Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

John Loftus’ faulty logic on free will: There’s no such thing as a bad personal reason for disbelief in the God of the Bible

Over at his Debunking Christianity Website, secular philosopher John Loftus has put up a post entitled, There Isn’t a Bad Reason to Reject the Christian Faith. Now, I happen to believe that there are good and bad reasons to reject all sorts of intellectual positions, including theism, atheism and Intelligent Design. So as someone who cares about truth, I was shocked by the sheer effrontery of Loftus’ statement. If he can convince me of that, I thought to myself, he can convince me of anything. What does Loftus actually claim? It turns out that Loftus’ post didn’t quite live up to the claim made in its title. Loftus doesn’t really claim that there isn’t a bad reason to reject Christianity; Read More ›

A “cost” is a “goal”

In the phys.org news “Researchers solve biological mystery and boost artificial intelligence” is cited a research about “The Evolutionary Origins of Modularity” (in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Jan. 30, 2013). The researchers have simulated “25,000 generations of evolution within computers” and believe to have discovered why biological systems show modularity. They say: “Researchers have discovered why biological networks tend to be organized as modules – a finding that will lead to a deeper understanding of the evolution of complexity. […] As it turned out, it was enough to include a “cost of wiring” to make evolution favor modular architectures. […] Once you add a cost for network connections, modules immediately appear. Without a cost, modules never form.” What Read More ›