Monthly Archives: April 2009
Extra Characters to the Biological Code
| April 21, 2009 | Posted by Patrick under Biology, Science |
Even if compressed I’ve always thought that the known informational content was not enough data. This makes sense because from an engineering point of view because there doesn’t seem to be enough data storage space in a few billion base pairs of nuclear DNA to specify all the detail in a mammal or similarly complex… more
Quote of the Day
| April 19, 2009 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
Some [men] kill because their faiths explicitly command them to do so, some kill though their faiths explicitly forbid them to do so, and some kill because they have no faith and hence believe all things are permitted to them. Polytheists, monotheists, and atheists kill – indeed, this last class is especially prolifically homicidal, if… more
Darwinism: Latest installment in the Darwin legend
| April 19, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Australia’s Hiram Caton writes to say, Hello Denyse! I’m sending you this latest version of my synopsis of the Darwin Legend. There are two new entries since our last contact–Darwin’s Biggest Fib, and Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln and Race. The fib is his claim, in the 6th ed of Origin, to have been the first… more
Skepticism in all the wrong places and for all the wrong reasons
| April 18, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Skepticism Examiner has attempted (April 13, 2009) to shed some light on why Amanda Gefter’s recent, foolish story on why materialism is right and design is wrong was pulled from New Scientist. The only copy I have been offered has a problem with its security certificate, so I cannot recommend going there, unfortunately. I still… more
Your bloody free speech zone
| April 18, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Bill Dembski asked me to post something on this at Uncommon Descent a while back, but hassles prevented me from getting to it until now: From Canadian civil rights lawyer Ezra Levant, author of Shakedown: “That’s your bloody free speech zone” By Ezra Levant on April 8, 2009 9:40 PM A reader sent me this… more
Touring the AlloSphere
| April 16, 2009 | Posted by William Dembski under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Intelligent Design, Science |
Check out this video at TED. Note the phrase “finding new patterns in the information.” That’s the business of ID. Can the AlloSphere be used as an engine for detecting design? Here’s the link. more
Will Texas Face Court Challenges to the New Science Standards?
| April 15, 2009 | Posted by DonaldM under Intelligent Design |
Now that the moaning and hand-wringing are over, there’s talk of mounting some legal challenges to the new science standards in Texas. At issue aren’t the standards themselves, but the personal motivations of some of the Board members who advocated for these standards. Now the issue is whether there is enough prima facie evidence to… more
In other words, phylogenetic reconstruction is sheer fantasy …
| April 11, 2009 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
Here’s some research done 100 miles down the road from me. Note the sentence highlighted. The actual phylogenies here were experimentally known and yet standard evolutionary theory drew completely wrong conclusions. Oh, but it was a small population, small genomes, and intense selection pressure. Spare me. “Exceptional Convergent Evolution in a Virus” Bull JJ, Badgett… more
That uncomfortable subject, religion …
| April 11, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Things have been a bit quiet here recently, but in case you wondered, that’s because most list authors are Christians and this is the Triduum (last three days) of Holy Week. Some are busy with religious matters and others won’t post on principle. I am also indexing a book (always a rush job in principle… more
More Hand Wringing Over Texas
| April 8, 2009 | Posted by DonaldM under Intelligent Design |
In my earlier post about the Texas Science standards, I noted the hand wringing over the new language by Eugenie Scott, at the NCSE. Well, the moaning continues. An article has appeared in Education Week entitled Retooled Texas Standards Raise Unease Among Science Groups more
Italian scientist who accurately predicted Italian earthquake had been reported to police …
| April 7, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Eyes Rolling |
Well, that’s the story, here, and I also read it in a Toronto subway rag, going home in a vicious snow squall undoubtedly caused by global warming. more
Disappointed with Shermer
| April 6, 2009 | Posted by idnet.com.au under Intelligent Design |
From EXPELLED Dr Caroline Crocker. “Recently I attended a lecture by Michael Shermer at the UCSD Biological Science Symposium (4/2/09). His title was, “Why Darwin Matters,” but his topic was mostly religion. He started by defining science as “looking for natural explanations for natural phenomena” and said that his purpose was to “debunk the junk and… more
A friend’s note about Niko Tinbergen and the herring gull chicks – who was gulled, exactly?
| April 5, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Recently, in the “stuff we know that just ain’t so” files, I referenced Niko Tinbergen’s Nobel Prize for supposed discoveries about herring gull chicks – a discovery that turned to ashes. A friend writes to say: I remember going to Niko Tinbergen’s Nobel Prize party in the Oxford University Zoology Department many years ago. I… more
‘Did Darwin Kill God?’ BBC TV Programme
| April 5, 2009 | Posted by Steve Fuller under Atheism, Creationism, Culture, Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Media, Philosophy, Religion, Science, theistic evolution |
On 31 March, I gave one of the keynote addresses at the annual meeting of the British Sociological Association’s Religion Study Group in Durham. This meant that I could not watch the first airing of ‘Did Darwin Kill God?’ on BBC2. I recommend that you watch this show over the next couple of days, while… more
Michael Behe, Eric Anderson, David Chiu, Kirk Durston mentioned favorably in ID-sympathetic Peer-Reviewed Article
| April 4, 2009 | Posted by scordova under Intelligent Design |
Congratulations to Michael Behe, Eric Anderson, David Chiu, Kirk Durston (members of ISCID). They were mentioned in the peer reviewed journal International Journal of Molecular Sciences. References were made to Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe, “Irreducible Comlexity Reduced” in ISCID’s PCID by Eric Anderson, and peer-reviewed works by David Chiu and Kirk Durston. Here… more
Mailbox: A reader writes from an island in Mediterraean to ask,
| April 3, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Don’t you think Evolution excludes God from being the Creator? How can you support it them being a Catholic? After I got over raging at that guy for living in a place that is actually warm and sunny (how dare he?), I replied: more
Message Theory – A Testable ID Alternative to Darwinism – Part 3
| April 3, 2009 | Posted by Walter ReMine under Intelligent Design |
The central claims of Message Theory more
A friend’s note about Niko Tinbergen and the herring gull chicks – who was gulled, exactly?
| April 3, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Recently, in the “stuff we know that just ain’t so” files, I referenced Niko Tinbergen’s Nobel Prize for supposed discoveries about herring gull chicks – a discovery that turned to ashes. A friend writes to say: more
Dino’s Whiplash
| April 2, 2009 | Posted by Tim under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Culture, Evolution, Just For Fun, Philosophy |
A short article in the popular press reports that certain sauropods with long necks could not have held those necks upright. I read the article, leaned back in my chair and did a lot of serious thinking. . . more
Pretending That Darwinism is Sophisticated (and Difficult-to-Understand) Science in Order to Deflect Challenges (or, Mickey Mouse Pretends to be a Scientist)
| April 1, 2009 | Posted by GilDodgen under Intelligent Design |
In DonaldM’s post (‘Analyze and Evaluate’ Are the New Code Words for ‘Creationism’) discussion ensued about high school students and challenges to orthodox evolutionary theory. One of the ploys of Darwinists is to pretend (and especially to try to fool young students into thinking) that evolutionary theory is like real science (mathematics, chemistry, physics, or… more