Monthly Archives: January 2009
Will scientists and creationists spoil Darwin’s party?
| January 14, 2009 | Posted by Steno under Intelligent Design |
The UK’s Sunday Times has an interesting article about the forthcoming Darwin Day celebrations, taking a thoughtful angle compared to some of the Darwin hysteria seen in some of the programming from the BBC For God’s sake, have Charles Darwin’s theories made any difference to our lives? – It is the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s… more
CelebAtheist site
| January 13, 2009 | Posted by William Dembski under Atheism |
I’m finishing a book on theodicy (titled THE END OF CHRISTIANITY) and, in trying to track down for it whether certain celebrities are atheists, found this site: www.celebatheists.com more
“Preexisting Evolutionary Potential” now a Scientific Fact
| January 13, 2009 | Posted by dacook under Biology, Intelligent Design |
A recent multidisciplinary study on the two-phase increase in the size of life has concluded that there must exist a “preexisting evolutionary potential” to explain the sudden increase in size and complexity which occurred twice in the history of life, both times following increases in atmospheric oxygen. From the earliest bacteria to the largest organisms,… more
ID and the Science of God: Part III
| January 13, 2009 | Posted by Steve Fuller under Atheism, Biology, Creationism, Culture, Darwinism, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Origin Of Life, Philosophy, Religion, Science, The Design of Life |
 I have been reflecting on the critical responses to my posts, which I appreciate. They mostly centre on the very need for ID to include theodicy as part of its intellectual orientation.  The intuitive basis for theodicy is pretty harmless: The presence of design implies a designing intelligence. Moreover, in order to make sense… more
Ribosome a diligent proofreader
| January 13, 2009 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
As you’re reading this keep in mind it’s all due to a random dance of atoms. No design here. Matter, chance, and POOF it’s alive. Yeah right. From Science Daily The Ribosome: Perfectionist Protein-maker Trashes Errors ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2009) — The enzyme machine that translates a cell’s DNA code into the proteins of life… more
Fitting Together the Cosmic Jigsaw Puzzle
| January 11, 2009 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
I’ve been thinking about the God of the Gaps argument today. Proponents of naturalism (of both the philosophical and methodological stripe) use this argument in an attempt to discredit design theory as a means of explaining the physical world. The argument usually goes something like this: There are many things we formerly did not understand,… more
Can the Demiurge be the designer?
| January 11, 2009 | Posted by Steno under Intelligent Design |
The Demiurge appears in Plato’s Timaeus as a human craftsman ([correction]demos = common people; ergo = work; hence a human craftsman). But it is interesting to note what David Hume does to the demiurge. Hume in Dialogues, through his character Philo, attacks the notion that there might be an analogy between the designer of nature… more
ID and the Science of God: Part II
| January 10, 2009 | Posted by Steve Fuller under Biology, Creationism, Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Philosophy, Religion, Science, The Design of Life, theistic evolution |
 I will be opening the 2009 series of lectures on ‘Darwin Reconsidered’ at the Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture on Tuesday, 20th January, at 5 pm. My topic is ‘Darwin’s Original Sin: The Rejection of Theology’s Claims to Knowledge’. You can find out more about the series here. The talk will deal with the… more
Richard John Neuhaus, 1936-2009
| January 8, 2009 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
Requiescat in pace more
There’s probably no God…
| January 8, 2009 | Posted by William Dembski under Atheism |
This just in from RichardDawkins.net: Today, thanks to many Cif readers, the overall total raised for the Atheist Bus Campaign stands at a truly overwhelming £135,000, breaking our original target of £5,500 by over 2400%. Given this unexpected amount, I’m very excited to tell you that 800 buses – instead of the 30 we were… more
Call for actors in Sydney for Lincoln-Darwin radio play
| January 7, 2009 | Posted by Steve Fuller under Culture, Darwinism, Evolution, Humor, Intelligent Design, Off Topic |
Some of you may know that last year I staged a play at the annual British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, which brought back Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin – who were both born on 12th February 1809 — to reflect on what has taken place since their time. Denyse O’Leary kindly mentioned… more
BBC and a Darwin Love Fest
| January 6, 2009 | Posted by Steno under Intelligent Design |
The BBC is getting excited about Darwin’s 200th birthday with a whole series of programmes on Darwin and evolution. Although a national broadcaster, there doesn’t seem much attempt at balance, preferring for instance to talk about creationists rather than talk to creationists (again – intelligent design is lumped in with creationism). This was the case… more
The year of Darwin dawns, loud and exceedingly laughable
| January 6, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Darwinism |
In case anyone cares, this item generated a dramatic uproar among third- and fourth-rate Darwinist tax burdens because – following a usual practice of file management, I had cross-posted it at the Post-Darwinist. Assuming any reasonable person cares, here it is. I inserted into that post the following message, which should also do for this… more
Evolutionary psychology: I love it. Gossip is good for you
| January 5, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
A friend on his lunch break sends me this – the latest nonsense from “evolutionary psychology”: Google News Alert Bruce Schneier: More on the Broad View of Security CSO – Framingham,MA,USAFor example, a lot of the seemingly irrational security trade-offs that the behavioral economists have documented can be explained by the evolutionary …See all stories… more
ID Debate at Opposing Views
| January 5, 2009 | Posted by Dave S. under Intelligent Design |
I haven’t been following this debate at Opposing Views although I was invited to participate and am in frequent contact with those people writing for the ID side. I believe the debate is closed now. I declined the invitation because I thought it would simply be a rehash of all the old arguments and nobody… more
ID and the Science of God: Part I
| January 5, 2009 | Posted by Steve Fuller under Biology, Comp. Sci. / Eng., Creationism, Culture, Education, Global Warming, Informatics, Intelligent Design, Origin Of Life, Philosophy, Religion, Science, The Design of Life, theistic evolution |
In response to an earlier post of mine, DaveScot kindly pointed out this website’s definition of ID. The breadth of the definition invites scepticism: ID is defined as the science of design detection — how to recognize patterns arranged by an intelligent cause for a purpose. But is there really some single concept of ‘intelligence’… more
Book Review: Slaughter of the Dissidents
| January 5, 2009 | Posted by johnnyb under Darwinism, Education, Intelligent Design, Legal |
I just got through reading Slaughter of the Dissidents, and I must say, it is fantastic. I was a little skeptical at first, simply because the title of the book was so extreme. After reading it, I still think that the title is extreme (there are real slaughters of people happening in different parts of… more
A high school biology textbook in use in 1917 said this: …
| January 4, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Darwinism |
Read it and try to guess which one: Promise you won’t cheat by Googling this quote. Or if you do, fine, but don’t post an answer that makes it sound like you had figured out the origin using brain power or historical knowledge or such. I’ll find you out eventually, because you won’t be anywhere… more