Monthly Archives: July 2006
Why is a “giant” of evolution getting so excited about the “midgets” of ID?
| July 31, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
In the latest New Republic Online, the irrepressible Jerry Coyne keeps the insults against ID coming: . . . [O]ne has to ask whether Coulter (who, by the way, attacks me in her book) really understands the Darwinism she rejects. The answer is a resounding No. According to the book’s acknowledgments, Coulter was tutored in the […]
Are challenges to Darwinian theory from those outside the discipline legitimate?
| July 30, 2006 | Posted by GilDodgen under Intelligent Design |
I would argue that, indeed, they are. In a previous UD thread, Tom English made the following comment: I have seen a number of brilliant and highly educated people do abysmally stupid things when they stepped outside their domains of expertise. Computer scientists make abysmal biologists. Journalists make abysmal biologists. Philosophers make abysmal biologists. Theologians […]
John Rennie can’t leave ID well enough alone
| July 30, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
John Rennie, the chief editor at SCIAM, continues to do his cause more harm than good. All his naysaying against ID has to give the dispassionate observer pause whether there might not be something to it after all. Here is his latest: http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=i_d_is_bad_science_on_its_own_terms&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1.
Radio Commercials Air in Kansas Supporting Standupforscience.com’s Approach to Teaching Evolution
| July 29, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Education, Evolution, Science |
As the debate over how to teach evolution continues, two new radio commercials promoting www.standupforscience.com and the online petition to “Stand up for Science, Stand up for Kansas†will air this weekend across Kansas. One ad features molecular biologist Jonathan Wells, explaining that “it is imperative to understand both the evidence for and against a […]
God woun’t’a dun it dat way?
| July 29, 2006 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Bill Dembski asked me to post my comments in a recent discussion elsewhere, regarding intelligent design (ID) as we currently understand it. Phil Johnson, the lawyer who put ID on the map, is currently seeking more input from the arts community (he calls it Wedge II). I agree that the ID debate will develop along more […]
ID as “marzipan confection”
| July 29, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
The sign of erudition these days is the ability to craft culturally sophisticated terms of abuse. I want to urge others on this thread to list their favorite erudite term(s) of abuse for ID. July 30, 2006 SUNDAY BOOK REVIEW Laws of nature A century and a half ago, Charles Darwin sparked a scientific revolution. […]
Youth — the key to unseating Darwinian materialism
| July 29, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Culture, Darwinism, Education, Intelligent Design |
Check out this forthcoming book, in which I understand that our very own Sal Cordova is featured. Note especially Sam Harris’s blurb — with people like Harris expressing such foreboding, one has to wonder how close we are to seeing the Darwinian house of cards collapse under the weight of its self-delusion. Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical […]
Granville Sewell on theodicy
| July 29, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design, Religion |
Is God Really Good? Granville Sewell Mathematics Dept. University of Texas El Paso                                                                                           .  In debates over the theory of intelligent design, the “problem of evil” is frequently brought up by opponents of design: if we are the products of intelligent design, why is there so much evil and misery in the world? From […]
Templeton/Metanexus conference
| July 29, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
Check out the following papers at the big June 2006 Metanexus conference: http://www.metanexus.net/conference2006/papers.asp. How well was ID represented?
[quote mines]: “In science’s pecking order, evolutionary biology lurks somewhere near the bottom”
| July 29, 2006 | Posted by scordova under Intelligent Design |
In science’s pecking order, evolutionary biology lurks somewhere near the bottom, far closer to phrenology than to physics. Jerry Coyne
Ernst Mayr at the millennium: A study in misplaced triumphalism
| July 28, 2006 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Darwinian evolutionist Ernst Mayr wrote in Scientific American in 2000: “Let me now try to summarize my major findings. No educated person any longer questions the validity of the so-called theory of evolution, which we now know to be a simple fact. Likewise, most of Darwin’s particular theses have been fully confirmed, such as that […]
Allen MacNeill, Hannah Maxson on Cornell Evolution and Design Class
| July 28, 2006 | Posted by scordova under Intelligent Design |
I provide here some snapshots of the Biology 467 Evolution and Design class at Cornell. Allen MacNeill is the professor and Hannah Maxson is a student representing the IDEA club.  Whether what we hear is something we like or dislike, it still constitutes a data point which we should not dismiss. Even if I may disagree […]
FractoGene
| July 27, 2006 | Posted by Patrick under Biology |
http://www.junkdna.com/fractogem/ http://www.fractogene.com/ On the subject of “junk DNA” Dr. Pellionisz believes these sections are caused by DNA being a “FractoGene” (Fractal DNA generating Fractal Organelles). I wouldn’t be surprised if DNA uses recursive mathematics for generating its complexity (plants do this for their structure at a macro level). As he explains it: “[The] FractoGene approach […]
For your fall reading . . .
| July 27, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design |
Here are two books you’ll want to put in your Amazon.com cart and read this fall. I’ve blurbed each of them. For Wells’s book I wrote: “Darwinists will be furious over this book, gnashing their teeth and vilifying its author — because biologist Jonathan Wells masterfully exposes their bizarre delusions and replaces them with what […]
Howard Van Till’s journey from Calvinism into freethought
| July 26, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Religion, Science |
Questions: (1) Leaving aside Calvinism, is Howard Van Till a Christian at all? Would he even accept that designation? (2) Given that he has veered so far from Calvin College’s statement of faith, is it legitimate for him to maintain his formal affiliation with the school as “professor emeritus”? Are professors emeritus held to the same […]
UD — An Insight Catalyst
| July 25, 2006 | Posted by GilDodgen under Intelligent Design |
One of the things I really enjoy about UD is that it is a catalyst for new insights. I have blogged at UD on numerous occasions about computer programs and computer programming and their relationship to ID and Darwinian theory (for example, here and here). Doug’s post, Hidden Codes Within Codes, inspired some new insights. […]
Hidden Codes Within Codes….
| July 25, 2006 | Posted by Douglas Moran under Intelligent Design |
 The New York Times is reporting here on a discovery published in Nature of of a second code hidden in DNA.  According to the author, “In the genetic code, sets of three DNA units specify various kinds of amino acid, the units of proteins. A curious feature of the code is that it is redundant, […]
Political correctness alert: Non-Darwinist philosopher doubts equality of women
| July 25, 2006 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
John Davison of our list was referred to by one of our authors as “incorrigible” (so much so that the author hastened to print his views! – a good sign). Well, here’s another one for you. Agnostic Australian philosopher David Stove, not content to take on Darwin, apparently had the intellectual courage, as a friend […]
400,000-Year-Old DNA Intact?
| July 25, 2006 | Posted by Patrick under Biology, Science |
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060714/sc_afp/swedenspainscience_060714171218 STOCKHOLM (AFP) – A Swedish-led team of scientists has discovered 400,000-year-old DNA in bear teeth, the Uppsala University in Sweden said. The team, made up of Swedish, Spanish and German researchers, discovered the remains of the bear in a cave in Atapuerca, northern Spain. “It is usually hard to find DNA that is older […]
What is a “pseudo-journalist”?
| July 24, 2006 | Posted by William Dembski under Intelligent Design, Just For Fun |
Wesley Elsberry, in blogging about Denyse O’Leary’s recent coming on board here at UD, refers to her as a “pseudo-journalist” (go here)? What a curious designation. Does Wesley’s use of the prefix “pseudo” simply indicate his disapproval of O’Leary and, in particular, her failure to accept his brand of evolution? Or does the prefix indicate […]
