Monthly Archives: October 2010
Death of a grande dame: can we build morality on the foundation of natural goodness?
| October 31, 2010 | Posted by vjtorley under Intelligent Design |
Philippa Foot (1920-2010) was one of the greatest moral philosophers of the 20th century, but she insisted that she was “not clever at all” and “very uneducated.” She was greatly influenced by the philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe, whom she described in an interview as “more rigorously Catholic than the Pope,” but she herself was a card-carrying […]
Clarification of the limits to self organisation
| October 31, 2010 | Posted by Richard Johns under Intelligent Design |
In the couple of weeks since I posted a summary of my work on self organisation, I’ve been hoping to receive criticism – none so far unfortunately. However, by trawling the web I did find some anonymous comments. While these were mostly of low quality, some recurrent objections have made me want to clarify a […]
Very Weak Anthropic Principle: Is the Principle going, going gone?
| October 30, 2010 | Posted by O'Leary under theistic evolution |
Friends tell me that British theistic evolutionist Denis Alexander of the Faraday Institute spoke at Baylor University recently on the “Very Weak Anthropic Principle.” I’ve heard of the Anthropic Principle, which essentially means that the universe appears fine-tuned for intelligent life. I’ve also heard of the Weak Anthropic Principle, namely, The weak anthropic principle states […]
Vid: The prequel to the Big Bang?
| October 30, 2010 | Posted by O'Leary under Cosmology |
A friend points to a popular overview of current ideas in theoretical physics on pre-Big Bang cosmology, check out “What Happened Before the Big Bang?” a recent episode of the BBC’s Horizon series. It’s on YouTube in six parts, featuring Michio Kaku, Neil Turok, Lee Smolin, Andre Linde, Roger Penrose, and Laura Mersini-Hougton. What do […]
Finding: Bees Solve The Traveling Salesman Problem
| October 30, 2010 | Posted by Cornelius Hunter under Intelligent Design |
It is a classic problem in the field of computer science: In what order should a salesman visit his prospects? The traveling salesman problem may appear simple but it has engaged some of the greatest mathematical minds and today engages some of the fastest computers. This makes new findings, that bees routinely solve the problem […]
Christian Darwinism: Now you see the “Creator” and now you don’t, but believe anyway
| October 30, 2010 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Well, believe something anyway, subject to rapid change. Once, years ago, I got a rather long phone call from a Christian evolutionist who wanted me to know that Darwin had added to the second edition of his Origin of Species the words “by the Creator” to imply that evolution was God-directed. That was supposed to […]
Theory of Everything: Putting failure to find such a theory to good use
| October 29, 2010 | Posted by O'Leary under Theory of Everything |
Sure. Why waste a failure? In “The imperfect universe: Goodbye, theory of everything” (New Scientist, 10 May 2010, Magazine issue 2759), Marcelo Gleiser mourns, FIFTEEN years ago, I was a physicist hard at work hunting for a theory of nature that would unify the very big and the very small. There was good reason to […]
Which one is different: gravity, continental drift or evolution?
| October 29, 2010 | Posted by vjtorley under Intelligent Design |
Newton’s theory of gravity, Wegener’s theory of continental drift and Darwin’s theory of evolution all have one thing in common: they have all been ridiculed as impossible at one time or another, because they lacked a plausible mechanism. So which theory is different from the rest? I shall argue that Darwin’s theory is unique, in […]
Extraterrestrials: They’re not there, but they must be !
| October 29, 2010 | Posted by O'Leary under Extraterrestrial life |
Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, reviews Paul Davies’s latest book, The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence/Are We Alone In The Universe? , which argues that we should expand the hunt for intelligent life: McKay considers why we should look closer to home — perhaps even in our […]
No peace between “science” and “religion,” prof warns
| October 27, 2010 | Posted by O'Leary under Religion, Science |
The United States put men on the moon, mapped the outer planets, and generally leads in science. And it is more religious than other countries. So, if religion makes a difference, bring it on.
Prophet of Pointlessness sues Inventor of the Scarlet A
| October 27, 2010 | Posted by scordova under Culture |
Richard Dawkins is known as the Prophet of Pointlessness because it was Dawkins who said: “[the universe] has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at bottom no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pointless indifference.” Dawkins has something of a cult following and encourages his troops to wear a […]
Another Layer on the Information Story: Quorum Sensing
| October 26, 2010 | Posted by Jonathan M under Intelligent Design |
I was recently directed to a video lecture on the phenomenon of quorum sensing, the mechanism by which bacteria communicate with one another to establish the population density of micro-organisms of their own kind within their proximal environment. Bonnie Bassler, the lecturer in this video, does a masterful job of portraying fairly technical concepts and […]
Bacterial ‘High-Flyer’ Takes Center Stage In The Biotechnology Arena
| October 26, 2010 | Posted by Robert Deyes under Intelligent Design |
The blogosphere is brimming with commentaries over the ever-visible changes that usher in the arrival of Autumn in the northern hemisphere (1). The beckoningly bright colors of the foliage on our trees and the seasonal appearance of pumpkins that adorn our porches and abound in the fields around our cities serve as reminders of a festive […]
Are machine-information metaphors bad for science?
| October 25, 2010 | Posted by David Tyler under Intelligent Design |
According to Massimo Pigliucci and Maarten Boudry, the widespread use of machine-information metaphors is unfortunate and misleading. They complain about textbooks that develop metaphors to a considerable level of detail. As an example, they cite Alberts, who is often quoted for his analogy between a cell and a “miniature factory, complete with assembly lines, messengers, […]
It’s Amazing What Evolution Can Do!
| October 25, 2010 | Posted by PaV under Evolution, Intelligent Design |
This article here recounts the now documented ability of bees to solve the “traveling salesman problem” faster than computers. And to imagine that evolution has done this! My, what a wonderful thing it is!—-(he says with sarcasm dripping). By just doing something over and over again, with little changes accumulating, a ‘computer,’ better than any […]
Michael Behe Goes Head-to-Head With Keith Fox
| October 23, 2010 | Posted by Jonathan M under Intelligent Design |
A radio debate featuring Michael Behe and Keith Fox, discussing issues relating to the scientific substance, and theological implications, of ID was made available today on the Premier Christian Radio website. The audio can be found here. The introductory comments on the website read as follows: Michael Behe is professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University, […]
“Coming clean” about YEC?
| October 22, 2010 | Posted by William Dembski under Creationism, Intelligent Design, Religion, Science |
Jack Krebs at Panda’s Thumb claims that I have “come clean” as a young earth creationist. There are a couple of problems with his announcement: (1) It’s not true, and (2) there’s nothing in my words that he quoted to justify his claim. Krebs seems to think that my recent statements clarifying my views represent […]
The 10^(-120) challenge, or: The fairies at the bottom of the garden
| October 22, 2010 | Posted by vjtorley under Intelligent Design |
In an earlier post, I wrote that my faith in Intelligent Design was falsifiable, and I listed two criteria by which it might be falsified: 1. An empirical or mathematical demonstration that the probability of the emergence of life on Earth during the past four billion years as a result of purely natural processes, without […]
Autumn Reading for Jerry and friends
| October 20, 2010 | Posted by vjtorley under Intelligent Design |
Japanese maple leaves. Over at Why Evolution is True, Professor Jerry Coyne has been busy at work. He has not only outlined a scenario that would convince him of God’s existence, but he has written an article entitled On P. Z. Myers on evidence for a god with a point-by-point rebuttal of P. Z. Myers’ […]
Peer review: How much more believable than fortune telling these days?
| October 20, 2010 | Posted by O'Leary under Peer review |
A number of red flags have shot up recently about comfy relationships between science, media, and corporate interests. Here’s a small batch to contemplate.
