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The paradigmatic power of sexual selection

Nearly a decade ago, Darwin’s thinking on sexual selection was considered by numerous scientists to be overdue for revision. At the 169th annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, researchers took “dead aim at one of Charles Darwin’s pet evolutionary theories – the theory of sexual selection, which says that males should compete among themselves for access to mates, or compete for the favours of choosy females.” Two leading voices were those of Joan Roughgarden (“There are too many exceptions for the theory to hold”) and Patricia Adair Gowaty, who said that the theory may still hold, but researchers have been accepting it without good evidence (“What’s wrong is our failure to test the theory adequately”). Read More ›

Here’s What Alex “Philo” Filippenko Really Said Last Weekend at SETICon 2

Last weekend evolutionists fired off another round of metaphysics and as usual there was no counter attack. From their hilltop position evolutionists are free to throw down their religious mandates with impunity while the low-landers do nothing but run for cover. This time it was astrophysicist Alex “Philo” Filippenko lighting off the Infinite Regress howitzer from that bastion of Enlightenment, the SETICon 2 conference in Silicon Valley. Filippenko first fired a shot across the bow with his statement that “The Big Bang could’ve occurred as a result of just the laws of physics being there.” That had the Philistines cheering and the low-landers complaining as the evolutionist had left them with nothing but the laws of physics. That’s when Filippenko brought out the Read More ›

Did Paley discuss a self-replicating, time-keeping watch? What is the significance of that?

If we believe the folks over at Anti-Evo, no: Quote [KF} And it is telling that somehow Paley’s time-keeping, self replicating watch seldom if ever gets seriously discussed by those who object to his key point. [OBJECTOR} No [mocking, “outing” dimunitive], that’s the point. Watches don’t replicate… Evidently, the objector did not pause to do his homework first or think about why I stated that there has been a strawman argument, one willfully ignoring Ch II of Paley’s 1806 work. Let me clip IOSE as just linked: ____________ >> William Paley famously contrasted stumbling across a stone in a field with finding a watch in the same field; inferring design from the characteristics of a watch that are distinct from those Read More ›

David Coppedge’s Music

As many UDers know, I was raised as a religiously devout materialistic, Darwinian atheist. Fortunately, I eventually figured out that this stuff was utter nonsense — thanks in great part to the ID movement. My main grasp on non-materialistic reality, all through those hideously depressing years — lost in the depths of Darwinian irrationality — was my love of classical music. In a way, classical music helped save me from the inevitable despair of a Darwinian worldview. David Coppedge, with whom most UD readers should be familiar, turns out to be a superb classical musician. Not only that, he is an orchestrator, and has used digital technology to reproduce many classics. His orchestrations are very imaginative and creative. You won’t Read More ›