Monthly Archives: August 2009
Uncommon Descent Contest Question 9: Is accidental origin of life a doctrine that holds back science?
| August 24, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Origin Of Life |
For a free copy of Stephen Meyer’s Signature in the Cell (Harper One, 2009), help me understand the following: Accidental origin of life is the basic thesis of origin of life researchers. Life all just somehow sort of happened one day, billions of years ago, under the right conditions – which we may be able… more
Peter Strawson and soft naturalism
| August 24, 2009 | Posted by Steno under Intelligent Design |
I have recently come across Peter Strawson’s argument for soft naturalism in his book Skepticism and Naturalism 1985. Also as a chapter Skepticism, Naturalism and Transcendental Arguments in Epistemology: an anthology pp.33-41 What strikes me from this is that proponents of hard forms of naturalism are trying to have it both ways, in that they allow naturalism a… more
Evolutionary Informatics as Intelligent Design and not as Theistic Evolution
| August 23, 2009 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design, theistic evolution |
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The paper on evolutionary informatics by Robert Marks and me that was recently published in an IEEE journal (go here for the paper) continues to generate discussion on the Internet. One criticism is that it at best is consistent with theistic evolution but does not support ID. I think this is a mistake. I’ve said… more
Functional Interdependencies Tighten The Noose On Darwinists’ ‘Received Wisdom’
| August 23, 2009 | Posted by Robert Deyes under Intelligent Design |
Synopsis Of The Fourth Chapter Of Nature’s IQ By Balazs Hornyanszky and Istvan Tasi As an avid participant of the compass-based sport of orienteering in the 1980s, one of the roles I was frequently assigned to was that of ‘course designer’. Meeting the needs of the many orienteering enthusiasts who turned up on competition day… more
Biosemiotics and Intelligent Design
| August 23, 2009 | Posted by Mario A. Lopez under Biology, Chemistry, Evolution, Genomics, Human evolution, Informatics, Intelligent Design, Origin Of Life, Self-Org. Theory |
Semiotix – Stephen Pain The distinction between “theorising” and “belief” is extremely important because our attitude differs towards them. In a theory the reified concept of the sign does not have an ontological status but an epistemological one. While in belief, the concept has often a clear ontological one. Uexküll believed in his concept of… more
Robert Wright and the New Pragmatism
| August 23, 2009 | Posted by Cornelius Hunter under Intelligent Design |
In recent years evolutionists have been trying to pin down the theological implications of evolution. If evolution is true–and of course evolutionists believe it is true–then what does this tell us about god? From blogs to books to conferences at the Vatican, the “fact” of evolution is being integrated with our theology. The latest example… more
And there you have it!
| August 23, 2009 | Posted by William Dembski under Eyes Rolling, Religion, Science |
Janna Levin, Columbia astrophysicist, gives us the cutting-edge science on the origin of the universe: there was nothing, really nothing, nothing at all … but the potential to exist. Was it Aristotle who said that nothing admits no predicates? So where did nothing get the potential to exist and then bring the universe into existence?… more
Szostak on Abiogenesis: Just Add Water
| August 22, 2009 | Posted by Cornelius Hunter under Intelligent Design |
This month’s Scientific American is another example of evolution’s influence on science. Read more more
[Off-topic:] School Answering Machine
| August 21, 2009 | Posted by William Dembski under Humor |
I’m told that the Maroochydore High School, Queensland, Australia, staff voted unanimously to record the following message on their school telephone answering machine, prompted by a school policy requiring students and parents to be responsible for their children’s absences and missing homework. Apparently, the school and teachers are being sued by parents who want their… more
If and when The New York Times finally tanks … what will it mean for intelligent design?
| August 21, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Here’s my MercatorNet column about the decline of traditional media (known to bloggers as “legacy mainstream media”). Anyone interested in the intelligent design controversy should think carefully about how the media are changing. Hint: Imagine a world in which media went to someone other than the Darwin lobby to find out what might be wrong… more
More Chimp-Human Genome Problems
| August 21, 2009 | Posted by Cornelius Hunter under Intelligent Design |
One of evidences for evolution that has been strongly touted in recent years is the fact that the genomes of the human and chimpanzee are so similar. About 98.4% of the instructions in our genome match the chimp’s. We must share a common ancestor, so goes the argument which doesn’t worry about how humans and… more
Evidence for an early prokaryotic endosymbiosis
| August 20, 2009 | Posted by Mario A. Lopez under Biology, Evolution, Science |
Hypothesis Nature 460, 967-971 (20 August 2009) | doi:10.1038/nature08183 James A. Lake Endosymbioses have dramatically altered eukaryotic life, but are thought to have negligibly affected prokaryotic evolution. Here, by analysing the flows of protein families, I present evidence that the double-membrane, Gram-negative prokaryotes were formed as the result of a symbiosis between an ancient actinobacterium… more
PZ Myers Does It Again
| August 20, 2009 | Posted by Clive Hayden under Darwinism, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Science |
PZ Myers has, once again, railed against something that he doesn’t understand at his blog Pharyngula. Hi PZ! Notice that he doesn’t actually address the content of Dr. Dembski and Dr. Marks’ paper, which you can read here: Conservation of Information in Search: Measuring the Cost of Success, published at the IEEE. Given his argument,… more
Metaprogramming and DNA
| August 20, 2009 | Posted by niwrad under Genomics, Informatics, Intelligent Design |
In informatics metaprogramming is a technique consisting in developing computer programs (sets of instructions) that output other programs. While simple programming means instructions generating data, metaprogramming means instructions generating instructions. In general the prefix “meta” means a thing/cause that stays at a higher semantic/ontological level than another thing/effect (in the case of metaprogramming we have… more
Darwin’s finches by Harry Hill
| August 20, 2009 | Posted by Steno under Intelligent Design |
youtube video – Harry Hill puts a fresh spin on Darwinism Sorry not embedded, but you will enjoy this UK TV comedian’s take off of Darwinism and his finches more
New Peer-Reviewed Pro-ID Article in Mainstream Math/Eng Literature
| August 19, 2009 | Posted by William Dembski under Informatics, Intelligent Design |
William A. Dembski and Robert J. Marks II, “Conservation of Information in Search: Measuring the Cost of Success,” IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics A, Systems & Humans, vol.39, #5, September 2009, pp.1051-1061. *****For the official listing, go here. *****For a pdf of the article, go here. P.S. Our critics will immediately say that… more
SETI Gets New Toys!
| August 19, 2009 | Posted by Mario A. Lopez under Eyes Rolling, Humor, Just For Fun, Off Topic, Psychology, Religion |
Quest to find life beyond Earth gets technological boosts By Andrea Pitzer, Special for USA TODAY 8/19/09 The search for intelligent life in the universe is still on. Despite the absence of interstellar tourists to date, astronomers at the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) are hoping that we are not alone. And with new… more
Coffee!! Oh, so now Darwinism explains why you think SHE’S beautiful? Where’s my rolling pin?
| August 19, 2009 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
In “Joke science” (Sunday Spectator, August 2, 2009), David Warren writes, One of the great attractions of popular Darwinism, as a financial investment, is its appeal to what we in the media refer to, in our jaded way, as the “tabloid audience.” That is to say people who, through no fault of their own (lack… more
The Social Media Revolution
| August 18, 2009 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
The following YouTube video may seem overdrawn, but the social media described in it may prove critical in disarming Darwinism in the general culture: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8 more
Theos and Mary Midgley
| August 18, 2009 | Posted by Steno under Intelligent Design |
Nick Spencer of Theos has interviewed Mary Midgley as part of their Rescuing Darwin project. This is written up in a report entitled Discussing Darwin. It would seem though that Midgley is closer to post-modernism and a multi-faith approach to truth, than the type of objective modernism that Darwinists believe underpins their science. Is she… more