Kastrup, a philosopher and computer scientist, does not accept a Darwinian account of the evolution of consciousness and is is also sympathetic to the basic intuitions behind the idea that there is design in nature (intelligent design theory).
If spiders are as intelligent as many vertebrates …
… and it appears that they are, what is the role of the brain in mediating intelligence? Spiders have rather different brains from vertebrates; much simpler, for one thing: Ronald R. Hoy, Cornell University professor of neurobiology and behavior, considers the spider “one of the smartest of all invertebrates.” But while its behavior is comparable Read More…
Rob Sheldon offers some thoughts on the recent challenge to Darwin’s sexual selection
Sheldon: Finally, somebody is saying what ID has claimed for decades–Darwin has no clothes. It’s just-so stories stacked on just-so stories with the very thinnest of experimental evidence. And that’s the only thing I admire about post-modernists.
Some CV-19 data (for reference)
I note, from OWID, today August 13. First, case fatality rate vs population’s median age, though this is oldish data now . . . however exceptionally poor management by the US — an obvious implied thesis — should have been obvious even then: Next, case fatality rate overall — a metric dependent on degree of Read More…
Is topoisomerase another irreducibly complex cell component for ID folk to point to?
It’s an essential molecule that untangles the knots in DNA and, our friend notes, it is needed long before a cell has enough information to replicate itself.
It turns out that we all need those zombie microbes that live indefinitely and don’t really evolve
In the words of one researcher, “Our concept of how cells evolve goes out the window for this incredibly large biosphere.” And yet, we are told, “these almost-but-not-quite-dead cells play an important role in the production of methane, the degradation of the planet’s largest pool of organic carbon, and other processes.”
Biologists can’t stop using purpose-driven language because life really is designed
Crawford: I conclude that, since teleological concepts cannot be abstracted away from biological explanations without loss of meaning and explanatory power, life is inherently teleological. It is the teleological character of life which makes it a unique phenomenon requiring a unique discipline of study distinct from physics or chemistry.
Fisher’s Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection
Fisher’s Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection has done a lot to convince many professional academics of the truth of Darwinian evolution. The theorem states that the rate of increase in fitness of any organism at any time is equal to its variance in fitness at that time. In other words, fitness must go up! Because Read More…
Michael Egnor: Why the mind can’t just be the brain
Thinking it through carefully, the idea doesn’t even make sense.
The “Hard” Problem of Consciousness
Above is a picture of three children in 1954. One of them is me, the other two are not. I saw the world from inside one of these children. Darwinists believe they can explain how these children evolved, but how did I end up inside one of them? This is a question that rarely seems Read More…
Ants from hell
Smithsonian Magazine: Paleontologists have long suspected that unique mouthparts of the 16 known species of hell ant hinged shut vertically, rather than horizontally as is the case in all living ant species. But the newly described specimen is the first hard evidence that this is indeed how these early ants sharp jaws functioned
A new challenge from an anthropologist to cozy Darwin tales about men vs. women
Holly Dunsworth seems to have actually researched the literature rather than signing on to the narrative.
The ultimate confidence trick in science
As played by astrophysicist and Forbes columnist Ethan Siegel here and dissected at The Stream.
Another Woke math educator: Math is “white supremacist patriarchy”
Carr apparently believes that the people who discovered theorems in math actually invented them the way a novelist writes a novel.
ENCODE hints at MORE functional DNA
ENCODE Encyclopaedia: It has become apparent that, by virtually any metric, elements that govern transcription, chromatin organization, splicing, and other key aspects of genome control and function are densely encoded in many parts of the human genome sequence.