— Below is a beefed-up version of a piece I posted here at UD earlier this year. The version below appeared at the Chuck Colson blog. — Evolution, Theistic Evolution, and Intelligent Design By William Dembski In 1993, well-known apologist William Lane Craig debated professional atheist Frank Zindler concerning the existence of the Christian God. […]
Month: March 2010
What Francis Beckwith Gets Wrong about Intelligent Design
Francis Beckwith is one of the more interesting commentators on Darwinism and intelligent design. Beckwith is intelligent and independently minded, willing to move with the evidence and the arguments, and thus capable of non-partisan thought on the issues. Originally a Protestant and a supporter of intelligent design as formulated by the major ID theorists, he […]
Massimo Says It’s Become a Religion
Not that Massimo — this one. And “it,” of course, is neo-Darwinism, or the Modern Synthesis: textbook evolutionary theory. There’s nothing especially novel in saying that evolutionary theory can function as a secular religion, which is Piattelli-Palmarini’s main point in his new article. Michael Ruse has said as much for years. What has changed within […]
Histone Inspectors: Codes and More Codes
By now most people know about the DNA code. A DNA strand consists of a sequence of molecules, or letters, that encodes for proteins. Many people do not realize, however, that there are additional, more nuanced, codes associated with the DNA. For instance, minor chemical modifications (such as the addition of a methyl group) to […]
None of the Above: All the Modern Explanations for Religion Except the Most Obvious
Did you know that: Religion is good for you; also, Religion is bad for you; also, Religion makes no difference; also, Religion can be explained by a God gene, or a meme, or part of the brain . . . or whatever the editor of your local paper’s “Relationships” section will buy for this weekend’s […]
Contest Question 23: YOU rank order the Top Ten ID media stories of 2009
Every year, for some years now, the folk at Access Research Network have rank ordered the Top Ten intelligent design stories of the year. Due to volume, this last year, they were broken out into science news, media news, and 2009 resources. The Top Ten media news picks are here. Right now, we are talking […]
The Templeton Prize for Regress in Religion
The Templeton Prize used to encourage progress in religion. Truly impressive people like Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, Stanley Jaki, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn once received this prize (go here for past winners). In the last decade, however, the Prize has been continually given to people inhabiting the Templeton Foundation’s inner circle, who promise to keep contemporary science […]
Does the Evidence Support Evolution, or does Evolution Support the Evidence?
For all their disagreements, evolutionists strongly agree that evolution is a fact, just as gravity is a fact. There is no question that evolution occurred. And since evolution is as certain as gravity, those who do not assent must not be rational, or they must have ulterior motives. If there are scientific questions about evolution […]
The Fundamental Question
At his blog Santi Tafarella, a self-avowed agnostic, asks some interesting questions, no? “How do you know that matter precedes mind at the beginning? That would make contingent matter either eternal or self created, right? How can that be? Why, at the beginning, is self existent matter any less mysterious (ontologically) than self existent mind? […]
Documentary Film “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” Screening and Debate at Imperial College, London
A debate which took place last month at the Imperial College of London concerning the documentary film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (following a screening of the film) is available for your perusal here. Film Screening and Debate Details: “Unbelievable?”, a Premier Christian Radio program (hosted by Justin Brierly), screened the film at Imperial College London, […]
Junk DNA: The Real Story
By now you have probably heard about so-called junk DNA. In recent decades the genomes of a growing number of species have been mapped out. Not surprisingly, scientists did not understand how many of these DNA sequences worked. For instance, repetitive sequences are common, but what do they do? As these data accumulated evolutionists increasingly […]
Are Falk, Miller, Dawkins, Ayala Socially Guilty? — Highlights of Pellionisz and Sternberg
We have been occasionally graced at UD by visits of DNA researcher Andras Pellionisz who wrote: the issue of “Junk” DNA itself is much more vital for human kind, since hundreds of millions are dying of “Junk DNA diseases” while the urgency of plunging into active research is overlooked because on ANY ideological grounds. Those […]
Jumping to Design Conclusions
An archaeologist has been studying stone spheres in Costa Rica and has concluded they were designed. According to PhysOrg, he doesn’t know who made the spheres, when they were made, or why they were made. Why is he jumping to a conclusion of intelligent design? He should be considering natural explanations. There are plenty of […]
Evolution: A One-in-a-Billion Shot
It is no surprise that there are scientific problems with evolution. Its predictions are continually turning out to be false. It undoubtedly ranks number one in faulty expectations. For instance, one of its primary predictions, common descent, has badly failed. The reconciliation of the molecular and the visible, morphological, features has been a major problem […]
More coffee!!: Intellectual freedom in Canada: Ann Coulter visit
Controversial American lawyer and commentator descended on Canada, facing predictable demands from current and future tax burdens (= university admin and students who know a “free” breadbasket when they see one) that she be charged with/censored for hate speech. More here. Latest here: Coulter files human rights complaint in Canada. I hope exposing the shakedown […]