Cornell Geneticist John Sanford argued that Darwinism is wrong because the rate of genetic deterioration is so high that natural selection could not arrest it. If natural selection cannot arrest genetic deterioration, how then could it be the mechanism for evolutionary improvement? Sanford predicted through his research that human genome is deteriorating. This was a Read More…
Month: September 2010
How Credulous Are Some Scientists? Very
We have this report today about an earth sized planet orbiting a nearby star. An excerpt: An Earth-size planet has been spotted orbiting a nearby star at a distance that would makes it not too hot and not too cold — comfortable enough for life to exist, researchers announced Wednesday. If confirmed, the exoplanet, named Read More…
The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology – by Michael Sudduth
I have recently come across the work of Michael Sudduth on Natural Theology. This very interesting book is published by Ashgate The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754661757 Looks like essential reading for those concerned about intelligent design and Reformed theology. Reviews by Richard Swinburne, Alister McGrath and Alvin Plantinga (Although it is not cheap).
Joe Carter on Monkey Brains
Over at First Things Joe Carter considers whether naturalism can ever account for valid belief. “To have trustworthy convictions, we have to have properly functioning noetic equipment (i.e., a brain, spinal cord, sensory apparatus, etc., that recognize reality). But can a strictly materialistic, non-teleological, evolutionary process produce such reliable equipment? The philosopher Alvin Plantinga, one Read More…
Sacrificial Reiss offered on the altar of ‘Science’
The Michael Reiss saga should not be quickly forgotten. His enforced resignation as the Royal Society’s Director of Education in September 2008 was a blot on the history of the Royal Society (see here and here). Yet, after two years, few changes are apparent: Reiss continues to publish his “worldview” perspective on handling creationism in Read More…
A simple statistical test for the alleged “99% genetic identity” between humans and chimps
Typical figures published in the scientific literature for the percentage similarities between the genomes of human beings (Homo sapiens) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) range from 95% to 99%. However, in press releases intended for popular consumption, evolutionary biologists frequently claim that human and chimpanzee genomes are 99% identical. Skeptics of neo-Darwinian evolution have repeatedly punctured Read More…
Richard Dawkins and Ray Comfort
Richard Dawkins takes Ray Comfort out of context: Dawkins says he doesn’t debate Creationists, yet he debates what Creationists say quite often. Should Dawkins avoid debating Creationists when they are the subject of his lectures and speaking engagements?
Richard Weikart: If Darwinists believed that conscience really exists, he would be their conscience
Here and here, historian of Nazi Germany Richard Weikart responds to yet another whitewash of Darwinism’s role in helping to create a particularly malignant type of racism, this time by Darwinist Michael Ruse: Last November at a conference on Darwinism I conversed with a graduate student in philosophy who embraced Ruse’s position on the evolution Read More…
The Fibonacci post has generated a longer comment thread than anything else I’ve written. I was just digging a little dirt and must have hit a power line. The question I tried to address, was “is there any physics in Fibonacci, or is it just a mathematician’s curiosity?” Here’s the physics that came back: a) Read More…
Have Glycine – but no life
Earlier this year, the work of Nir Goldman and colleagues was noted (here). Using sophisticated computer modeling tools, it was concluded that cometary impacts could generate C-N bonded oligomers that subsequently break apart to form a glycine-containing complex. This research has now been published in Nature Chemistry, resulting in a new flurry of discussion about Read More…
A Review of Why Us? by James Le Fanu
Many members of the ID community will no doubt have been relieved to see the back of 2009. The secular establishment took the opportunity provided by the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, to launch a defence of their hero’s largely discredited theory. Read More…
Centre for Intelligent Design UK Website Now LIVE
In recent years, the development of Intelligent Design has been associated largely with the USA. This week marks the launch of the Centre for Intelligent Design UK (website here). The Centre brings ID back to its roots, which can be traced right to the early developments of science in the UK and wider Europe. Many of the Read More…
Fibonacci Life
The Fibonacci sequence is one of those math marvels that even elementary students can appreciate. Like the discovery of the √2, it possesses this element of mystery that makes Pythagoras‘ harmonic series look like a rubber-band shoe-box next to a concert grand. Pythagoras famously drowned the fellow who discovered that √2 was neither even nor Read More…
Evolution and ID in academic circles
This isn’t new, but I think it is pretty revealing of how the academic establishment deals with intelligent design. An Educator’s Guide to Dealing With Intelligent Design
The various positions in a nutshell
Help me out here: are these simple but accurate descriptions of where each school of thought stands? (a) Naturalism (evolutionism) says that matter just happens to have the properties to sometimes spontaneously lead to life, life that can improve itself through evolution. (b) Theistic evolution says that God designed matter to have the properties to Read More…