Monthly Archives: May 2010
If This Were Science
| May 22, 2010 | Posted by Cornelius Hunter under Intelligent Design |
The twentieth century’s revolution in molecular biology has produced volumes of sequence data which evolutionists have marshaled in defense of their theory. One high-profile example is the molecular similarity between humans and chimpanzees. First proteins and later the genomes of these two species were found to be practically identical. These findings have often been touted… more
Granville Sewell on the 2nd Law
| May 22, 2010 | Posted by William Dembski under Evolution, Physics, Science |
The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics has never been a friend of materialistic evolution. Granville Sewell’s arguments concerning it at the following two links are worth pondering: Link 1: from the book IN THE BEGINNING Link 2: video presentation “A Mathematician’s View of Evolution” more
Biology´s ‘Skeleton In The Closet’: The Broken Bones Of Origins Science
| May 22, 2010 | Posted by Robert Deyes under Intelligent Design |
Review Of Chapter 13 Of Signature In The Cell, by Stephen Meyer, HarperOne Publishers, ISBN: 9780061894206 I never would have suspected that the literary sensation Dr Seuss’ The Cat In The Hat Comes Back would be used to make a point about the devastating shortcomings of origin of life theories (1). But when I read… more
Does ID Contribute to Knowledge?
| May 21, 2010 | Posted by johnnyb under Intelligent Design |
A friend of mine sent me a link to a recent article by Giberson. In it Giberson claims that the problem with ID is that “first they need a fertile idea—one that generates new scientific knowledge”. I think it has already done this. Many eminent scientists have noted that the reductionist way of looking at… more
Homochirality and Darwin: Part 2
| May 21, 2010 | Posted by Robert Sheldon under Intelligent Design |
Judging from the comments to the homochirality post, Darwin (aka evolution) still gets support and Pasteur still endures ridicule. Some suggested that I had misread the meteorite data, others suggested that homochirality is easily obtained in the laboratory, while still others proposed circularly polarized light. So it is with a certain sense of vindication that… more
A Deep-Sea Snail and Evolution’s Superior Material Designs
| May 21, 2010 | Posted by Cornelius Hunter under Intelligent Design |
Once again evolution has come up with an ingenious design, this time a multilayered protective material with a range of potential applications. The material was discovered in the shell of a deep-sea snail, Crysomallon squamiferum, which is able to withstand powerful crab attacks. Here is the summary of the new findings:Â Read more more
Heartland Institute on NAS Climate Report
| May 20, 2010 | Posted by William Dembski under Climate change, Global Warming |
Your tax dollars being used against you: ————————————— NAS Climate Report: ‘Partisan, Closed Minded’ The National Academy of Sciences Thursday reasserted its opinion that the Earth’s climate has warmed to crisis levels and that human activity – the burning of fossil fuels – is the primary cause. In its 869-page report, the NAS, a group… more
Human-Chimp Genomic Differences
| May 20, 2010 | Posted by Cornelius Hunter under Intelligent Design |
One of the most popular evidences proclaimed for evolution in recent years is the high similarity between the human and chimpanzee genomes. The cousin genomes are about 99% similar and this has repeatedly been expounded as an obvious proof text of evolution. But these comparisons did not include the finicky Y chromosome which only recently… more
“First cell controlled completely by a synthetic genome”
| May 20, 2010 | Posted by William Dembski under Genomics, Intelligent Design |
Big news at Craig Venter’s Synthetic Genomics: Summary: Link 1 Press Release: Link 2 The rhetoric is interesting. What they’ve done is stuck a synthetic genome inside a nonsynthetic cell. Nonetheless, they’ve slipped into talking of a “synthetic bacterial cell.” Indeed, one headline reads “The First Self-Replicating Synthetic Bacterial Cell.” This is hype. If something… more
Neo-Lamarckian Thoughts
| May 20, 2010 | Posted by Theodosius under Intelligent Design |
Greetings to all. I have been interested for some time in the question-begging character of the logic of natural selection. This is old hat, of course, but just in a nutshell: a new well-adapted trait must first exist in an individual before it can be selected, so while natural selection could potentially explain the proliferation… more
More Echolocation Convergence in Bats
| May 19, 2010 | Posted by Cornelius Hunter under Intelligent Design |
For many years the molecular sequences in the bat genome have not been cooperating, and recent research continues to confirm these findings. If evolution is true, then we must believe that the incredible echolocation ability found in some bats arose multiple times, by evolving independently. That’s not easy for evolutionists to explain. How could such… more
Darwinism from an informatics point of view
| May 19, 2010 | Posted by niwrad under Biology, Darwinism, Informatics, Intelligent Design |
As everyone knows, life in all its countless instances (organisms) involves internal instructions, as well as processors that run them. Without these instructions, no organism would be able to originate in the first place, let alone develop or survive. The discovery of these instructions – contained in DNA/RNA macromolecules and the molecular machinery that reads… more
A Code That Isn’t Universal
| May 18, 2010 | Posted by Cornelius Hunter under Intelligent Design |
The DNA code, which translates DNA sequences into protein sequences, has always been claimed as extremely compelling evidence for evolution. The code was first described in the mid twentieth century and, among other things, was found to be universal, or nearly so. The same DNA code is used in the cells in your brain and… more
Karl Giberson’s Dangerous Defense of Scientific Orthodoxy
| May 18, 2010 | Posted by Thomas Cudworth under Intelligent Design |
Last month, I noted with pleasure that Dr. Karl Giberson appeared to have extended an olive branch to ID people, and I wrote a reply here in a similar spirit. It seemed to me then that Dr. Giberson was showing a breadth of mind and a listening attitude that was unusual among theistic evolutionists, and… more
Francisco Ayala: “You’re a heretic and blasphemer, but don’t ask me what I am.”
| May 17, 2010 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
Francisco Ayala has taken an aggressive theological stance against intelligent design, even using words like “blasphemy” and “atrocity” to characterize it (go here). But if Ayala feels entitled to make such strong accusations against ID, one might wonder what Ayala’s own theological views are. I therefore emailed him and copied Michael Ruse: Dear Prof. Ayala,… more
If the universe is at base computational, who is the programmer?
| May 17, 2010 | Posted by William Dembski under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Cosmology |
2009 Darwin Day Videos, University of Chicago
| May 17, 2010 | Posted by William Dembski under Darwinism, Evolution |
The University of Chicago has released some videos of the lectures given on Darwin Day 2009: Jerry Coyne (University of Chicago)–Speciation: Problems and Prospects Paul Sereno (University of Chicago)–Dinosaurs: Phylogenetic Reconstruction from Darwin to the Present David Jablonski (University of Chicago)–Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology: The Revitalized Partnership Neil Shubin (University of Chicago)–Great Transformations in Life: Insights from Genes… more
Ulrich Mohrhoff on the Hindu alternative to materialism and ID
| May 17, 2010 | Posted by Granville Sewell under Intelligent Design |
The editor of the Indian Journal AntiMatters is a German physicist, Ulrich Mohrhoff, a long-time resident of India who has published numerous scientific papers on quantum mechanics. Since he had published an article based on chapter 5 of my new Discovery Institute Press book In the Beginning… in AntiMatters (and also my “Epilogue”), we asked… more
The End of Christianity Review at Biologos
| May 17, 2010 | Posted by Clive Hayden under Culture, Darwinism, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Religion, Science |
Biologos has a review of William Dembski’s new book The End of Christianity: Finding a Good God in an Evil World by Stephen Ashley Blake, with an introduction by Darrel Falk. From Falk’s introduction: My theological background is Wesleyan. Theological scholars in the Wesleyan tradition are rarely troubled by death before the Fall. It’s a… more
The Green Sea Slug: An Animal With Photosynthesis
| May 17, 2010 | Posted by Cornelius Hunter under Intelligent Design |
In his evolution apologetic, Science on Trial, Douglas Futuyma argued that the idea that the species were created is obviously false because they not well designed. Evolution, concluded Futuyma, must be true. For instance, Futuyma pointed out that photosynthesis is immensely useful, yet no higher animals have this mechanism. But new research is finding just… more