BBC News reports on an atheist church in North London: An “atheist church” in North London is proving a big hit with non-believers. Does it feel a bit like a new religion? Not many sermons include the message that we are all going to die and there is no afterlife. But the Sunday Assembly is no ordinary church service. Launched last month, as a gathering for non-believers, it is, in the words of master of ceremonies Sanderson Jones, “part foot-stomping show, part atheist church, all celebration of life”. A congregation of more than 300 crowded into the shell of a deconsecrated church to join the celebration on Sunday morning. Instead of hymns, the non-faithful get to their feet to sing Read More ›

The Huffington Post carries an article concerning a recent academic freedom bill in Colorado. It opens by asserting that, A Republican bill that would have paved the way for creationism to be taught in Colorado schools as well as encouraged teachers to deny the science of climate change was killed in committee on Monday, as expected. As anyone who knows anything about this academic freedom bill knows full well, however, it explicitly does NOT protect the teaching of creationism (which is unconstitutional). Nor for that matter does the bill protect the teaching of intelligent design. The bill only covers those subjects which are already part of the science curriculum. In the case of creationism, the Colorado bill states that “This bill only Read More ›

It is often said that the timescales for evolution are too long to allow speciation to be studied experimentally. Consequently, researchers look to the fossil record to provide the evidence base. However, this also has its limitations. With fossils, molecular analyses are not possible because soft tissues decay rapidly. Furthermore, the drivers of speciation are often a matter of speculation. Nevertheless, by selecting a depositional environment that provides a sequence of stratigraphical horizons that allow analysis of environmental factors, some informative studies are possible. “Long-lived lakes are virtually predetermined for these studies, because of their duration and relative stability, being therefore often called ‘islands of evolution’. Many studies have proven this fact repeatedly, including the papers on the impressive morphological Read More ›

You probably never wondered how plants know which direction to grow. In the soil the roots grow downward and above ground the plant grows upward. This vertical motion seems as natural as Aristotle’s physics. Doesn’t it just happen? But as one researcherexplained, …  Read more

HT: sagebrush gardener (and UD News), we have the second video, of Dawkins vs Williams on Thursday, Jan 31 2012: [youtube -XpEjVlPFrs] (Of course, we know that the vote went against Dawkins in that debate, too.) Posted for completeness. END  

The UK Guardian reports on Richard Dawkins’ debate last week with Rowan Williams, which you can read about here.

BBC News Magazine carries an interesting article today about so-called “atheist churches”. It’s an insightful read: An “atheist church” in North London is proving a big hit with non-believers. Does it feel a bit like a new religion? Not many sermons include the message that we are all going to die and there is no afterlife. But the Sunday Assembly is no ordinary church service. Launched last month, as a gathering for non-believers, it is, in the words of master of ceremonies Sanderson Jones, “part foot-stomping show, part atheist church, all celebration of life”. A congregation of more than 300 crowded into the shell of a deconsecrated church to join the celebration on Sunday morning. Instead of hymns, the non-faithful Read More ›

We’ve discussed epigenetics, those incredible genetic regulation mechanisms such as molecular barcodes stamped onto DNA,histones, those incredible DNA packaging proteins that also have their own barcodes, the different kinds of barcodes, and how these marvels have falsified so many evolutionary predictions. If it all went by too fast then maybe tonight’s Feature Presentation will help tell a thousand words. You may need to view it a few times to follow the details, but the underlying plot should be clear.  Read more

Frauke Gräter’s latest paper on how the speed of protein folding evolved begins by stating that the disparity in protein folding times (from microseconds to hours) is the result of roughly 3.8 billion years of evolution during which new protein structures were created and optimized. No citation is given because no citation is available. As usual, evolutionists begin their work with non scientific premises. As if sensing a problem the paper next offers a partial concession: “The evolutionary processes driving the discovery and optimization of protein topologies is complex and remains to be fully understood.” In fact …  Read more

Because when William Friedman admitsthat “Altruism only evolves if the benefactor is a close relative of the beneficiary,” then its game over and evolutionists everywhere may as well hang it up. Or at least …  Read more

Thanks to Bornagain 77’s diligence, we are able to bring to UD’s readership, this important debate on the reasonableness (or otherwise) of theistic faith in an era dominated by Science, with Scientism an influential worldview rooted in the prestige of science: [youtube bhfkhq-CM84] (NB: The debate proper begins at 4 10 mins 27 48 seconds in, with the moderator’s introduction.) Let us watch, let us reflect, let us discuss. END PS: I have also put up the Dawkins-Williams Jan 31st 2013 debate here. (HT: SG.) PPS: I think it worthwhile to add this David Wood video on the argument from reason: [youtube xKX-QtEo2fI]

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 ›

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 ›

Today, the UK Guardian newspaper published a piece about academic freedom bills in Colorado, Missouri, Montana and Oklahoma. Readers will not be surprised to learn that the Guardian has seemingly bought into the common myth continuously recycled and promulgated by the NCSE and the Darwin lobby that the bills are “just creationism in disguise”, despite the fact that the bills do not protect the teaching of religious-based views (like creationism), nor even, for that matter, subjects which aren’t already part of the curriculum (like intelligent design). Although the Guardian apparently interviewed critics of the bills, including spokespersons from the NCSE, it seems that they failed to interview any individuals representing the other side. The article in the Guardian even opens with a Read More ›

It is not often that one’s opinion of a book improves after reading three negative reviews of it. I haven’t yet read Professor Thomas Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False, but after reading what biologist H. Allen Orr, philosophers Brian Leiter and Michael Weisberg, and philosopher and ID critic Elliott Sober had to say about the book, I came away convinced that neo-Darwinism is an intellectual edifice resting on a foundation of sand… and sheer intellectual stubbornness on the part of its adherents. I do not wish to question the sincerity and learning of the reviewers, but I was deeply shocked by their unshakable attachment to Darwinism. Reading through the reviews, Read More ›