Melissa Travis has an interesting blog post at her new “Science, Reason & Faith” website, “Caribbean Reef Squid: A Conundrum for Neo-Darwinian Evolution?”: My all-time favorite form of recreation is coral reef snorkeling. For me, there is NOTHING that compares to the thrill and wonder of floating above a spectacular reef, observing all of the Read More…
Month: February 2013
Happy Watson & Crick Day!
60 years ago today, 28th February 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick elucidated the double-helical structure of the DNA molecule. Happy Watson & Crick day!
The Feeding Limbs and Nervous System of Fuxianhuia Protensa
A new paper in Nature reports on the discovery of a fossil revealing one of the world’s earliest nervous system and limbs used for feeding. Reports the abstract, The organization of the head provides critical data for resolving the phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of extinct and extant euarthropods. The early Cambrian-period fuxianhuiids are regarded as Read More…
Macroevolution, microevolution and chemistry: the devil is in the details
Professor James M. Tour, who is one of the ten most cited chemists in the world, has been publicly criticized for forthrightly declaring in an online essay that while microevolution (or small changes within a species) is well-understood by scientists, there is no scientist alive today who understands how macroevolution is supposed to work, at Read More…
Species richness promotes healthy ecosystems
People who love the countryside and open places tend to value biodiversity and rich ecosystems. There is a perception that a high species diversity helps to stabilise ecosystems by buffering the effects of environmental change, and in addition create ecosystems with greater functionality. According to MacDougall et al. (2013), “Biodiversity can stabilize ecological systems by Read More…
On the Origin of Multi-level Selection
More myth telling, this time by a famous Darwinian evolutionary biologist. The clear agenda is that this is a religion to replace other religions. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/the-riddle-of-the-human-species/ But note in contrast how poorly the story is supported by science. Yes, we observe that humans are complex social creatures. We also observe that groups that cooperate best together, Read More…
Playing Fast and Loose with the Facts: How Ken Miller Misrepresented Phil Johnson
An old debate, featuring Dr. Kenneth Miller and Dr. Paul Nelson, has found its way onto YouTube. The debate took place at the time of the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial in Pennsylvania in 2005. Moderated by Sally Satel at the American Enterprise Institute, it focuses on the question of teaching evolutionary theory and intelligent design in science Read More…
Stirring the pot: on the apparent mathematical ordering of reality, and linked worldview/ philosophical/ theological issues . . .
This morning, in the Gonzalez video post comment exchange, I saw where Mung raised a question about how Young Earth Creationists address the Old Cosmos, Old Earth implications of the view raised. I thought it useful to respond briefly, but then the wider connexions surfaced. I would like to stir the pot a bit [–> Read More…
VIDEO: Dr Guillermo Gonzalez surveys and briefly, simply explains several fine tuning cases behind the cosmological design inference
Dr Gonzalez — the Astrophysicist half of the Privileged Planet team — recently presented this lecture in which he surveys and briefly, simply explains several key fine tuning cases: embedded by Embedded VideoYouTube Direkt Again, useful food for thought. END PS: For more on fine tuning, cf VJT’s recent post on a new form of Read More…
New Book Alert: “The Cambrian Explosion: The Construction of Animal Biodiversity”
For all you bibliophiles out there, I want to draw your attention to a new book on the Cambrian explosion, by Douglas Erwin and James Valentine. I haven’t read it yet, so I cannot comment on the contents. Carl Zimmer reviews the book here, however, and it appears to have some stunning art work. The Read More…
Night Vision: A new version of the fine-tuning argument
Philosophy Professor John T. Roberts, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has recently put forward a new version of the fine-tuning argument, entitled, Fine-Tuning and the Infrared Bull’s-Eye (Philosophical Studies 160(2):287-303, 2012). What makes Roberts’ version of the argument particularly interesting is that it is not only much clearer in its formulation than Read More…
Function, the evolution-free gospel of ENCODE
There is no better title for this post than the very title some Darwinists chose for themselves: On the immortality of television sets: “function” in the human genome according to the evolution-free gospel of ENCODE Darwinists are still struggling to come to terms with the idea, from the ENCODE project, that 80% of the genome Read More…
How evolutionists explained the origin of life, 101 years ago
Most of my readers will not have heard of Joseph McCabe (1867-1955). The atheist Website The Secular Web describes him as follows: One of the giants of not only English atheism, but world atheism, Joseph McCabe left a legacy of aggressive atheist and antireligious literature that remains fresh and insightful today. His many works– he Read More…