Uncommon Descent

Archive for July, 2008

30 July 2008

Literary Darwinism: Crap? Lit crit chasing its collective tail?

O'Leary

Well, if we go by Britt Peterson’s survey article, “Darwin to the Rescue”, in Chronicle Free, even its supporters don’t totally disagree, despite all the huffery:
Gottschall points out that much of his writing has been published in scientific journals. He admits, however, that under the name of Literary Darwinism “there’s also a lot of crap. [...]

30 July 2008

Bill Maher — Dawkins for the Unwashed Masses

William Dembski

Check out his forthcoming documentary RELIGULOUS (click here for the trailer).

30 July 2008

“She’s Got No Brain” by Jim Rogers

William Dembski

To listen to this song in mp3, click here.
SHE’S GOT NO BRAIN
By Jim Rogers
Little machines that go
Integrated just so
Blueprint incognito
What makes it grow
Put together so fine
Personalities shine
Words of poetry rhyme
How can you know
What a wonder it is
It’s a silly thing to think we’re dumber
Than Mother Nature who’s got no brain
For evolution it’s quite the [...]

29 July 2008

Did the eyespots of butterflies and moths evolve to deter predators?

O'Leary

For two hundred years, scientists have believed that the eyespots of butterflies and moths evolved to look like large eyes in order to frighten off predators. A bird might think that the bright eyespots are the eyes of a concealed cat, for example.
It sounds logical, but there is a hidden assumption: We are assuming that [...]

27 July 2008

A Simple Gene Origination Calculation

PaV

In this month’s Nature Genetics, there is an article by Zhou, et. al., dealing with the generation of new genes in Drosophila melanogaster—the fruit fly. While only having access to the abstract, I nonetheless was struck by one of their findings: the rate of new functional gene generation. As finding number 6 in [...]

27 July 2008

Loennig and Becker on the origin of carnivorous plants

Granville Sewell

Although I have posted on this article before, I don’t think Wolf-Ekkehard Loennig and Heinz-Albert Becker’s Nature Encyclopedia of Life Sciences article on carnivorous plants has received the attention it merits. The section on the origin of carnivorous plants (pp 5-6) discusses not only the spectacular examples of irreducible complexity that [...]

27 July 2008

Yes, it’s true! The ID Taliban brought about Baylor Prez Lilley’s downfall …

O'Leary

Apparently, some fans of the ruins of neo-Darwinism think that President John Lilley’s departure from Baylor relates to intelligent design. So Rack Jite:
Though matters of tenure and logo design (believe it or not) are reported as the reasons, it was about no such thing. Rather it is the revenge of Baptist fundamentalists over encroaching secularism [...]

25 July 2008

ID award recipient not named for own protection …

O'Leary

I notice that at Overwhelming Evidence, Sam Chen announces that a student sympathetic to intelligent design has received the Cassey Luskin Graduate Award, but
The recipient of the 2008 Casey Luskin Graduate Award will remain anonymous for the protection of the recipient….
It’s interesting to reflect on that in view of the many legacy media know-nothings panning [...]

24 July 2008

Baylor President Lilley Fired

William Dembski

This just in from Christianity Today. Lilley, you will recall, expelled Robert Marks’s Evolutionary Informatics Lab from Baylor (for that story, go here).
July 24, 2008 9:57AM
President of Baylor University Fired
John Lilley had angered alumni, faculty, and others with tenure decisions.
Ted Olsen
Baylor University’s board of regents has fired president John Lilley, whose presidency began and [...]

24 July 2008

Darwinism: Imagining the unimaginable, and cutting through the terminology fog

O'Leary

First, imagining the unimaginable
American-born Warwick U sociologist Steve Fuller writes to share the news that his book was Book of the Week in Times Higher, where Keith Ward tries to give a reasonable though plodding account of what he is writing about:
… , Fuller argues that there is no reason to call ID non-scientific. [...]

24 July 2008

Introduction: A journalist tries to understand a jealous god - materialist science

O'Leary

After reading American journalist Pam Winnick’s A Jealous God (Nelson, 2005), I informed her that I wish I had written it.
Winnick and I both started writing a book on the intelligent design controversy at about the same time. My By Design or by Chance? is a closeup look; Winnick used the ID controversy as a [...]

22 July 2008

Monotropa uniflora

DaveScot

This is off topic. Specifically botany and mycology. I thought some readers might find it of interest.
I’m vacationing for the summer up north, it’s been wet and warm, perfect for mushrooms so this morning my daughter and I went walking through some woods and fields looking for mushrooms. I really wanted to get [...]

21 July 2008

PZ Myers and Abbie Smith - An Hour of No Cursing!

DaveScot

PZ Myers and Abbie Smith have an hour-long video conference here. A few surprising things, not the least of which is neither of them thought to bolster their points with the cussing that characterizes their blogs.
Anyhow, the first 15 minutes they talk about epigenetics, the Altenberg 16 conference, Susan Mazur, and try to downplay [...]

21 July 2008

No Smoking Hot Spot

DaveScot

I’ve been saying for a long time that the computer climate model predictions don’t match up to actual observations. The global warming hysterics have been in denial trying to find faults with the observations instead of admitting the plain truth that the models are flawed. Here’s an article by an Australian climate researcher [...]

20 July 2008

Michael Shermer Misrepresents Intelligent Design in Canadian Newspaper

Thomas Cudworth

In the July 9 edition of The Ottawa Citizen, Michael Shermer published an attack on aspects of Intelligent Design. The article, with comments from readers, can be found at:

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/views/story.html?id=711a0b47-29d5-426d-a273-a270817b000e&p=1
Shermer’s attack was brought on by a comment of Rabbi Reuven Bulka, published in the Citizen on July 7. Bulka had written:
“By the way, for the record, [...]

20 July 2008

Evolution Disclaimer

William Dembski

Here’s the closing disclaimer on a GodTube video about evolution (hat tip to bornagain77):

20 July 2008

Faith and Reason in the OOL Context

BarryA

Paul Giem’s comment to my Faith and Reason post below is so good, I thought it deserved its own post. Read on to see how Paul demonstrates decisively that in the origin of life context (OOL) the materialists’ faith commitment is the sort of blind-leap-in-the-dark-in-the-teeth-of-the-evidence stretch of which they delight in accusing theists of making.

19 July 2008

Olivia Judson: “Let’s not call what we’re doing ‘Darwinism’.”

William Dembski

Olivia Judson is on a mission to control the damage to Darwin’s hemorrhaging theory. Her latest at the NYTimes is to suggest that we stop using the term “Darwinism” because the field of evolutionary biology is so much richer than what Darwin gave us. Others have tried that strategy with equal laughable disingenuity (e.g., Paul [...]

19 July 2008

I am a machine. No, I am a tree. Here’s the problem with analogy …

O'Leary

A friend writes to say that nonsensical materialism is now being marketed to engineers, via IEEE, the largest professional engineering society in the world, with over 365 000 members.
This article, “I, Rodney Brooks, am a robot”, appeared in the IEEE Spectrum which is the magazine that goes to all members:

I am a machine. So are [...]

19 July 2008

PeerGate review scandal at American Physical Society

DLH

The American Physical Society alleged that Lord Monckton’s paper Climate Sensitivity Reconsidered was not peer reviewed when Monckton in fact thoroughly revised his paper in response to APS peer review. Monckton immediately demanded retraction, accountability and an apology.
The Editor of the American Physical Society’s Forum on Physics and Society launched a debate on global warming, [...]

19 July 2008

Antony Flew reviews — and rips — Dawkins’ THE GOD DELUSION

William Dembski

Antony Flew, formerly the most prominent atheist in the English speaking world, goes after Dawkins, his successor as head atheist:
The God Delusion by the atheist writer Richard Dawkins, is remarkable in the first place for having achieved some sort of record by selling over a million copies. But what is much more remarkable than that [...]

19 July 2008

EXPELLED DVD — to be released October 21st

William Dembski

Amazon.com is selling it for the pre-order price of $18.90.

18 July 2008

So much for the “scientific consensus” regarding man-made global warming

William Dembski

As I recall, there’s another consensus in science…something in biology about how we got here…
Myth of Consensus Explodes: APS Opens Global Warming Debate
Michael Asher (Blog) - July 16, 2008 9:35 PM
The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its [...]

17 July 2008

How to Be an Intellectually Fulfilled Atheist — Or Not

William Dembski

Coming this October…

Book description (pre-order for $9.60 at Amazon):
“Although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin,” writes Richard Dawkins, “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” This little book shows that atheism must seek intellectual fulfillment elsewhere by decisively demonstrating the need for intelligence in explaining life’s origin. This is [...]

17 July 2008

Yoko Ono Lawsuit Expelled!

DLH

There may yet be hope for the First Amendment and common sense copyright.
———————-
Yoko Ono Lawsuit Expelled!: Judge Rules in Favor of Expelled Producers; Film To Be Re-Released In Theaters This Summer
(PRWEB) July 17, 2008 — The producers of the controversial film, Expelled, are celebrating their first legal victory in the lawsuit brought against them by [...]

16 July 2008

Is there a “religious” impulse?

O'Leary

To look at this account of the religious fervour surrounding Barack Obama by Michael Medved, one would think so. Consider
Author Garen Thomas makes similar observations in “Yes We Can: A Biography of Barack Obama”, a newly published book for children. “There has emerged a new leader who seems to be granting Americans a renewed license [...]

15 July 2008

Science journalist trashing the Darwin industry? … I have a twin somewhere?

O'Leary

Is Susan Mazur writing a book that exposes the Darwin industry instead of protecting it?
Her e-book title is “Altenberg 16: An Exposé Of The Evolution Industry”
Sunday, 6 July 2008, 12:32 pm | Article: Suzan Mazur
—–
< oreword
Introduction
Chronology
Evolution Tribes
1 The Altenberg 16
2 Altenberg! The Woodstock of Evolution?
3 Jerry Fodor and Stan Salthe Open the Evo Box
4 [...]

14 July 2008

Is ID getting anywhere? Three thoughts, and a suggestion, and other news

O'Leary

I’ve been covering the ID controversy for about seven years now, as one of only a handful of journalists to make a specialty of it.
Along the way, I have encountered several j’s who were scared off by threats of career ruin. I thought that too bad.
If your stories are consistently about stuff that’s in the [...]

14 July 2008

Roy Spencer on Intelligent Design

DaveScot

Roy Spencer is a global warming skeptic and the author of the hypothesis that the water cycle acts as the earth’s thermostat. In a previous article I attributed that hypothesis to “the father of climatology” and that was incorrect. The father of climatology is Reid Bryson. He is a global warming skeptic [...]

13 July 2008

Faith and Reason

BarryA

The comment threads to several recent posts have contained spirited discussions of faith, reason and the relationship between the two. This issue comes up quite often on this blog, so I decided it was time to devote a post to it. Many of the comments assume a dichotomy, namely that materialists operate solely within the [...]

12 July 2008

Off Topic: “Faith & Healing: Where’s the Evidence?”

William Dembski

Here’s something I wrote for the Baptist Press about faith healer Todd Bentley. Unlike Richard Dawkins, Michael Shermer, James Randi, and the skeptical community in general, I don’t throw out all miraculous healings. Indeed, I think they are far more prevalent than we ordinarily imagine. At the same time, we need to guard against wishful [...]