Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Suppose They Gave a Theory and Nobody Argued?

Why argue about evolution when we agree on so much? Everyone agrees on the scientific evidence. We agree on how the data were measured, the measurement error, and how to interpret the measurements. We also agree on the theory of evolution. Everyone agrees on what the theory states, what it predicts, and where those predictions have gone wrong. But anyone who attempts to test evolution against the empirical evidence soon finds out there is disagreement. Evolutionists believe their theory is a fact and beyond all reasonable doubt. And so with each problematic measurement and each falsified prediction, evolutionists adjust their theory to accommodate the new quandary. Now evolutionists have powerful reasons to believe in their theory. But are those reasons Read More ›

Religion as an obstacle to vaccination: New Atheists continue to propagate a myth

Over at Why Evolution Is True, Professor Jerry Coyne has written a rather silly post entitled, Muslim anti-vaxers slow eradication of polio, in which he chronicles what he refers to as “Muslim opposition” to oral polio vaccination in Asia and Africa. Coyne begins his provocative article with the claim that “There’s always been some religious opposition to vaccination.” He goes on to assert that Edward Jenner often faced opposition from churches which declared smallpox vaccination to be a “delusion of Satan” and a “violence to the law of nature.” In a perfunctory attempt to be fair, he notes in passing that “some religious people, like the pro-science New England preacher Cotton Mather, did promote smallpox vaccination.” [Note to Professor Coyne: Read More ›

Wow! Just Wow!

This has never happened to me until today.  I made a prediction about Darwinist debating tactics and the prediction was fulfilled in the very post in which I made it!!!  In this post I describe the common Darwinist “literature bluff” tactic:  Note carefully the common Darwinist tactic here: Literature bluff: There are thousands of books and articles demonstrating Darwinist proposition X. Calling the bluff: OK, show me exactly where in just one of those books or articles this proposition is established. Inevitable Darwinist response: [crickets] Then in the comments section Alan Fox posts this link “beneficial mutations drosophila” in comment 8, and in comment 9 he says:  “One or two article in there must be worth a glance, or am I Read More ›

Non-Coding RNA-Activators Regulate Genes Via a “Mediator”

Remember when it was discovered that most of our DNA does not code for proteins and evolutionists said it was probably junk? And remember when it was discovered that most of that non coding DNA is nonetheless transcribed and evolutionists said it was probably erroneous transcription? Well it turns out that this non coding DNA continues to surprise, as not only is it transcribed, but it reveals all kinds of function. For instance, as one recent reportexplained, thousands of long segments of non coding DNA have, err, “a crucial role in turning genes on and off.”  Read more

English Professor Completely Destroys Three Evolution Professors

Because the only thing worse than having all your points refuted, is having all your points refuted before you even make them. In this telling exchangeEnglish professor Terry Scambray first shows Chemistry professor George Kauffman the door (“It’s disappointing to read George Kauffman assert … that everyone should accept Darwin’s “creation” story because a … congressman had a House Resolution passed saying that we should! Professor Kauffman … must know that House Resolutions are decorative statements, done to enhance politicians’ résumés. I hope that we could all agree that if members of Congress had to pay the cost to produce such trivia, none would exist.”) and then proceeds to anticipate and demolish the sophomoric, non scientific rebuttals that would come from Biology professors Paul Crosbie Read More ›

Circular RNAs: A Hidden, Parallel Universe

Remember when microRNA burst onto the scene a few years back and revolutionized our knowledge of cellular regulatory processes? Evolutionists had to scramble because, after all, when you say your theory explains something and it turns out you don’t really understand that something, well it looks like you don’t know what you’re talking about. It wasn’t much of a scramble though, because evolutionists can pretty much say anything they want, at any time, about their theory. So when microRNA burst onto the scene, evolutionists said “oh, evolution did that.” Well now it is happening all over again, but this time with long RNA which often interacts with microRNA, and this week it was with long RNA that is circular.  Read more

Logical inconsistency of Darwinism

I already wrote about some internal contradictions of evolutionism here here here here and here. Today I deal with another logical inconsistency of Darwinism that is directly related to its foundations. Darwinian evolution, which is supposed to have created purposelessly all the biological complexity on Earth, would work according to genetic variations and natural selection. Organisms with traits that give them a reproductive advantage over their competitors pass these advantageous traits on, while traits that do not confer an advantage are not passed on to the next generation. Natural selection is the process in populations by which advantageous traits that enhance reproduction are selected for and are passed on to the next generation. These traits would arise because of many Read More ›