Monthly Archives: March 2009
From the “More stuff we know that ain’t so” files: Nobelist Tinbergen
| March 31, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Evolution |
From Nature: Classic behavioural studies flawed Nobel prizewinner took short cuts to show that the way gulls feed is instinctive. John Whitfield One of the most famous experiments in biology isn’t the solid piece of work it’s usually portrayed as, say Dutch researchers who have replicated the study. Instead, it’s more like an anecdote that… more
Evolutionists’ careers built on plagiarism?
| March 31, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
A recent article in Cracked, discussing plagiarism, used the careers of Richard Owen and H.G. Wells – both important evolutionists – as 40% of “Five Great Men who Built Their Careers on Plagiarism.” Read it and see what you think. more
Science fiction finding religion?
| March 31, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
What make you all of this, in City Journal?: How Science Fiction Found Religion Benjamin A. Plotinsky Once overtly political, the genre increasingly employs Christian allegory. Winter 2009 There is a young man, different from other young men. Ancient prophecies foretell his coming, and he performs miraculous feats. Eventually, confronted by his enemies, he must… more
‘Analyze and Evaluate’ Are the New Code Words for ‘Creationism’
| March 31, 2009 | Posted by DonaldM under Intelligent Design |
By now most of you are probably aware of the news from Texas and the new science standards there. Apparently, the new standards don’t sit well with Dr. Eugenie Scott and her friends at the NCSE, (National Center for Saving Evolution). “The final vote was a triumph of ideology and politics over science,” says Dr.… more
Outsider Meddling — Skeptics Need Not Apply (or, Just Have Faith)
| March 28, 2009 | Posted by GilDodgen under Intelligent Design |
Someone by the name of skeech is cluttering up UD with impervious sophistry and wasting a lot of our time. His/her latest thesis is that “according to biologists…” there is a “credible possibility that small incremental changes could have developed massive increases in biological information in a short time — followed by stasis.” So, skeech… more
The Darwinian Mechanism as the Grammar-Checker of Biology
| March 28, 2009 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
After giving his famous METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL computer analogy to evolution in his book The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins remarks, “Life isn’t like that. Evolution has no long-term goal. There is no long-distant target, no final perfection to serve as a criterion for selection.” I would dispute that there are no targets.… more
Dogs more like humans than chimpanzees are?
| March 28, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Dogs, not chimps can help us understand human behaviour? Well, this moved recently at msnbc.com: Dogs (not chimps) most like humans Man’s best friend serves as model for understanding human social behavior By Jennifer Viegas Discovery Channel updated 11:58 a.m. ET, Thurs., March. 26, 2009 Chimpanzees share many of our genes, but dogs have lived… more
Probability’s Nature and Nature’s Probability–Don Johnson
| March 28, 2009 | Posted by Granville Sewell under Intelligent Design |
Don Johnson (PhD in Computer Science from Univ. Minnesota, another PhD in Chemistry from Michigan State) has just published a pro-ID book, “Probability’s Nature and Nature’s Probability: A Call to Scientific Integrity” amazon.com link here . My question to readers: how many scientists have to reject Darwinism before there is a “scientific controversy”? more
Canadian science minister vs. the puff dino suits: A story with, um, legs?
| March 28, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
I see where Nature News published (2009 03 25) an item about Canadian science minister Gary Goodyear vs. the puff dino suits in downtown Toronto (young researchers with nothing better to do (?), claiming that he doesn’t believe in evolution – like it was some kind of religious experience he never had, but was supposed… more
Virtual Cell Videos
| March 28, 2009 | Posted by idnet.com.au under Intelligent Design, Molecular Animations |
Hey everyone, check out these amazing animations of cellular processes at http://vcell.ndsu.nodak.edu/animations/ more
Cook the primeval soup for billions of years and Voila!
| March 28, 2009 | Posted by William Dembski under Origin Of Life |
Check out this video. It’s amazing the confidence Alan Boss has that the primeval soup will generate life. Interesting that he sees the soup needing to simmer for billions of years for life to emerge. It seems to have emerged much faster on the Earth. more
Harvesting – An Alternative to Natural Selection
| March 27, 2009 | Posted by Alfred Russel under Intelligent Design |
Natural selection is posited as the only mechanism to lead to differential survival among individuals of varying fitness. However, if selection pressures cause mortality to occur in individuals who would soon be dead anyway, then natural selection is not really operating. The hypothesis of the Harvesting Effect in epidemiology leads to this conclusion. I think… more
News from Texas
| March 27, 2009 | Posted by William Dembski under Science |
It appears we have some good news in Texas: Big Win in Texas as State Now Leads Nation in Requiring Critical Analysis of Evolution in High School Science Classes Robert Crowther In a huge victory for those who favor teaching the scientific evidence for and against evolution, Texas today moved to the head of the… more
Co-option, Berra’s Blunder, and Speculation Presented as Fact
| March 27, 2009 | Posted by GilDodgen under Intelligent Design |
In Bill Dembski’s thread, No Major Conceptual Leaps, I posted a comment about the evidential, logical, and probabilistic vacuity of the Darwinian co-option hypothesis. (I use the word hypothesis with reservation. A hypothesis in a domain such as this should at least be based on a minimal, mathematical probabilistic analysis.) In response to my comment,… more
We Have No Excuse- A Scientific Case for Relating Life to Mind (PART II)
| March 27, 2009 | Posted by Robert Deyes under Intelligent Design |
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By Robert Deyes And John Calvert PART II: THE ULTIMATE RELATIONSHIP – ANALYZING PATTERNS THAT COMPRISE LIFE Many scientific disciplines that seek to determine the relationship of an existing pattern to past events analyze them as we analyzed the letters on the drawing board (See PART I). Coroners seek to know the cause of… more
Reproductive system shows design — Guliuzza
| March 27, 2009 | Posted by DLH under Biology, Creationism, Evolution, Intelligent Design |
Dr. Guliuzza gives key arguments of detecting design in sexual reproduction, in contrast to evolution and order caused by natural law. ———————— Creationist speaker makes case for intelligent design Dan Boyer, Michigan Tech Lode 03/25/2009 Dr. Randy Guliuzza . . .asserted that he was not making an argument about design based on the absence of… more
Phineas Gage: The cheat goes on
| March 26, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
I must move on to other stories about false knowledge infesting the sciences and social sciences, but realized that I should notice this comment to this post: Bottom line is that even if the Gage story is wrong it does not show what is currently known about TBI. Whether Gage is true or not does… more
Confusion About Dualism Abated
| March 26, 2009 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
There is a lot of confusion about dualism. Few people today hold to Cartesian substance dualism, but that is often the straw man that materialist opponents to dualism attack. Over at O’Leary’s Phineas Gage post Dr. Vincent Torley asks: “Why are we wasting our time debating a completely discredited theory (Cartesian dualism) which most Christians… more
The Simulation Wars
| March 26, 2009 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
I’m currently writing an essay on computational vs. biological evolution. The applicability of computational evolution to biological evolution tends to be suspect because one can cook the simulations to obtain any desired result. Still, some of these evolutionary simulations seem more faithful to biological reality than others. Christoph Adami’s AVIDA, Tom Schneider’s ev, and Tom… more
“No Major Conceptual Leaps”
| March 26, 2009 | Posted by William Dembski under Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design |
I periodically get emails from individuals who are sympathetic to ID but then read Francis Collins’ THE LANGUAGE OF GOD and find themselves wondering what to think. Thus I recently received the following email: Dear Dr. Dembski, I … have read, I think, three of your books — the most recent “The Design Revolution”. I… more