Monthly Archives: January 2008
Materialist assumption hits bottom of dumpster
| January 23, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
The mind does not exist - or anyway it cannot cause anything to happen, right? Well, it would be very convenient for materialists if that could be shown to be true. Here, commenter Magnan writes, in response to my recent post on dealing with Darwinist hate, Such a deep dynamic could explain, for instance, why parapsychology… more
Life FINALLY Found on Mars!
| January 23, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Humor, Just For Fun, Off Topic |
The Design of Life: Popular science media solve the origin of life – every couple of weeks …
| January 23, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under The Design of Life |
Excerpt: When a scrap of evidence supports any one of the competing theories of the origin of life, doubts about that theory itself are often not discussed in the article. That practice distorts the overall picture. To see why, suppose for example that the police are trying to determine which of three suspects stole a… more
Neo-Darwinism Impeding Research… Again
| January 22, 2008 | Posted by johnnyb under Intelligent Design |
Remember the dark days of vestigal organs? You know, back when there was a list of 180 vestigal organs? Or remember the days of junk DNA – when repetitive DNA, large regions of non-protein-coding DNA, and all sorts of mobile DNA were assumed to be non-functional simply because the investigators had assumed Darwinism rather than… more
The old order changes, … amid a storm of abuse!
| January 22, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
I did a local radio show this morning, on which perceptive host Robert White asked me how I cope with hostility in connection with The Spiritual Brain and other books – trolls, votebots, idle anonymous threats, and such. I think I rather surprised him by pointing out that I didn’t really care much. Essentially, I… more
Dembski’s Suing Me!
| January 21, 2008 | Posted by Galapagos Finch under Intelligent Design |
Now it’s personal. More. more
What Does T. cistoides Have To Do With Darwin’s Finches?
| January 21, 2008 | Posted by PaV under Biology, Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design |
Because of a prediction, a very strong prediction, I made on another thread, I’ve had reason to look into just what has been happening to Darwin’s finches way off on the Galapagos Islands. Here is a paper published last year in Science Magazine by the Grants, experts in Darwin’s finches. I looked at their paper,… more
Why Evolution is Smarter
| January 21, 2008 | Posted by Mario A. Lopez under Intelligent Design |
Here is a gem for you: The idea of nanotechnology is founded in the premise that it will be possible to construct machines with atomic scale precision (Feynman, 1961; Drexler, 1981; Drexler, 1986). Biology provides many examples that this is possible; we “merely” need to learn what has been achieved by evolution and copy… more
Mathematicians are trained to value simplicity
| January 21, 2008 | Posted by Granville Sewell under Intelligent Design |
It is frustrating for me to see that even most ID proponents are ready to concede a Darwinian explanation for any complex structure which does not seem to be irreducibly complex. If someone could show, for example, that the bacterial flagellum could have been constructed through many gradual improvements, would I find a Darwinian explanation… more
The Cardinal Dresses Darwin Up for God: Compatibilist Strategies – Do They Work?
| January 21, 2008 | Posted by Flannery under Darwinism, Philosophy, Religion |
On July 7, 2005 Cardinal Christoph Schönborn wrote an article Finding Design in Nature that seemed to level serious criticism at Darwinism and neo-Darwinism. “Now at the beginning of the 21st century, faced with scientific claims like neo-Darwinism and the multiverse hypothesis in cosmology invented to avoid the overwhelming evidence for purpose and design found in modern science,”… more
Which came first: DNA or Protein?
| January 21, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
A commenter quoting George Church on the ribosome in Paul’s thread reminds me of how I came to be on this side of the ID controversy. For decades I’d uncritically accepted the notion that life could emerge from chemicals bumping together in a primordial soup and that once started it could evolve through mutation and… more
Prediction, retrodiction, and malediction
| January 21, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
It’s not even six a.m. here in EST, and already 230 people have visited the Post-Darwinist (one of my two solo blogs), either to read my nine predictions if ID is true or hear whether it’s true that most Discovery Institute fellows are, like, fundies. Or else to read about the Pope vs. howler monkey… more
Negative Predictions: A Double Standard
| January 20, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
A commenter here remarked that negative predictions that ID makes such as we won’t ever demonstrate an unassisted way that a flagellum could evolve are not valid predictions. Yet I’ve heard Darwinists claim that we won’t find a pre-Cambrian rabbit or human and dinosaur fossils together. Are those then not valid predictions of Darwinian theory?… more
Are most Discovery Institute fellows evangelical Christians?
| January 20, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under The Design of Life |
Recently, some commenters at one of my home blogs, the Post-Darwinist, have urged me to address the question of whether it is true that most Discovery Institute fellows are evangelical Christians. I suppose so, except for the ones who are Catholics, agnostics, or Moonies or something. Go here for reasons why the accusation is basically… more
Nine predictions, if intelligent design is true
| January 20, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Recently, this question was sent to Bill Dembski by a TV chase producer: … can you or they provide any samples of things that intelligent design theory has predicted, which researchers have later determined to be true? I gather Dembski sent that guy some predictions, but I’ve been busy, so I didn’t get around to compiling… more
Are ATP energy cycles essential for life?
| January 19, 2008 | Posted by DLH under Biology, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Self-Org. Theory, The Design of Life |
“The energy in the ATP molecule powers all biological processes. Thus, the synthesis of ATP is essential for life.” Sir. John Walker, The ATP Synthase Group, MRC Dunn Human Nutrition Unit ATP Synthase has been frequently discussed at Uncommon Descent including Intelligent Engineering or Natural Selection 15 July 2006 “Our job is to follow the… more
Darwin’s tree of life vs. real life: The curious case of the beefalo
| January 19, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under The Design of Life |
Never heard of a beefalo? Aw, don’t be shy. It’s what happens when Buffalo bull meets Cow gal or versa vice. You probably don’t hang out in places like that, so to you it’s just a dinner entree. This is a cross between genera, not species. Fertile hybrids of genus bos and genus bison, separated… more
“We’re moving into intelligent design, big-time.”
| January 18, 2008 | Posted by Paul Nelson under Intelligent Design |
Looking at a cell is like looking into the future of our own designs. That’s my favorite sentence from The Design Matrix by Mike Gene (a book from which I took copious notes, and am still digesting). But the reason there’s a picture of biologist George Church in this blog entry, not to mention a… more
Can One Computer “Persuade” Another Computer?
| January 17, 2008 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
In a comment to a prior post StephenB raises some interesting questions: {1}Free will requires the presence of a nonmaterial-mind independent of the brain. {2}a non-material mind independent of the brain indicates free will. . . . In philosophy, [this type of proposition] is known as a bi-conditional proposition, which means, If A/then B. Also, If B/then A. … more
Greg Bear’s “Vitals” – two thumbs up recommendation
| January 17, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Biology, Science |
Greg Bear has been writing hard sci-fi novels in recent years where the plot revolves around recent biotech discoveries. “Darwin’s Radio” received high acclaim even in Nature Magazine for the depth of knowledge of genetics, endogenous retroviruses, and human evolution that Bear displayed in the fictional work. In my opinion “Vitals” is of the same… more