Monthly Archives: May 2011
Ninety-nine per cent chimpanzee rides again? In a Christian rag? Well, maybe only 96%?
| May 29, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Genetics, Human evolution |
Dennis Venema, Biologos’s senior fellow for science, and biology chair at Canada’s evangelical Trinity Western University, would have us know (p. 25) that the chimp genome(total genetic heredity encoded in DNA), which was fully mapped by 2005,displays “near identity”with the human genome as detailed by Collins’s team, with a 95 to 99 percent match depending… more
Christianity Today article on the Biologos vs orthodoxy “crisis”
| May 29, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Human evolution, Intelligent Design, Religion |
Or so some paint it. I’ve now had a chance to read Christianity Today’s “The Search for the Historical Adam” by Richard N. Ostling (June 2011). Recommended to all. I’m not sure re crisis. I think it comes down to a simple choice. Linked here. Some notes follow: more
No evidence that there is enough time for evolution
| May 29, 2011 | Posted by Lee Spetner under Darwinism, Evolution, Evolutionary biology, Natural selection |
No evidence that there is enough time for evolution[*] Lee M Spetner Redoxia Israel, Ltd. 27 Hakablan St., Jerusalem, Israel Abstract: A recent attempt was made to resolve the heretofore unaddressed issue of the estimated time for evolution, concluding that there was plenty of time. This would have been a very significant result had it… more
Why don’t Christians speak up? – a few reasons as if reality mattered
| May 29, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Culture, Intelligent Design |
Wintery Knight asks why intelligent, educated Christians won’t speak up for their views. Why is this not being addressed by churches? Do you have an experience where a Christian group stifled apologetics? Tell me about that, and why do you think they would do that, in view of the situation I outlined above? My experience… more
Probing the mysteries of psychopathy
| May 29, 2011 | Posted by News under Audio, Intelligent Design, Mind |
“A Psychopath Walks Into A Room. Can You Tell? (NPR May21, 2011) Arresting title, that, for an interesting proposition: “Robert Hare, the eminent Canadian psychologist who invented the psychopath checklist, … recently announced that you’re four times more likely to find a psychopath at the top of the corporate ladder than you are walking around in… more
Bedtime stories for Darwin’s children: Why the dinosaur had a long neck
| May 29, 2011 | Posted by News under Darwinism, Evolution |
In “Evolution, sex and dinosaur necks, BBC’s Wondermonkey, Matt Walker asks (24 May 2011) whether long-necked sauropods like diplodocus evolved their necks via sexual selection: A recent theory proposed is that sex, or more accurately sexual selection, was the main driver.The idea is that down the generations, male sauropods evolved ever longer necks to dominate rivals… more
A Commendation of ellazimm and Dr Elizabeth Liddle
| May 29, 2011 | Posted by kairosfocus under Intelligent Design |
I wish to publicly commend UD commenters ellazimm and Dr Elizabeth Liddle for their seriousness, civility, responsiveness in dialogue, and general positive tone. We need more objectors like these ladies. And, I hope that, increasingly, we will have them. Ladies, well done. END more
New paper using the Avida “evolution” software shows …
| May 28, 2011 | Posted by News under Comp. Sci. / Eng., Evolution |
… it doesn’t evolve. Remember when AVIDA proved Darwin right? These results provide evidence that low-impact mutations can present a substantial barrier to progressive evolution by natural selection. Understanding mutation is of primary importance, as selection depends on the mutational production of new genotypes. Numerous changes that would be beneficial may nevertheless fail to occur… more
Three foot killer shrimp of the Cambrian surprise scientists
| May 28, 2011 | Posted by News under Evolution, extinction, stasis |
At MSNBC (5/25/20), Charles Q. Choi tells us “Bizarre shrimp-like predators grew larger and survived longer than thought”: The creatures, known as anomalocaridids, were giant predators (ranging from 2 to possibly 6 feet in length) with soft-jointed bodies and toothy maws with spiny limbs in front to snag worms and other prey. [ ... ]… more
A robot in the Cambrian era?
| May 28, 2011 | Posted by kairosfocus under Intelligent Design |
Proverbially, it is said that if paleontologists were to discover a rabbit in Cambrian era fossil strata, that would be an empirical refutation of macro-evolutionary theory. UD contributor, News, has therefore raised a “but what about . . . ? “ in light of finding “complex non-marine multicellular eukaryotes in Precambrian strata . . . … more
Biologos is cover feature in Christianity Today
| May 28, 2011 | Posted by News under Christian Darwinism, Intelligent Design |
Here. This link works. Thanks Mung. Notes on the article here. more
More Points on ERVs
| May 28, 2011 | Posted by Jonathan M under Intelligent Design |
In my previous two articles (here and here), I explored some of the background information concerning the integration of retroviral elements into primate genomes and the various arguments for common descent which are based on them. I explored, in some detail, the evidence for common descent based on the shared placement of retroviral sequences. In… more
Is Peter Singer Moving Towards Objective Morality?
| May 28, 2011 | Posted by Steno under Intelligent Design |
There is an interesting item about Peter Singer, ethics and the environment in the Guardian ‘Comment is Free’ by Mark Vernon – Without belief in moral truths, how can we care about climate change? – Peter Singer admits his brand of utilitarianism struggles with the challenge of climate change in a way Christian ethics does not.… more
Phillip Johnson’s “two-platoon” strategy demonstrated on free will
| May 28, 2011 | Posted by News under Christian Darwinism, Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Mind |
Johnson meant that real Darwinists say what Darwinism entails (materialist atheism) and then Christian Darwinists rush in to announce that we can somehow harmonize it with Christianity by not taking seriously what Darwinists actually say. Explained in detail here. The analogy is to American football. In The Moral Landscape, for example, new atheist and PhD… more
Karl Giberson and Francis Collins explain how Canadians can become a separate species
| May 28, 2011 | Posted by News under speciation |
In The Language of Science and Faith, (IVP Books, 2011) explaining how microevolution can become macroevolution, they explain, If a population of some species undergoes a substantial number of such changes [genetic mutations], it can eventually turn into a new species, a process called speciation. Usually speciation requires that the population be geographically isolated from… more
Atheist philosopher Raymond Tallis banishes evolutionary psychology from the choir.
| May 28, 2011 | Posted by News under Evolutionary psychology, Intelligent Design |
Reviewing Elena Mannes’ “The Power of Music: Pioneering Discoveries in the New Science of Song” (The Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2011), Tallis writes, Ms. Mannes, an Emmy-winning granddaughter of the founders of New York’s Mannes School of Music, is inspired by the possibility that neuroscience may help us harness the potential of music to… more
Barbara Forrest is a pseudo-expert, not a real expert. And I can (and now must, alas) explain why.
| May 27, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Darwinism, Philosophy |
Forrest, a prof at Eastern Louisiana University, is considered a big expert on the intelligent design community and the dangers it poses. I put off explaining why she isn’t a big expert, but can’t decently do so any longer. more
Happy 50th birthday, genetic code!
| May 27, 2011 | Posted by News under Genetics |
And many more! A friend writes to say, Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Nirenberg and Matthaei experiment , which was the first step in cracking the full 64-codon genetic code. The first codon that was cracked was that UUU=phenylalanine. And from The Scientist: On May 27, 1961, Heinrich Matthaei, a postdoc working with NIH… more
Larry Moran: Vitamin C Pseudogene is Powerful Evidence
| May 27, 2011 | Posted by Cornelius Hunter under Intelligent Design |
In his on-going criticism of Jonathan Wells’ new book, The Myth of Junk DNA, evolutionist Larry Moran now asserts that the much discussed vitamin C pseudogene is powerful evidence for evolution and common descent: Read more more
Uncommon Descent Contest: Why do people refuse to read books they are attacking?
| May 27, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
(This contest is now closed for judging. (The first award, for “Why do they do it?”, is announced here. The second award, for “What do you call a guy who reviews/trashes a book without reading it?”, is announced here.) ) I’ve suggested it’s a strategy on the part of people who trash ID-friendly books unread:… more