Category: Books of interest
Ten copies of The Nature of Nature on the way, to Uncommon Descent contest winners
| April 11, 2011 | Posted by News under Books of interest |
ISI Books, the publisher of The Nature of Nature , is kindly giving Uncommon Descent ten copies for our contests. Buy yours now, by all means, but win one for your dad or your cash-strapped library. First contest is next Saturday, April 16, judged weekly. Here are the multilateral contributing authors to Nature of Nature. more
New book of interest to the ID community: Hitler’s Ethic
| April 11, 2011 | Posted by News under Books of interest, Intelligent Design |
Richard Weikart, history professor at the University of California Stanislaus, has just published Hitler’s Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress (Palgrave Macmillan April 2011) In this book, Weikart helps unlock the mystery of Hitler’s evil by vividly demonstrating the surprising conclusion that Hitler’s immorality flowed from a coherent ethic. Hitler was inspired by evolutionary… more
Martin Rees wins Templeton Prize
| April 6, 2011 | Posted by DLH under Books of interest, Cosmology, Culture, Design inference, Fine tuning, Intelligent Design, Multiverse, Physics, Religion, Science, Society |
A fine tuning and multiverse advocate, Martin J. Rees, today won the 2011 Templeton Prize. The astrophysicist with no religion won the Prize originally “for Progress in Religion.” The 2011 Templeton Prize was announced today. LONDON, APRIL 6 – Martin J. Rees, a theoretical astrophysicist whose profound insights on the cosmos have provoked vital questions… more
Are there simple truths in science?
| April 4, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Books of interest, Philosophy, Science |
A friend points to this review of an interesting new book: In Unsimple Truths: Science, Complexity, and Policy, Sandra D. Mitchell accomplishes an enormous amount in very short compass. Starting from the actual practice of (mainly) biological and (some) social sciences, she presents a workable and effective philosophy of science focused particularly on sciences dealing… more
Nature of Nature: For $18 plus shipping, rid your life of bores and trolls – and, more important, learn the big story
| April 2, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Books of interest, Intelligent Design |
A friend writes to say that Nature of Nature can be had at Amazon for just shy of $18, commenting “Given the tiny price for the huge interesting proceedings of the Baylor conference, I hope that tons of us will buy the book.” Yes, indeed, It is indispensable for whistling bores and broomsticks out of… more
Scenes from the battle of the books …
| March 31, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Books of interest |
Someone has noticed “a slew of anti-Darwin books published last fall”. Now, there are two ways of looking at that: 1. Sociologically, it is a quite predictable reaction to the two-year orgy of worshipping the beard. 2. Or, it’s a …conspiracy. Ring up Barbara Forrest, the world-renowned expert on ID and get the … trooth. more
Puff ball interviews file: In Germany Richard Dawkins is considered a “scientist”
| March 30, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Atheism, Books of interest, Darwinism |
Here, der Spiegel gives Richard Dawkins the floor (03/02/2011), as his book, The Greatest Show on Earth is published in German: SPIEGEL ONLINE: Has religion not been very successful in an evolutionary sense?Dawkins: The thought that human societies gained strength from religious memes in their competition with others is true to a certain extent. But… more
Saving Leonardo , and while we are here, the myth of the “Law of the Yukon”
| March 27, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Books of interest |
In this review of Nancy Pearcey’s Saving Leonardo, Christian historian Pearcey revisits the broader question of how science broke loose from reason. (I am thinking of all the “our brains are shaped for fitness, not for truth” rubbish from people who honestly believe that they are on the right side of science, and that that… more
New book: Junk DNA junked … in favour of what?
| March 20, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under 'Junk DNA', Books of interest |
Jonathan Wells’ book, The Myth of Junk DNA (Discovery, 2011), is now being advertised at Amazon: According to the modern version of Darwin’s theory, DNA contains a program for embryo development that is passed down from generation to generation; the program is implemented by proteins encoded by the DNA, and accidental DNA mutations introduce changes… more
Coffee!! Hitherto unknown proud ignoramus rushes to Darwin’s defense
| March 15, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Books of interest, Darwinism |
Escapes trampling by troll competitors – Tells reporters: “Real thinkers don’t read books” Here, at Amazon, the indispensable Nature of Nature (a compendium of the pro- and anti-ID writings of many of the world’s best champions on either side), has attracted a “review” by one, Colonel Zen, who allows us to know that he actually… more
Wallace gets Darwinized …
| March 5, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Books of interest |
… and served with cold mashed potatoes, lumpy gravy, and wan, limp lettuce. Here, University of Alabama science historian Michael Flannery, laments that Darwin’s co-theorist Wallace has been “Darwinized”, referencing the many efforts by Darwinists to downplay his involvement in evolutinary theory, principally because he was not a materialist atheist. For example, Quammen writes, “he… more
Sacred Cows? Just in time. Fire up the barbecue, folks
| February 27, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Books of interest |
Norbert Smith, a.k.a. “Doc Gator”, author of Passive Fear and many children’s books has edited a collection of essays called Sacred Cows in Science, mostly on controversial issues in science: Science was at one time defined by its method. Carefully controlled experiments, provisional conclusions, and considered debate once defined the field. But those days have passed. Today,… more
Just shut up you losers, and pay: The Darwin lobby vs any evolution theory but Darwin’s
| February 21, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Books of interest, Darwinism |
I am currently reading New Zealand journalist Suzan Mazur’s excellent Altenberg 16, which, among other things, gives you a good look at the underbelly of the Darwin racket. For example, at the Rockefeller University Evolution Symposium (May 2009), Mazur, who has interviewed a number of prominent scientists who think that self-organization is one form of evolution,… more
Why IS the universe the way it is, Hugh?
| February 8, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Books of interest, Intelligent Design |
Here’s astronomer Hugh Ross on the Dennis Prager show, on Why the Universe Is the Way It Is (his book). more
Passings: Ernan McMullin (1924-2011)
| February 8, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Books of interest |
Ernan McMullin, contributor to Nature of Nature, died at approximately 12:30 pm (5:30 pm Irish time), in hospital at Letterkenny General Hospital near his home in Donegal. Here’s a lecture he gave at Pitt University. more
New Book on Alfred Russel Wallace and the ID Connection
| January 29, 2011 | Posted by Flannery under Biography, Biology, Books of interest, Intelligent Design |
![250px-Alfred_Russel_Wallace_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_14558[1]](http://www.uncommondescent.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/250px-Alfred_Russel_Wallace_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_1455815.jpg)
In my new book, Alfred Russel Wallace: A Rediscovered Life, I take the reader on a journey from 19-century England, to the wilds of the Amazon River Basin, to the Malay Archipelago, and back to the highly charged scientific climate of Victorian London. Wallace’s story is one of discovery, from shocking Charles Darwin with his… more
O’Leary’s favourite science books
| June 29, 2010 | Posted by O'Leary under Books of interest |
This question started out as “science and religion” but the religion part got lost somehow, not because I am unreligious but because I wasn’t sure how much religion, as such, you can learn from a serious exposition of the reasons for thinking that design is a feature of our universe. All you can really learn… more
My favorite science-religion books
| June 28, 2010 | Posted by Steve Fuller under Books of interest, Christian Darwinism, Cosmology, Ethics, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Religion, Science |
In response to Thomas Cudworth’s request, these are the five science-religion books that I would recommend, or at least has influenced me the most — and help to explain my distinctive take on ID. You’ll see that some of these are available free on-line. Since my explanations are long-ish. They are located below the fold. more
A blow-by-blow response to Dr. Denis Alexander
| January 12, 2010 | Posted by David Anderson under Books of interest, Christian Darwinism, Creationism, Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Religion, Science, theistic evolution |
In the last year and a bit I’ve done a lot of work in trying to understand and then critique the approach of Dr. Denis Alexander of the Faraday Institute in Cambridge (UK). I know that many readers of UD are familiar with Alexander’s big-selling work, “Creation or Evolution – Do We Have To Choose?”.… more
Throwing down the gauntlet to Dr. Denis Alexander
| January 4, 2010 | Posted by David Anderson under Books of interest, Darwinism, Evolution, theistic evolution |
I had a chapter in the recently published (IVP UK) “Should Christians Embrace Evolution?”, a negative response to those – in particular Dr. Denis Alexander – who say that we must. Well, Dr. Alexander has now read that response. The question going forward is whether he wants to interact with it. My own personal opinion… more