Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community
Category

Culture

How Darwinians deal with the lack of evidence for gradualism

They pick an easy target like body size, for one thing. A supposedly slam dunk paper deals with body size in mammals. Trouble is, says Casey Luskin, it’s too easy a topic. Body size is — everyone agrees — easily malleable, compared to say, the development of vision. Read More ›

Neil Thomas on “Evolutionary Theory as Magical Thinking”

Thomas: The shaky logical basis of Darwin’s thinking has not gone entirely unremarked. The notion of a supposedly unintelligent yet remarkably independent “self-evolving” biosphere (like the postulation of a self-creating cosmos) presents, when dispassionately considered, an offense to logic great enough to invite attempts to square the circle. Read More ›

Yes, law schools have changed. Now here’s a key way media have changed

Media people today see freedom of speech in a much more hostile light. During the Convoy response to the COVID crazy here in Canada, we were explicitly given to understand that freedom of speech is a “right wing” value. That view is now widely shared. It would certainly have surprised generations of liberal-minded journalists. But if we ponder the matter for a moment, we can see what drives the change of view. Read More ›

Neil Thomas on why so many 19th century thinkers turned a blind eye to Darwinism’s problems

It’s a religion without the transcendent hitch. That’s the main reason that so many people today are impervious to the fact that illustrations of Darwinism are often just nonsense barked in Darwin’s name. Read More ›

Has anyone else noticed the blatant political flavor of many sciencey mags these days?

Yes, it was always there but recently, as the editors become ever more self-righteous (= Us vs. the Unwashed), it has become more open and that sure isn’t an improvement. Science writer Matt Ridley thinks science is reverting to a cult. Read More ›

Neil Thomas on Darwinism’s place in the Victorian culture wars

Anyone familiar with popular science writing on evolution will see what Thomas means here. Darwinism is introduced as a hypothesis/theory but then treated as a dogma/article of faith — and (this is emotionally very important) a way of segregating the Smart People from the Yobs and Yayhoos. Appeals to science-based analysis fall on deaf ears because the dogma has become what “science” now means. Read More ›

A pharma science prof explains how to “confront anti-science”

No. The question isn’t whether science is a good thing but whether the current establishment is in fact focused on science or on maintaining/regaining control through pronouncements about “science” and edicts stemming from those pronouncements. One needn’t look far to see examples of the latter. And what to do about that is the discussion we need to have. Read More ›

At Mind Matters News: Detecting BS data: If it’s too good to be true, it probably is

Business prof Gary Smith: A recent Wall Street Journal article shows a near-perfect link between inflation and money. But a link that near-perfect raises suspicions. Precise predictions of human behavior are implausible and rarely match up to the far more complicated reality. Read More ›

We’re not your lab rats any more: Convoy update IV

As of March 13, 2022, this page will not be updated. The issues re COVID-19 have now moved to the stage where only serious enquiries into the costly Crazy will be any use. Meanwhile, we leave you with this thought: Now, as we move forward (or not), a final message: Maybe you didn’t care when ID proponents lost their jobs for not fronting Darwin. After all, you didn’t think it would spread. But it does. The COVID Crazy is what happens when “science” becomes a placeholder for a variety of wants and fears, power grabs and pursuit of profits. Now that you had to live with it – and should justifiably fear the next Crazy coming down the pike – Read More ›

What “Trust the Science” does with massive amounts of data: Withholds it!

West goes on to point out other instances. The big question is, has secretiveness, deception, and a resulting hunger for authoritarian rule based on “science” has become a way of life in the upper echelons of a high-tech society? And then the biggest questions looms: What to do about it? At one time, it was just Darwin gibber in the schools and such-like stuff. Now it is getting more serious. Read More ›

When the Centers for Disease Control abandon science…

Prasad: "Throughout this pandemic, the CDC has been a poor steward of that balance, pushing a series of scientific results that are severely deficient. This research is plagued with classic errors and biases, and does not support the press-released conclusions that often follow." After a while, the public will catch on. The reputation of science is not going to do well out of the “Trust the Science!” phase. Read More ›