Monthly Archives: October 2012
Brought to You From the Seattle Analytic Philosophy Club, “Is Intelligent Design Science?”
| October 31, 2012 | Posted by News under News |
For those of you who live in the Seattle area (which now includes me), the “Seattle Analytic Philosophy Club” are hosting an event on the 28th of November from 7pm till 9pm in Lake Hills Library (15590 Lake Hills Blvd, Bellevue, WA). Here’s the event description from the website: Is there a demarcation between science… more
New Study in Science Reveals Molecular Machine “Rock-Climbing” DNA
| October 29, 2012 | Posted by News under News |
A new paper just published in the journal Science reveals how an SMC (structural maintenance of chromosome) complex called MukBEF “climbs” DNA in a manner similar to a rock-climber grabbing onto a handhold. The paper reports, Although ATP hydrolysis is essential for the activity of SMC complexes, its mechanistic importance has been unclear. Our data indicate… more
A reply to Dr Dawkins’ September Playboy interview
| October 29, 2012 | Posted by kairosfocus under Atheism, Culture, Darwinism, Philosophy, Popular culture, Religion, Science, science education, Science, worldview issues and society, Society |
In an interview with Playboy, September just past, Dr Dawkins made some dismissive remarks on the historicity of Jesus, in the context of having made similarly dismissive talking points about Intelligent Design. As UD News noted: PLAYBOY: What is your view of Jesus? DAWKINS: The evidence he existed is surprisingly shaky. The earliest books… more
Alleged on Netflix Streaming
| October 28, 2012 | Posted by johnnyb under Intelligent Design |
For those of you wanting to see the new movie about the Scopes trial, I just noticed it is available on Netflix streaming! I just watched it, and it is indeed excellent. more
Eric Anderson Responds to Kantian Naturalist Re the “Quartum Quid”
| October 27, 2012 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
Kantian Naturalist writes a thought-provoking response to my Thomas Nagel and the “Quartum Quid” post and Eric Anderson responds. Kantian: The problem here is whether ‘naturalistic teleology’ collapses into reductive naturalism or design realism. Rather than treat naturalistic teleology as a quartum quid, it is a tertium quid. The first two, “chance” and “necessity” are… more
La Evolucion es un Proceso Natural que Corre al Reves
| October 27, 2012 | Posted by Granville Sewell under Intelligent Design |
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My video “Evolution is a Natural Process Running Backward” has been translated into Spanish by Sebastian Escuain, and produced with the help of Jorge Viramontes and my brother Kirk Sewell. The Spanish version is linked below (high def. version is here). For more background, see How the Scientific Consensus is Maintained . embedded by Embedded… more
‘Penis Worm’ Shakes Evolutionary Tree
| October 26, 2012 | Posted by News under News |
Scientific American features an article based on a new paper in Current Biology. Scientific American reports, A study on the development of priapulids or ‘penis’ worms throws doubt on a feature that has been thought for more than 100 years to define the largest branch of the animal tree of life. Members of this branch — the… more
Stasis in Pleistocene mammals and birds
| October 26, 2012 | Posted by David Tyler under Intelligent Design |
New information has emerged to show that a prediction of neo-Darwinism has been falsified. Everyone knows that animals adapt to their environments. The surge of interest in climate change has stimulated research into morphological change in Galapagos finches, “Siberian warblers, English sparrows, cuckoos, cowbirds, red-winged blackbirds, and many others.” The message coming through is that… more
The promise and (under)performance of green technologies — and the lesson for us
| October 26, 2012 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
First off, let me say that I would be delighted if green technologies could be made to work and could account for much of our energy (leaving aside the politics and powertrip that seem to lure many who push green technologies). That said, these technologies have consistently underperformed in relation to the hype used to… more
From Protein Science, “The Levinthal Paradox of the Interactome”
| October 25, 2012 | Posted by News under News |
Paul Nelson highlights an interesting paper that appeared relatively recently in the journal Protein Science entitled “The Levinthal Paradox of the Interactome.” The paper’s abstract reads, The central biological question of the 21st century is: how does a viable cell emerge from the bewildering combinatorial complexity of its molecular components? Here, we estimate the combinatorics… more
Paper Elucidates New Function for Long Non-Coding RNA
| October 25, 2012 | Posted by News under News |
Over at ENV, Casey Luskin draws our attention to a new paper in Nature which elucidates new function for long-non-coding RNA. The paper, which can be downloaded here, reports, Most of the mammalian genome is transcribed. This generates a vast repertoire of transcripts that includes protein-coding messenger RNAs, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and repetitive sequences,… more
Thomas Nagel and the “Quartum Quid”
| October 25, 2012 | Posted by Barry Arrington under Intelligent Design |
Since Aristotle it has been common to refer to intelligent agency as a third cause in addition to law and chance. The Philosopher obviously spoke Greek, but his concept has come to be known by the Latin “tertium quid” the “third thing.” Over at Witherspoon William Carroll reviews atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos: Why… more
Updating DesignInference.com
| October 25, 2012 | Posted by William Dembski under Design inference, Intelligent Design |
I just want to let people on this forum know that I’m finally updating my personal website at DesignInference.com. Specifically, the page with my writings, which had not been updated for three years, is now largely up to date (though it omits articles and books in the pipeline): http://www.designinference.com/dembski-on-intelligent-design/dembski-writings. My own work and research, though… more
New Documentary Challenges the Darwinian Explanation of Animal Intelligence
| October 25, 2012 | Posted by News under News |
New Paper in Nature Reports, “Filamentous bacteria transport electrons over centimetre distances”
| October 24, 2012 | Posted by News under News |
Check out the paper in Nature here. From the abstract, Oxygen consumption in marine sediments is often coupled to the oxidation of sulphide generated by degradation of organic matter in deeper, oxygen-free layers. Geochemical observations have shown that this coupling can be mediated by electric currents carried by unidentified electron transporters across centimetre-wide zones. Here… more
What Are The Top Five Myths About Intelligent Design?
| October 24, 2012 | Posted by News under News |
My friend Melissa Travis just posted this excellent blog post dissecting five of the top misconceptions about intelligent design. She writes, There are few things more frustrating than hearing the same tired old myths and misconceptions over and over again, particularly when they directly relate to the subject you’ve devoted your education and career to.… more
From the C4ID, “A Real Darwinian Eye-opener at Malvern”
| October 23, 2012 | Posted by News under News |
UK Centre for Intelligent Design director Dr. Alastair Noble has written a report on the recent conference in Malvern featuring Professor John Lennox and Dr. Douglas Axe. He writes, The 130 or so delegates who attended the Intelligent Design Annual Conference at Malvern, England, on September 28/29, 2012, were treated to a real Darwinian eye-opener… more
Douglas Axe Responds to Larry Moran on Enzyme Conversion
| October 23, 2012 | Posted by News under News |
Over at the Biologic Institute blog, Douglas Axe responds to Larry Moran’s response to his work on the prohibitive difficulty of enzyme conversion. Dr. Axe notes, If it can be shown that natural selection actually has (present tense) the creative capacity attributed to it, then I will certainly join those who are calling everyone to… more
The TSZ and Jerad Thread, III — 900+ and almost 800 comments in, needing a new thread . . .
| October 23, 2012 | Posted by kairosfocus under Culture, Design inference, Education, Evolution, Functionally Specified Complex Information & Organization, ID Foundations, science education, Science, worldview issues and society |
Okay, the thread of discussion needs to pick up from here on. To motivate discussion, let me clip here comment no 795 in the continuation thread, which I have marked up: _________ >> 795Jerad October 23, 2012 at 1:18 am KF (783): At this point, with all due respect, you look like someone making stuff… more
Paul Kurtz, 1925-2012
| October 22, 2012 | Posted by News under News |
Many of you may remember Paul Kurtz, the atheist philosopher and humanist activist. He sadly passed away on Sunday at the age of 86. You can read an obituary of Dr. Kurtz at the Center for Inquiry website. more