Clarification: John Paul II on Evolution
In a previous post, I remarked that John Paul II “seemed to sign off on conventional evolutionary theory save for the divine infusion of souls at the origin of humanity.” This is not quite accurate. As a friend and colleague who knows the Catholic world much better than I do noted to me by email:
Why ID Has No “Project Steve”
The National Center for Selling Evolution (NCSE) has a widely publicized, in their words, “tongue-in-cheek parody of a long-standing creationist tradition of amassing lists of ‘scientists who doubt evolution’ or ‘scientists who dissent from Darwinism’.” They call it “Project Steve.” (Go here for a description of the project and here for the list; go here for the list of dissenters from Darwinism that prompted Project Steve.)
Can More Time Make up for Deficiencies in Intelligence?
Here are three letters from the New Scientist, the first and the last tacitly supporting ID. The last letter raises the interesting question to what degree throwing time at a problem can make up for deficiencies in intelligence. There is a research question here that needs cashing out.
The New Pope and ID
Past Posts of Interest
I started blogging end of March 2005, beginning at www.idthefuture.com and now with my blog, Uncommon Descent (I intend to do a lot of cross-posting). Since I’d like Uncommon Descent to provide a complete record of my blogging activity, I include here my prior posts at IDthefuture that have thus far not been cited here:
Finding Effective Drugs I
American Society of Agronomy — What Happened to Your Online Poll?
In a previous post I indicated that the American Society of Agronomy, at the behest of its president James G. Coors, conducted an online poll regarding the teaching of alternatives to evolution in grades K-12 and then, presumably at his behest as well, removed the poll once it became clear that the poll did not constitute an overwhelming endorsement for evolution. Fortunately, a friend of mine found the Google cache of the poll results before they were removed from the website. As of this posting, they can still be found here. I saved this page as an mht file, which can be accessed here. Compare this page with the current ASA page here (which I’ve saved as an mht file Read More ›
Comments about Comments
Laughlin on Evolution by Natural Selection
I made three posts at IDthefuture concerning Robert Laughlin, the Nobel laureate physicists who in his most recent book had some unkind words about evolution by natural selection: “Much of present-day biological knowledge is ideological. A key symptom of ideological thinking is the explanation that has no implications and cannot be tested. I call such logical dead ends antitheories because they have exactly the opposite effect of real theories: they stop thinking rather than stimulate it. Evolution by natural selection, for instance, which Charles Darwin originally conceived as a great theory, has lately come to function more as an antitheory, called upon to cover up embarrassing experimental shortcomings and legitimize findings that are at best questionable and at worst not Read More ›
When Denunciations of ID by the Professionals Fail
Denunciations of Intelligent Design by professional societies are now common coin: the American Association for the Advancement of Science (see here), the American Institute of Physics (see here and here), and the Society for Neuroscience (see here) are cases in point. But what happens when a professional society gears up to denounce ID and its members don’t go along for the ride?
Professionalizing the Critique of ID
Mike Gene — Someone You Should Know
Mike Gene is the pseudonym of one of the most insightful individuals in the ID/evolution debate. He remains critical of various aspects of ID, but he is far more critical of conventional evolutionary theory. For his views, have a look at his website. To get a flavor of his thinking, here is a recent post of his at the ARN website: