Monthly Archives: November 2008
Paley’s Watch found in cyanobacteria
| November 20, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
Turns out it’s a bit more complicated than a Swiss watch. Emphasis added. Science 31 October 2008: Vol. 322. no. 5902, pp. 697 – 701 DOI: 10.1126/science.1150451 Structural Insights into a Circadian Oscillator Carl Hirschie Johnson,1* Martin Egli,2 Phoebe L. Stewart3 An endogenous circadian system in cyanobacteria exerts pervasive control over cellular processes, including global… more
Horrid doubt file: Reasons to think your mind is real
| November 19, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Was Darwin’s horrid doubt just horrid – or a reasonable fear?: … the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if there… more
Nature Nurtures Darwin
| November 19, 2008 | Posted by Mario A. Lopez under Darwinism |
Nature News Nov. 19, 2008 The 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Robert Darwin falls on 12 February 2009. Darwin was arguably the most influential scientist of modern times. No single researcher has since matched his collective impact on the natural and social sciences; on politics, religions, and philosophy; on art and cultural relations,… more
Tom Wolfe on intellectual freedom
| November 18, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Education |
This seems like a good time to quote Tom Wolfe again, in his interview with Carol Iannone, against barking mad pc rubbish invading scholarly disciplines. If only the sciences were immune – but fat chance, so here goes: People in academia should start insisting on objective scholarship, insisting on it, relentlessly, driving the point home,… more
Yet another astounding production by Evolution
| November 18, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
I have over a dozen new discoveries like this in my email backlog that I skimmed and saved as likely to be blogworthy here so expect more in the next few days as I work through it. I go into a political blogging frenzy for a few months once every four years and I’ve been… more
Evolution is simply amazing
| November 18, 2008 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
The time that “evolution” has had to do all its creation of the machinery of life has been constant for over a century. Since around the year 1900 it has been the consensus that the earth is several billion years old. Before then it was variously argued at around a hundred million years by some,… more
The difference between mathematics and biology …
| November 18, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Earlier, I called attention to this longish but very informative article by Carl Zimmer, “Now: The Rest of the Genome” (The New York Times, November 11, 2008). It pretty much blows the genetic reductionism I grew up with out of the water. The “gene” – that little coil of sugar that ran our lives back… more
From Your ORFans Cheerleader
| November 18, 2008 | Posted by Paul Nelson under Intelligent Design |
Just a couple of links to enliven your morning… This Science Daily story describes a paper from the latest PLOS Biology, on the role of ORFans in generating species-specific traits in animals. Konstantin Khalturin and his co-authors at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Germany note the “substantial fraction” of ORFans — genes without known homologs — in… more
Evolutionary psychology: Explaining away religion for the 100th time…
| November 17, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
This time, anthropologist Pascal Boyer, author of the ambitiously titled Religion Explained, takes an inept swipe at explaining religion in Nature – and I comment at MercatorNet: From Part I: In fairness, it is very difficult for a social scientist to write a book about religion that does not fundamentally distort its nature. Those who… more
Support for Michael Reiss from unlikely sources
| November 17, 2008 | Posted by Steno under Intelligent Design |
It is noticeable that many intelligent design supporters (and creationists) have written in support of Michael Reiss, despite the fact that Reiss claims to be a theistic evolutionist. The latest is a piece in the November issue of the UK Evangelical Times by David Tyler, (who often writes for ARN) in which he welcomes Reiss’s… more
DaveScot Has Resigned
| November 17, 2008 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
DaveScot has resigned his position as UD’s primary moderator. We wish him well in his endeavors. Update: The previous title to this post raised questions about whether I booted DaveScot. That is not the case. DaveScot resigned as moderator, but he remains a friend to the site. more
On teaching creationism in the schools
| November 16, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Climb down from the drapes, you idiot! The pattern looks better without you in the middle of it. In the combox here, in response to this post, “scottrobinson” wanted me to be more clear as to where I stand on teaching creationism in science class. I see now that my comments may require some unpacking if the… more
Theism/Atheism Discussions
| November 16, 2008 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
The primary objective of this site is to discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of ID and materialist Darwinism. That is our focus, and we intend to keep the posts on topic. For example, there is some terrific news on today’s Drudge Report once again debunking global warming, and I was tempted to write a… more
Fine-tuning of the constants AND equations of Nature?
| November 16, 2008 | Posted by Granville Sewell under Intelligent Design |
The Schrodinger partial differential equation of quantum mechanics is the heart of atomic physics. This elegant PDE governs the behavior of all particles under the fundamental forces, but, unlike other PDEs, it cannot be derived from simpler principles. Like time, space, matter and energy, it “just is”. To quote from one of my PDE books,… more
One third of British teachers think ID or creationism okay
| November 15, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
In The Daily Telegraph, Martin Beckford tells us “One in three teachers says teach creationism alongside evolution” (07 N0v 2008). The poll found that 31 per cent of teachers agree that creationism or intelligent design – the theory that the universe shows signs of having been designed rather than evolving – should be given the… more
Farewell, fat gene … goodby gay gene … so long, sloppiness gene
| November 15, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
When someone informs you that it (whatever “it” is) is in their genes – so forget asking them to grow up and accept some responsibility – show them this article: …. new large-scale studies of DNA are causing her and many of her colleagues to rethink the very nature of genes. They no longer conceive… more
We are the 99% chimpanzee? Scratch that!
| November 15, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Here are some realistic stats from Brit expert Richard Buggs: Looking closely at the chimpanzee-like 76% of the human genome, we find that to make an exact alignment, we often have to introduce artificial gaps in either the human or the chimp genome. These gaps give another 3% difference. So now we have a 73% similarity… more
What’s New At UD
| November 14, 2008 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
Before I say anything else, I want to take a moment to honor Bill Dembski. That this site exists at all is a tribute to his foresight, and its stature as one of the premier ID forums in the world speaks to his dedication and tireless efforts. When I say “tireless,” I mean it quite… more
Francis Beckwith and the plod of the philosophers
| November 14, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
In “Francis Beckwith finally disowns ID” Bill Dembski and a number of others have offered a variety of comments about this piece, “The Truth about Me and Intelligent Design.” Honestly, Beckwith disowning ID reminds me of a guy divorcing his wife ten years after she’s run off with the plumber. The question isn’t “Why, Frankie,… more
Win Ben Stein’s money – make a vid!
| November 14, 2008 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
From the Discovery Institute: Turning Darwin Day into Academic Freedom Day Next year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. As you can imagine, Darwinists have a full year of celebrations planned, and February 12th, Darwin’s birthday, is likely… more