Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Yet another layer of complexity

Plant study reveals a “deeply hidden” layer of transcriptome regulation. “Cells keep a close watch over the transcriptome – all parts of the genome that are expressed in any given cell at any given time. Before RNA transcripts can guide protein synthesis or take on regulatory functions, they have to undergo a strict mRNA surveillance system that degrades defective, obsolete, and surplus transcripts. By stopping the function of the exosome, a multi-unit complex molecular machine in charge of controlled RNA degradation, researchers found evidence for widespread exosome-mediated RNA quality control in plants and a ‘deeply hidden’ layer of the transcriptome that is tightly regulated by exosome activity. The common notion was that the exosome plays a central role in bulk Read More ›

Pack your bags the “truth” is out!

“Creationist” Perspectives p37-45 selections from Science Evolution and Creationism NAP 2008  “A creationist is someone who rejects natural scientific explanations of the known universe in favour of special creation by a supernatural entity. Many believers as well as many mainstream religious groups accept the findings of science, including evolution. (Creationists) want to replace scientific explanations with their own religion’s supernatural accounts of physical phenomena. Views of creationists typically have been promoted by small groups of politically active religious fundamentalists who believe that only a supernatural entity could account for the physical changes in the universe and for the biological diversity of life on Earth. Old Earth creationists accept that the Earth may be very old but reject other scientific findings Read More ›

[OFFTOPIC:] The Lesson of Tonight’s Iowa Caucuses

My wife’s family is from Iowa, and we got to listen to a lot of the presidential candidates in person during our visit there this December. Here’s our daughter with two of the more successful candidates: The lesson of tonight is that people are tired of business as usual. How far does that disaffection extend? To the uncritical teaching of Darwinian evolution?

Questions in evolution: How do jellyfish, crustaceans and beetles just suddenly appear?

Animals suddenly appear … and after that nothing much happens. Why? How? Read the latest post, linked above, at The Design of Life blog and help me think about this. (Currently, I am learning to cope with the fact that Alley Oop has been lying to me for, like, tens of thousands of years, so I can use the help wth thinking.) The comments facility has been enabled, but for best results, read the blog FAQs first.

Antony Flew, God and the Evidence: A review of There Is a God

On December 9, 2004, an Associated Press story story went out on the wires, “Famous Atheist Now Believes in God: One of World’s Leading Atheists Now Believes in God, More or Less, Based on Scientific Evidence.”

More? Or less? As it turns out, neither. He believes in God simply on the scientific evidence. Many might consider that thin gruel, but he is entitled to cite the evidence in his defense. And there is a lot of it.

Go here for more:

Introduction: Antony Flew, God, and the Evidence: A review of There IS a God Read More ›