Monthly Archives: November 2008
Design Detection Reported on CBS’s 60 Minutes
| November 30, 2008 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
This evening the CBS News show 60 Minutes reported on an impressive example of design detection in the on-line poker world. Online gambling has grown in a few short years to a 16 billion dollar a year industry, and a big part of that growth has come from internet poker. Recently several professional gamblers… more
Judge Jones and the double standard
| November 30, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
In the Kitzmiller vs. Dover decision the honorable Judge Jones writes (or rather, to be more accurate, regurgitates from the complainants): While supernatural explanations may be important and have merit, they are not part of science. This self-imposed convention of science, which limits inquiry to testable, natural explanations about the natural world, is referred to… more
Stuff that should be a joke, but Brit toffs are fronting it, so …
| November 28, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Jennifer Gold reports for Christian Today (November 24, 2008) that The results of a new poll out today by faith-based think tank Theos have revealed that eight in 10 people in Britain are unaware that 2009 marks two major Charles Darwin anniversaries. Across the country, special events and celebrations are being planned for next year… more
Children are born with a belief in God
| November 28, 2008 | Posted by Steno under Intelligent Design |
Researchers from Oxford’s Centre for Anthropology and Mind have found evidence that children are predisposed to believe in God or a supreme being. This is because of a natural assumption that everything in the world exists for a purpose and was therefore created. Dr Justin Barrett was reported in the UKs Daily Telegraph as saying… more
Anthropology: It’s now down to Darwinism vs. humanism – does mind matter?
| November 28, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Get a load of this: Today, anthropology is at war with itself. The discipline has divided into two schools of thought – the social anthropologists and the evolutionary anthropologists. The schism between the two is simple but deeply ingrained. Academics in the subject clearly align themselves with one side or the other; once that choice… more
Now Materialists Are Trying to Turn Occam’s Razor On Its Head
| November 28, 2008 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
Give me a break will ya. In their feverish efforts to prop up the teetering materialist paradigm, to justify the unjustifiable, our materialist friends have now resorted to saying, essentially, black is white. In a recent post a commenter turns Occam’s Razor on its head when he states: It is a common misconception among… more
More ridiculous Darwin hagiography …
| November 27, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Darwin was a classic Brit toff of his generation – crumpets and tea and genteel unbelief sat well with administering the parish church. Indeed. British physicist David Tyler tells us, In an informative essay, Janet Browne reflects on three Darwin commemorations: his funeral in Westminster Abbey, the 1909 centennial and the 1959 celebration. Each grasped… more
Peppered Moth Idolatry
| November 27, 2008 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
The venerable peppered moth (Biston betularia) has popped up a couple of times in recent posts. It seems that some of our Darwinian commenters (see, e.g., qwerty017 in comment [2] here) have not gotten the memo – the peppered moth myth has been completely exploded. Don’t take our word for it. Uber-Darwinist Jerry Coyne says… more
Not just aliens: The multiverse has gotta be out there too!
| November 26, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
According to Tim Folger in Discover Magazine (November 10, 2008), “Science’s Alternative to an Intelligent Creator:” is “the Multiverse Theory.” The staggering challenge is to think of a way to confirm the existence of other universes when every conceivable experiment or observation must be confined to our own. Does it make sense to talk about… more
Some Thanks for Professor Olofsson
| November 25, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
I’m halfway through mathematics Professor Peter Olofsson’s essay titled Probability, Statistics, Evolution, and Intelligent Design which originally appeared in the journal Chance. The first thing I want to thank PO for is stating this early on: Although [religion] is of interest in its own right, in fairness to ID proponents, it should be pointed out… more
Dr. Charles Garner’s Editorial
| November 24, 2008 | Posted by Baylor Bear under Education |
Charles Garner, Professor of Chemistry at Baylor University served along with Steve Meyer as Expert Reviewer on Texas Science Standards. (Here is an article from the Austin Statesman covering the issue: LINK.) Dr. Garner recently wrote the following editorial for the Waco Tribune. Charles Garner, guest column: It’s not religion; it’s sound, skeptical science… more
Help us compose a standard anti-intelligent design disclaimer for research papers!
| November 24, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Friend Malcolm Chisholm writes to say, Some fascinating research on electron transport chain proteins from Princeton. These guys say: “Our new theory extends Darwin’s model, demonstrating how organisms can subtly direct aspects of their own evolution to create order out of randomness.” Apparently they have self correcting proteins, but they seem to think it goes… more
Atheist philosopher of physics on why ID is a reasonable idea
| November 23, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Atheism, Intelligent Design |
Below are links to the Discovery Institute’s five podcasts of University of Colorado (Boulder) professor of the philosophy of physics Bradley Monton – who is an atheist – on why the universe might show evidence of design. Monton teamed up with another skeptic of religion, mathematician David Berlinski, against materialist atheist Lawrence Krauss and British… more
Popcorn! Dilbert, give a kiss for me to the talking frog in your pocket!
| November 23, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Dilbert, the date-challenged engineer and his life companion Dogbert discuss evolution here: There is a history here. Dilbert’s creator, animator Scott Adams attracted a variety of trolls in their natural environment when he started to question “ass hat” Darwinian evolution. Here are some posts detailing his funnyman response: Dilbert cartoonist: Fossils are bullshit! Fun for… more
Questioning the Tree of Life: International Workshop Series
| November 23, 2008 | Posted by Paul Nelson under Intelligent Design |
One cause (of many) delaying the completion of On Common Descent, my monograph examining the theory of the universal common ancestry of life on Earth — Darwin’s monophyletic Tree of Life, rooted in LUCA (the last universal common ancestor) — has been the explosion of publication on the topic. In 1998, when I submitted my… more
Who Was More Important: Lincoln or Darwin?
| November 22, 2008 | Posted by Mario A. Lopez under Intelligent Design |
Here is an interesting article: By Malcolm Jones | NEWSWEEK How’s this for a coincidence? Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born in the same year, on the same day: Feb. 12, 1809. As historical facts go, it amounts to little more than a footnote. Still, while it’s just a coincidence, it’s a coincidence that’s… more
First Things editor on Vatican evolution conference shutting out design theorists
| November 22, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
In First Things (December 2008), editor Richard John Neuhaus comments on the decision not to invite intelligent design theorists like Michael Behe, author of Edge of Evolution to the Vatican conference next March: So let’s see now: The conference is strictly scientific. In that case, there would seem to be no reason for the Church… more
Earth to Darwin fans: Building things up is way more trouble than destroying them
| November 21, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
In “When Fossil Genes Become Fossilized Rhetoric”11 05 08) Robert Deyes recounts the trouble an evolutionary biologist named Sean Carroll went to in order to demonstrate that evolution occurs without design or purpose – largely demonstrating the opposite: There are no grounds for assuming that the processes through which genes might degrade are the same… more
Methodological naturalism: If that’s the way forward, … let’s go sideways
| November 20, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Having connected the dots of the vast conspiracy run by the Discovery Institute so as to include non-materialist neuroscience, Steven Novella goes on to cheerlead, for methodological naturalism – about which I will say only this: Methodological naturalism is usually described as meaning that science can consider only natural causes. But by itself that doesn’t… more
Vast conspiracy files: Connecting the dots to include non-materialist neuroscience
| November 20, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Over at Neurologica blog, Steve Novella speculates about non-materialist neuroscience, about which he seems to have learned from New Scientist and the Discovery Institute’s News and Views blog. (I would have read books myself, but hey.) My favourite lines: I also think the New Scientist is correct in pointing out that the ID movement may… more