2011

Those of us who have been involved with the discussion and debate surrounding ID/evolution for any significant length of time will be quite aquainted with the most fashionable neo-Darwinian model for the origin of novel biological information: Gene duplication and divergence. Gene duplications normally arise from a phenomenon known as “unequal cross-over”, which occurs during cell division. This process results in the deletion of a sequence in one strand, and its replacement with a duplication from its homologous chromosome (meiosis) or its sister chromatid (mitosis). The model of gene duplication and divergence essentially maintains that, following a gene duplication, while one copy of the gene retains its original function, the other copy is freed from selective constraint and is thus Read More ›

Evolutionists say that molecular biology has provided resounding confirmations of the fact of evolution. But actually the new molecular data reveal many contradictions. Far from confirming evolution, molecular biology has revealed yet more problems with the “fact.” For example, we find variations between species that are at odds with evolutionary expectations. One such example is in the transcription factors—proteins that bind to DNA and influence which genes are expressed.  Read more

Another friend is impressed with Werner’s ability to draw out the huge problems with many current claims: “I don’t know how he does it.” Part 1 interview with Dr. Carl Werner Part 2 interview with Dr. Carl Werner Part 3 interview with Dr. Carl Werner

In Response to InVivoVeritas, another commenter writes: Thanks for an interesting post. As you’re probably aware, there is a well-known phenomenon in software development called the “requirements explosion”. It’s documented, for example, in Robert Glass’s book, Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering. Even after a specification is complete, and especially as concrete implementation of the specification gets underway (i.e. development of the actual software begins), a plethora of other requirements come out of the woodwork. Several things might account for this, including (1) the requirements were probably incomplete to begin with; (2) not all the implications of the requirements were thought through in advance; (3) the stakeholders don’t like what the “incarnation” of their specifications in functional software actually looks Read More ›

InVivoVeritas writes: Here is the quote from the Jack W. Szostak interview: We think that a primitive cell has to have two parts. First, it has to have a cell membrane that can be a boundary between itself and the rest of the earth. And then there has to be some genetic material, which has to perform some function that’s useful for the cell and get replicated to be inherited. The part we’ve come to understand reasonably well is the membrane part. The genetic material is the harder problem; the chemistry is just more complicated. The puzzle has been understanding how a molecule like RNA can get replicated before there were enzymes and all this fancy biological stuff, protein machinery, Read More ›