Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Common Descent at Uncommon Descent

I have consistently argued that intelligent design neither rules out the common descent of life on Earth (Darwin’s single Tree of Life) nor restricts the implementation of design to common descent, as if that were the only possible geometry for the large-scale relationships of organisms. Thus, with regard to this forum, the truth or falsity of common descent is an open question worthy of informed discussion. To open up Uncommon Descent in this way reflects not just the ID community’s diversity of views on this topic but also the growing doubts about common descent outside that community. For instance, W. Ford Doolittle rejects a single “Tree of” and argues instead for an intricate network of gene sharing events. Likewise, Carl Read More ›

The Plausibility of (ID) Life

Here are some excerpts from The Plausibility of Life, by Marc W. Kirschner and John C. Gerhart. While reading the book, I find that along the way the types of statements which follow are to be found almost everywhere .

One of the objections (disingenuous, in my opinion) that the Darwinists have to ID is that “we don’t know who the designer is; therefore, how can we possibly identify his designs?” Well the following quotes make it quite clear that the designer’s designs are easily identified. All’s you have to be to detect the design is be a graduate of an engineering school. No wonder lots of ID proponents have engineering backgrounds (including myself.).

Here are just some quotes:

“In this turtle, males are produced at lower temperatures 78° F (26° C) and females at higher, 88° F (31° C), the opposite of the alligator. In a flip-flop circuit, not unlike a thermostat that would gratify any engineer, a small difference in the level of a regulator of estrogen synthesis can be amplified into one of two states, a high-estrogen state (female development) or a low-estrogen state (male development). . . .The result is a bistable switch driven one way or the other by the temperature dependence of the production of SF-1 protein.” (p. 94) . . . .

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Stephen Meyer in the Daily Telegraph

Intelligent design is not creationism
By Stephen C Meyer
Daily Telegraph: 28/01/2006.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/01/28/do2803.xml

In 2004, the distinguished philosopher Antony Flew of the University of Reading made
worldwide news when he repudiated a lifelong commitment to atheism and affirmed the
reality of some kind of a creator. Flew cited evidence of intelligent design in DNA and
the arguments of “American [intelligent] design theorists” as important reasons for this
shift. Read More ›

Evidence for the Evolution of Complexity

Here’s a revealing quote from Neil Greenspan about the evolution of complexity: In fact, there is no evidence of any kind to indicate that the magnitude of a system’s complexity poses any sort of barrier to an origin through evolution, as opposed to an origin through design by an intelligent agent. (source) Let me suggest that the reason Greenspan can find no evidence for the magnitude of complexity posing a barrier to its evolution is that evolutionists have never provided actual evidence for evolution producing biological complexity. Instead, they’ve only provided handwaving imaginative fairytales — what Franklin Harold and James Shapiro call “wishful speculations.” Since these are enough to settle evolution, how could there be evidence against?

The better the technology, the stronger the design inferences

He Did It

By EUGENE H. METHVIN
January 28, 2006; Page A9

On May 20, 1992, the state of Virginia executed Roger Coleman, defying a global outcry that included Pope John Paul II, Time and Newsweek. A circus of 50 cameras and 14 satellite trucks crawling with newscasters from as far away as Japan crowded around the prison to broadcast Coleman’s last words: “An innocent man is going to be murdered tonight,” the 33-year-old declared. “When my innocence is proven, I hope America will realize the injustice of the death penalty as all other civilized countries have.” Read More ›

Harris Poll on ID

From a colleague: Harris Poll: http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=581 According to Table 7, belief in Intelligent Design increases with increasing education. (Ditto for evolution.) According to Table 8, belief in ID is more common among Democrats than Republicans. (Ditto for evolution.) According to Table 9, belief in ID is more common in the Northeastern and Western USA and less common in the Southern and Midwestern USA. (Ditto for evolution.) Also, taking into account this report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4648598.stm Belief in ID is more common in the UK than in the USA (17% vs 10%). (Ditto for evolution.)