2010

Check out this lecture by Richard Lindzen: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 In Part 4 he notes: The IPCC “consensus”: It is likely that most of the warming over the past 50 years is due to man’s emissions. How was this arrived at? What was done, was to take a large number of models that could not reasonably simulate known patterns of natural behavior (such as ENSO, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation), claim that such models nonetheless accurately depicted natural internal climate variability, and use the fact that these models could not replicate the warming episode from the mid-seventies through the mid-nineties, to argue that forcing was necessary and the Read More ›

By Gleaner here at Rob Sheldon’s story on extraterrestrials: If for some reasons the aliens are actually interested in us, I think they are probably already here, and given a certain level of technology, if would probably be easy to hide from us, even on a daily basis. Yes, I should think so. Termites do it all the time. So do the rats at a nearby dumpster. (That’s why the rule of thumb is, for every rat you happen to spot, there are a dozen.) Now, what I’d be interested to know is, the ETs never phone, they never write. Why do we assume they exist? Most of the reasons I have heard are based on attitudes, values, and beliefs, Read More ›

Dr. Dawkins would be happy to debate a bishop, cardinal, Pope, but he won’t debate creationists. What does he think that bishops, cardinals, and Popes are? They are overwhelmingly creationists. And he does debate creation in his books, he just won’t do it in person with the object of his debate in the form of an actual person in William Lane Craig. His word processor doesn’t talk back when he debates creation in writing his books. But He did debate John Lennox, who is, at least, an advocate of Intelligent Design (which he considers to be another form of creation).
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The connection with biological design here is what exactly?

Just as deism’s sway long outlasted its apparent expiration date, so too logical positivism continues to influence. Witness the childrens song Science is Real by the band They Might Be Giants which begins with a quote from the Vienna Circle’s Rudolf Carnap:  Read more

Darwinians are likely to explain this “India Pakistan Wagah Attari Border Closing Ceremony” as an example of sexual selection. Does this explannation even make sense here?

Today’s Fox News website had this little story, entitled Climate Scientists Plan to Hit Back at Skeptics. In the article, Stanford University climate researcher Paul R. Ehrlich had this to say about global warming skeptics:

“Most of our colleagues don’t seem to grasp that we’re not in a gentlepersons’ debate, we’re in a street fight against well-funded, merciless enemies who play by entirely different rules,” Paul R. Ehrlich, a Stanford University researcher, said in one of the e-mails.

Its worth noting Ehrlich’s use of the phrase “merciless enemies”. In other words, challenge the preferred dogma, and you’re not just ignorant – you’re an enemy, and thus, by extension, deserving of any and all ad hominem attacks hurled your way. One can almost hear “let me assure you, we haf vays to make you accept the dogma!” Read More ›

The Spanish Paseos Por La Naturaleza (A Walk Through Nature) series continues with an exploration of catalytic RNA within the larger context of the RNA world.  Pulling together key lines of evidence from molecular biology, this installment builds a linchpin case against the fragile trusses of naturalistic causation. The Paseos Por La Naturaleza series aims to further strengthen the global influence that the Intelligent Design movement already enjoys and raise awareness of important academic resources that are today challenging orthodox Darwinism and revitalizing the call for a fresh perspective on scientific discourse.   The third installment can be found at: Paseos Por La Naturaleza: El ARN catalítico — un catalizador indigno de una discusión seria acerca del origen de la vida (See also OIACDI)

Chris McKay, an astrobiologist with NASA and therefore keenly interested in the search for extraterrestrial life (ET), reviewed Paul Davies recent livre de l’annee, The Eerie Silence. Why is it in this 50th anniversary of the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), we haven’t heard a thing? Chris thinks that Davies’ answer might be that ET has come and gone, leaving us a farewell note in the genome of some otherwise undistinguished critter. My problem with SETI, and apparently Davies as well, is its completely parochial view of communication. As an example, I suggest that we should imagine SETI beginning in 1900. What would it look like? Well, the state-of-the-art in communication technology at the time was telegraph. So it Read More ›

If this story doesn’t persuade you to cancel your subscription to failing dead tree media like the New York Times , you are helpless and hopeless. There, we are informed, by Leslie Kaufman, Critics of the teaching of evolution in the nation’s classrooms are gaining ground in some states by linking the issue to global warming, arguing that dissenting views on both scientific subjects should be taught in public schools. Well, the first thing I should say, is that I am not a disinterested witness. I lost my toenails some years ago in Ottawa. They grew back, but never very successfully. If the planet is warming up, my toes would be the happiest local items to hear it. It is Read More ›

Graduate Student Challenges Avida in Scientific Paper   Click here to listen. On this episode of ID the Future, Casey Luskin interviews Winston Ewert, a graduate student in computer science at Baylor University who recently co-authored a paper titled, “Evolutionary Synthesis of Nand Logic: Dissecting a Digital Organism,” in Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics. Ewert shares how reading Richard Dawkins led him to his current research in evolutionary computation and his criticisms of the Avida Simulation. Listen in as Ewert explains the scientific research behind his paper, and find out why intelligent design is attracting the interest of graduate students. For more on intelligent design research, visit The Evolutionary Informatics Lab and Biologic Institute.  

“People will write to me and say “You’ve changed my life” and that’s a wonderfully warm feeling and it’s really quite common.” This gem comes near the end of this ABC PM extended interview during Richard Dawkins’ latest visit to Australia. Also the following;    “What’s not interesting is the battle between science on the one hand and supernaturalism on the other” “something obviously ridiculous like flat-earthers and slightly less obviously ridiculous like anti-evolutionists. It’s only less slightly obviously ridiculous by the way.”“The sort of powerful illusion of design that all living creatures have but some seem to express more vividly. The almost irresistible urge to think gosh, somebody must have designed that and the beauty of discovering actually no, they Read More ›

Charles Darwin called it an “abominable mystery,” but a new study has solved the question of how flowering plants evolved. The answer: While busy implementing a new hydraulic system in plants, evolution accidently stumbled on improved photosynthesis as well. You see it just so happens that the two are linked. Improve one, and serendipitously the other improves as well. That’s fortunate. As ScienceDaily explains:  Read more

In his book The Making of the Fittest, Sean Carroll writes “the degree of similarity in DNA is an index of the [evolutionary] relatedness of species.” [98] This can only make sense if we first assume evolution is true. But Carroll’s book is a defense of evolution, intended to demonstrate that the theory is true without first assuming it is true. He seeks to prove evolution is true, but he begins with evolutionary reasoning and interpretations. That is circular reasoning. Unfortunately such circular reasoning is a common motif in the evolution genre.  Read more