No, this time we are not going to say it, you say it.
Month: November 2013
Humans originated as a pig-chimp hybrid? Story making the rounds once more.
The Daily Mail writer finds the evidence “compelling.” And Dr. McCarthy professes to esteem pigs. Guess the dream never dies.
What defines “good” design in the composition of music and the tuning of musical instruments?
“Bad design” is one of the most formidable arguments against intelligent design. I’ve responded to this by saying that what constitutes “good design” depends on the goals of the designer. If fuel efficiency is the criteria of good design, then a motorcycle is a better design than an SUV. But some will argue the SUV […]
Further from the “clades diverge early” paper…
In short, a life system gets started with a certain early potential, runs its course, becoming more inflexible over time, and then fades out – like most human institutions.
New PNAS paper: Large, related groups of animals diverge from each other quite early in their evolution
Not the long, slow process advocated by Darwin’s followers.* This has long been known, if course, it just gets conveniently buried in the “We’re working on it” pile, lest anyone ask more basic questions. One burial method is obfuscated prose.
Possible game-changer in search for extra-terrestrial life: India sends craft to Mars
As noted earlier, sheer expense may be causing NASA to postpone Mars visits. But the technology now exists; what if new players enter the game? No sooner asked than India is sending a probe to Mars, Mangalvaar.
Understanding self-evidence (with a bit of help from Aquinas . . . )
It seems that one of the pivotal issues in reasoned thinking about design-related questions — and in general — is the question of self-evident first, certain truths that can serve as a plumb-line for testing other truth claims, and indeed for rationality. (Where, the laws of identity, non-contradiction and excluded middle are foremost among such […]
Fri nite frite: Revenge of the Thanksgiving turkey
No, not indigestion. Wild North American turkeys have been proliferating in recent years, and it turns out, they are, um, assertive, when not aggressive:
Does fox use magnetic north to detect prey under three feet of snow?
At one time, it was doubtless simple just to say, “It can’t really do that; that’s just an old-timers’ legend” or “Its hearing is really good; that’s all.” But catching it on film suggests another possibility…
Darwinists say “there is no point in studying designs and its designer once we decide something is designed”
When Darwinists say that ID hinders science because once we decide something is designed, we stop inquiry. That is like saying, “there is no point in studying designs and its designer once we decide something is designed.” This is like saying once something passes our own personal Explanatory Filter, and we recognize design in an […]
God: Lawgiver or Hypocrite? Loftus attacks divine command theories of ethics
In my last post, I critiqued Dr. Sean Carroll’s claim that the existence of evil in the world renders the existence of God unlikely. In this post, I’ll be responding to skeptic John Loftus’s claim that God is a hypocrite, in his recent post, Two Unanswerable Dilemmas Concerning God and Morality. Why Loftus believes we […]
A moth’s wings feature two flies picking at a pile of bird dropping.
Information transmitted by nobody at all to somebody (a moth predator). Information that happens to be false,which probably increases the complexity.
A (more) natural history of evolution controversies in 19th century America
Agassiz, who doubted Darwin, also rejected organized religion and Gray, who promoted his work, was a devout Presbyterian.
Further to the question of what constitutes “woo” (Rupert Sheldrake edition)
We have much to learn about animal cognition, but advances may require challenging current beliefs about how animals know things, learn, or navigate.
Researcher: Many fewer minerals existed at time of origin of life than today
If correct, this won’t affect the origin of life theories that depend on clay or sulfide minerals, common back then, but it does disfavour theories that rely on borate and molybdate minerals.