2013

A thing that evolutionists wrongly consider a serious problem for the creation/ID worldview is the “multiple acts of creation” or – in ID terms – “multiple insertions of information” in time. Here I will argue to show that this is a false problem, or – better said – is a problem that in no way can undermine the creation/ID explanation. This issue is also related to the question when in the cosmos the information is injected by its Designer: is it fully frontloaded from the beginning or is fractionated in time? My assumption is however that we take for granted that the Designer of the universe is God. I dealt with this issue here. Moreover I consider sound the so-called Read More ›

“I disagree that Darwin’s theory is as “solid as any explanation in science.” Disagree? I regard the claim as preposterous. Quantum electrodynamics is accurate to thirteen or so decimal places; so, too, general relativity. A leaf trembling in the wrong way would suffice to shatter either theory. What can Darwinian theory offer in comparison? ” David Berlinski

Nature News reports on a recent paper in Biophysics Journal, describing stunningly designed “antibacterial ‘nanopillars’ on cicada wings” that “pull bacterial membranes apart.” Reports Nature News, The veined wing of the clanger cicada kills bacteria solely through its physical structure — one of the first natural surfaces found to do so. An international team of biophysicists has now come up with a detailed model of how this defence works on the nanoscale. The results are published in the latest issue of the Biophysical Journal1. The clanger cicada (Psaltoda claripennis) is a locust-like insect whose wings are covered by a vast hexagonal array of ‘nanopillars’ — blunted spikes on a similar size scale to bacteria (see video, bottom). When a bacterium settles on the wing Read More ›

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 ›

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 ›

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 ›

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

The Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Instituteannounces two intensive 9-day seminars for college students to be held July 12-20, 2013.  Read more

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 ›

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

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 ›

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 colorful sea life that dwell in and around it. I recently visited reefs in the Virgin Islands, where I encountered beautiful creatures such as parrot fish, butterfly fish, needle fish, and a rainbow variety of corals. I was once again struck by the magnificence of God’s underwater creation. How could any intelligent person believe such wondrous living beauty and symbiosis came about without conscious foresight and design? Read More ›

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!

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 basal representatives of stem-group Euarthropoda, and their anterior morphology therefore offers key insights for reconstructing the ancestral condition of the euarthropod head. However, the paired post-antennal structures in Fuxianhuia protensa remain controversial; they have been interpreted as both ‘great appendages’ and as gut diverticulae. Here we describe Chengjiangocaris kunmingensis sp. nov. andFuxianhuia xiaoshibaensis sp. nov. from a new early Cambrian (Stage 3) fossil Lagerstätte in Yunnan, China. Numerous specimens of both species Read More ›

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 a chemical level: “I do have scientific problems understanding macroevolution as it is usually presented. I simply can not accept it as unreservedly as many of my scientist colleagues do, although I sincerely respect them as scientists. Some of them seem to have little trouble embracing many of evolution’s proposals based upon (or in spite of) archeological, mathematical, biochemical and astrophysical suggestions and evidence, and Read More ›