Category: Darwinism
Stressed “alpha male” a problem for Darwinian evolution?
| July 16, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Darwinism, Intelligent Design |
If recent epigenetics findings are right and the results here are also valid, the stress of being an alpha male could further limit the probability of Darwinian evolution. more
“World” editor Marvin Olasky expects social Darwinism to figure in next American election
| July 16, 2011 | Posted by News under Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design |
Here (7/15/2011). For nearly a decade Democrats have sought a religious wedge issue that could separate big chunks of white evangelical voters from their Republican home. Now they’ve found it, and are thrusting at the Social Darwinist/Ayn Rand underbelly of American conservatism. more
This Christian conference is a scandal and a waste of time. Discuss.
| July 16, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Christian Darwinism, Darwinism |
Barry Arrington recently did far more good for any form of Christian social witness by compelling Prof. Pompous to quit harrassing a Darwin-doubting student. Oh wait, that’s legalism. My gosh, it’s even law!
Maybe Arrington doesn’t care if Pompous feels good about himself. I sure don’t. I don’t care if he becomes a Christian or gets saved. I don’t care about his perspective. I don’t want to go to conferences about his perspective or about anybody’s in particular. I want him to quit harassing politely dissenting students, and he had better. more
David Tyler: Demolishing Junk DNA as an icon of evolution
| July 15, 2011 | Posted by News under 'Junk DNA', Darwinism, Intelligent Design |
For many of us, an important characteristic of science is self-correction. We are proud of the way new findings catalyse re-evaluation and, if corrections are needed, the development of new knowledge. If you are like this, be prepared to be shocked when you read Jonathan Wells’ latest book. The concept of Junk DNA was widely… more
New blog: Darwinism is dead but won’t lie down
| July 15, 2011 | Posted by News under Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Popular culture |
Here’s a new, UK-based blog, The Darwin Deception, Darwinism as an explanation for life is dead. The final death blow was administered by discoveries about intracellular nanomachinery, which amply satisfy Darwin’s own test of falsification. Dead, but it won’t lie down. … Dude: Darwinism and a multitude of other dead ideas and popular delusions are… more
Great entertainment at Creation-Evolution Headlines from the sinkhole of …
| July 15, 2011 | Posted by News under Atheism, Christian Darwinism, Darwinism |
collapsing Darwinism. Here’s one:
Evolutionize your life. Religion is well known for offering people peace and meaning. What does Darwin have to offer? A lot, thinks one militant theistic evolutionist whose mission is to help Darwinian evolution gain acceptance in churches. Michael Dowd and his wife Connie Barlow have produced a self-help course on a website called “Evolutionize Your Life.” more
Richard Dawkins evolves into entertainment.
| July 14, 2011 | Posted by News under Culture, Darwinism |
Otherwise, what to make of this? more
Is Darwinism the enemy of liberalism?
| July 14, 2011 | Posted by News under Culture, Darwinism |
In City Journal, (Spring 2011), New Republic editor Adam Kirsch offers an interesting reflection on Darwinism and liberalism, in his review of political thinker Francis Fukuyama’s latest, The Origins of Political Order : Yet since ideas have consequences, the ideological victory of liberalism would be nothing to scorn—if it were really assured. Ironically, however, The… more
Church of Flying Spaghetti Monster stages social protest?
| July 14, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design |
An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as “religious headgear”. In “Austrian driver’s religious headgear strains credulity” (July 14, 2011), BBC News tells us so Readers may recall that pastafarianism first surfaced as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a sort of street… more
Anyone else for the myth of junk DNA? Richard Dawkins, for one
| July 13, 2011 | Posted by News under 'Junk DNA', Darwinism |
He certainly drew the desired Darwinian conclusion: “The amount of DNA in organisms,” Dawkins wrote in 1976, “is more than is strictly necessary for building them: A large fraction of the DNA is never translated into protein. From the point of view of the individual organism this seems paradoxical. If the ‘purpose’ of DNA is… more
NCSE stands firm: There is no evidence against (Darwinian) evolution
| July 12, 2011 | Posted by News under Darwinism, Evolution |
The source who reported on U.S. Darwin lobbyist Eugenie Scott’s recent talk in Scottsdale, Arizona, on why you can’t teach evidence against evolution, asked her for clarification. Now, when she says “evolution,” we are pretty sure she means Darwinism. Why? Let investigative journalist Suzan Mazur explain. Her story is consistent with another episode in the… more
They said it: Origin of new traits – “pertinent,” “fundamental,” and “unanswered”
| July 11, 2011 | Posted by News under Darwinism, Evolution |
Here: This work is difficult and time consuming, but the question at its core—the genetic origin of new and complex traits—is probably still one of the most pertinent and fundamental unanswered questions in evolution today. At stake is the possibility of testing whether novel complex traits arise from a gradual building of novel developmental networks,… more
Expell-ees you might not have heard about
| July 11, 2011 | Posted by News under academic freedom, Darwinism |
They didn’t make it into the film. Caroline Crocker, author of Free to Think and currently executive director of AITSE (dedicated to rescuing science from the mudslide of “science”), reflected in her book on discovering that she was not alone, that the Expelled were quite numerous: There is companionship in troubles, and the more public… more
“Have you ever actually tried just being nice to them?”
| July 10, 2011 | Posted by News under Atheism, Christian Darwinism, Darwinism |
If “them” are the new atheists, here’s the kind of thing you’d get in response: more
Redwood trees’ genes differ from top to bottom
| July 10, 2011 | Posted by News under Darwinism, Genetics, Genomics |
From “Environs Prompt Advantageous Gene Mutations as Plants Grow; Changes Passed to Progeny” (ScienceDaily, July 5, 2011) we learn: If a person were to climb a towering redwood and take a sample from the top and a sample from the bottom of the tree, a comparison would show that the two DNA samples are different.Christopher… more
He said it: Only Darwin can save philosophy
| July 10, 2011 | Posted by News under Christian Darwinism, Darwinism, Mind |
In a popular lecture delivered in Vienna I 1900, the physicist Ludwig Boltzmann, one of the fathers of statistical mechanics and the kinetic theory of gases, declared that the nineteenth century would be remembered as the Century of Darwin, then stated: In my view all salvation for philosophy may be expected to come from Darwin’s… more
Altenberg 1999: It was great, but then they flew home and found that …
| July 9, 2011 | Posted by News under Darwinism, Evolution |
In Origination of organismal form: beyond the gene in developmental and evolutionary biology (MIT Press, 2003), we learn about the first Altenberg meeting (1999) of biologists who doubt Darwin. The locally famous one, that Suzan Mazur covered, came later. more
Paul Nelson asks: Why are young American scientists too afraid to appear in this video?
| July 9, 2011 | Posted by News under academic freedom, Darwinism, Video |
Claire Berlinski comments at Ricochet: “Seriously, if you could have seen how everyone scrambled to get out of the camera when I said we just want to talk about the interesting things we were talking about yesterday. And people are afraid. It would be the end of their careers.” Caption quote: “People who want to… more
He said it: “Pure chance, absolutely free but blind, at the very root of the stupendous edifice of evolution”
| July 9, 2011 | Posted by News under Darwinism |
“We call these events [mutations] accidental; we say they are random occurrences. And since they constitute the only possible source of modification in the genetic text, itself the sole repository of the organism’s hereditary structures, it necessarily follows that chance alone is at the source of every innovation, of all creation in the biosphere. Pure… more
The real reason evolution shouldn’t be taught in school: Or, sex evolved in order to … what WAS that?
| July 8, 2011 | Posted by News under Darwinism, Evolution |
To prevent parasite infections by promoting “genetic variation” (Jul 7, 2011): Sexual reproduction, then, serves as a way to keep introducing genetic variety, a process that has to constantly be repeated in order to continue staving off attacks the latest and deadliest parasites. This is known as the “Red Queen Hypothesis”, taking its name from… more