thinks Darwinism a crock - is constantly hearing from anxious Darwin fans, who don’t know what they’ll do if it isn’t true.
If life cannot be produced accidentally by jiggling chemicals in […]
Today’s Baylor Lariat (the student newspaper) has an amazing editorial:
Editorial: Lilley’s two cents are missing
Sept. 20, 2007
Being Baylor’s president is not an easy job. Between managing a staff of professors and administrators and fundraising enough to finance Baylor 2012, President John Lilley has a lot on his plate.
But one of the most […]
Larry Summers, who is definitely not an intelligent design proponent, is nonetheless paying the penalty of standing for what is obviously true in current academic life, columnist John Leo reveals:
So former Harvard president Lawrence Summers is once again paying for his sins, this time having a dinner speech canceled by the board of regents of […]
Walt Ruloff, the executive producer of the Ben Stein movie EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED, has an amazing op-ed in today’s Baylor Lariat, the school newspaper. WOW!
BU administration silencing science by design
Sept. 18, 2007
It may sound like a crazy question, but it needs to be asked: Does the administration at Baylor believe in God?
This […]
According to today’s Baylor Lariat (the student newspaper), the producer of the upcoming Ben Stein documentary on suppression of ID (www.expelledthemovie.com) is sending a crew to Baylor to interview President John Lilley and others regarding the removal of Robert Marks’s Evolutionary Informatics Lab from Baylor (for the background on this story, go here). It appears […]
Kudos to whoever is responsible for the new look of Uncommon Descent! I know that you guys put a lot of work into maintaining this site and I’m sure that this new look will make the site even easier to navigate.
The Scubaredneck
The dangers of creationism in education
Report
Committee on Culture, Science and Education
Rapporteur: Mr Guy LENGAGNE, France, Socialist Group
Summary
The theory of evolution is being attacked by religious fundamentalists who call for creationist theories to be taught in European schools alongside or even in place of it. From a scientific view point there is absolutely no doubt that […]
I remember reading years ago violently conflicting opinions on Richard Dawkins’s famous/infamous/faked silence when a filmmaker asked him about the origin of genetic information.
Eventually the tape made its way to Barry Williams, the editor of an Australian journal called The Skeptic, who consulted with Dawkins and then published a blistering article with the title “Creationist […]