Three hundred years ago William Leibniz said we live in the best of all possible worlds but today Princeton’s world reknown theorist William Bialek explains that it is more perfect than we imagined. This video is long and it sometimes dwells on Bialek rather than the slide he is talking to, but those drawbacks are minor Read More…
Month: March 2013
Stirring the Pot, 3a: Responding to G2’s dismissal of philosophy at UD by highlighting the scientific significance of first principles of right reason and corollaries, including those tied to cause and effect . . .
G2 has made an objection at 45 in the STP 3 thread on how UD is a philosophy-theology site, and how he sees no science advances. I think it worth the whole to highlight a response, as a headlined post supportive to the STP 3 thread; of course with the added features such as images. Read More…
KF: Darwinists, not ID Proponents, Have Minds Clamped Tightly Shut.
This exchange between lastyearon, KF and Eric Anderson is too delish to leave in a combox: LASTYEARON: What the ID proponents (specifically Eric Anderson and KD) are saying is that evolution isn’t science because it lacks sufficient detail at the molecular level. In order for them to accept that the eye evolved by accident (which Read More…
Stirring the Pot, 3: What about the so-called Laws of Thought/First Principles of Right Reason?
Cf follow up on laws of thought including cause, here In our day, it is common to see the so-called Laws of Thought or First Principles of Right Reason challenged or dismissed. As a rule, design thinkers strongly tend to reject this common trend, including when it is claimed to be anchored in quantum theory. Read More…
The Evolution of an Explanation of a Small-Headed Sea Snake
I once debated an evolution professor who explained that evolution has tremendous explanatory power. But what exactly does this mean, and is it a good thing? Everyone knows that evolution explains that the species evolved gradually, but for new forms appearing abruptly in the fossil record evolution explains that the species evolved rapidly. Likewise, evolution Read More…
Could the eye have evolved by natural selection in a geological blink?
It is commonly believed that Dr. Dan-Eric Nilsson and Dr. Susanne Pelger of Lund University in Sweden demonstrated in a scientific paper written back in 1994 that a fully-developed vertebrate eye could have developed from a simple light-sensitive spot by a process of unguided natural selection, in “less than 364,000 years.” That, at any rate, Read More…
Why on Earth would a layman accept Darwinistic claims?
First, by “Darwinistic” I mean “atheistic-materialist neo-Darwinist”, which includes the view that even the origin of life can be explained by reference to chance and natural law. As Alan Fox points out, many of those here are “laymen” when it comes to evolutionary biology. Most of us are not specifically schooled or trained in that Read More…
Language is Not Infinitely Malleable
In this post I predicted that history will not be kind to people like Jerry Coyne and Richard Dawkins who insist that the fundamental questions in biology have been settled and all that is left is to fill in the holes. A commenter going by “thaumaturge” demurred, insisting that Coyne and Dawkins have never said Read More…
Calling KN Out On His Sophistry
Sophistry: “n. a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning.” In a comment earlier today Kantian Naturalist stated: “The idea that the capacity to engage in reasoned discourse depends upon a commitment to ‘the rules of right reason’ is silly (at best). For one thing, there are no such rules.” KN, I Read More…
A new XVIVO animation — extracellular RNA (xRNA) as a newly discovered communication and control mechanism
Thanks to the indefatigable BA77, we have the new (March 1, 2013) XVIVO animation on xRNA: [youtube XHqNS4M-_IY] Notice, the recurrent cybernetic themes and discussions. Also, am I the only one who sees a space-ships and planets metaphor there? Thoughts welcome. END
Unknown Unknowns
Physics professor Philipp von Jolly advised a young Max Planck not to go into physics, because “in this field, almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few holes.” With the clarity of hindsight we might say, “what a maroon.” Standing on the cusp of a century in which the Read More…
Heretic Redux
When I posted my Heresy Against the Church of Darwin Must be Stamped Out!, I had no idea that this magazine cover would come out the following week.
Who really understands what an island of function is or is not?
Earlier today, I decided to check back at TSZ, to see if they have recovered from the recent regrettable hack attack. They are back up, at least in part. The following however, caught my eye: Intelligent design proponents make a negative argument for design. According to them, the complexity and diversity of life cannot be Read More…
New Paper Supports an “Anthropic View of the Universe”
A new ID-friendly paper has just appeared in the journal Physical Review Letters. Reports the abstract, The Hoyle state plays a crucial role in the helium burning of stars that have reached the red giant stage. The close proximity of this state to the triple-alpha threshold is needed for the production of carbon, oxygen, and other Read More…
The Evolution of Circular RNA: A Marshall McLuhan Moment
In the movie Annie Hall Woody Allen is trapped in a long theater line right in front of a rather loud-mouthed fellow. What’s worse, the fellow is pompously expounding on the work of Marshall McLuhan even though he’s all wrong. Allen finally runs out of patience but the fellow won’t back down. So amazingly Allen produces Mr. Read More…